This enormous economic mess we are now experiencing, along with the heavy debt the bankers and the politicians of both major political parties have saddled us with, can be summed up very simply: The capitalists have taken all the profits and left the working class with all the problems.
There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother Nature.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that if you allow labor to be continually exploited and Mother Nature to be repeatedly abused and raped there will be severe consequences.
We are now reaping the consequences for allowing this parasitical monster of state-monopoly capitalism to have spun its web of corruption in the form of a cannibalistic military-financial-industrial complex which now threatens to consume and destroy our families, our communities, our State and our Nation while wreaking havoc in other lands.
Enough!
The time has come to put the needs of people before corporate profits.
There is only one alternative; for working people to come together to build a new society on the foundation created by the socialists of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.
We need to fight and struggle to re-establish the liberal, democratic and progressive socialist traditions for which Minnesota is known around the world.
We have complex problems before us… but, any country which can spend trillions of dollars on wars to steal the oil of other nations, and trillions of dollars bailing out corporations and bankers looking for using socialism to solve the problems of their own creation as they have sought to prop up their rotten capitalist system--- which they have touted to the world as being the best--- at our expense… This Nation can now come up with the resources to use socialism to solve the problems for the rest of us, too.
What is good for the goose is, in this case, is even better for the gander.
Let Barack Obama and John McCain volunteer to go off exploring the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for Osama Bin Laden; we have better things to do.
Our first priority is to end these dirty wars for oil and redeploy those funds--- as we bring home the troops--- to creating a world class socialized health care system which will create millions of new jobs; five messes the money-grubbing Wall Street coupon clippers and their bought and paid for politicians created, all solved at the same time by ending these dirty imperialist wars for oil and regional domination--- we get health care not warfare, and we begin to solve the problem of unemployment--- and when we put people to work in this way we begin to create a new--- functioning--- people oriented, cooperative, socialist economy where democracy will flourish because it will require the full participation and involvement of all people working together in order to succeed.
Second, without further delay, we need to establish the State Bank of Minnesota to accomplish for our State what the State Bank of North Dakota was set up, by workers and farmers, to do--- fund enterprises to keep people working.
Third, we need a minimum wage which is a real living wage arrived at by the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development--- based upon the real figures relating to the real cost of living and this minimum wage should be required by legislation to be updated quarterly right along with the release of all economic indicators to assure a quality life and decent standard of living for all working people and their families.
We have finally come to the point where even the parasitic bankers and the exploiting industrialists now concede that only socialism can bail them out of this horrible mess and solve their problems... capitalism has reached the end of the line and the only thing now to be had from the system is unending human misery.
At the point where society has to pay to clean up the corrupt mess these parasitic predatory lenders and financial institutions have created, this is the time to say:
Enough!
What tax-payers finance, tax-payers must own.
If Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs do not like these terms, these greedy pigs should make the trip to their off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and make withdrawals from their accounts to pay to solve their own problems.
The time has come to roll up our sleeves, come together, and get to work quickly before this entire rotten system collapses---like the I35-W Bridge--- and crushes us all while leaving our children and grandchildren with the clean-up and the bills.
I firmly believe working people can run our country and our state better than any of the big-business politicians being funded by the corporate lobbyists.
Effectively using the tools of public ownership and nationalization combined with modern, scientific planning for the common good, we can put people to work in decent jobs at real living wages... we hear it all the time just before Election Day: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs... but we never see the jobs, and if we do, these jobs are poverty wage jobs no one can live on.
I intend to run for Governor of Minnesota in 2010.
I invite all working people who think that it is possible to create something better than the mess we are now in, to come together and work from where socialist Governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson left off in trying to create a just and decent society where people live and work in harmony with Mother Nature, to join with me, in establishing the Minnesota Party to give the bankers, the mining, forestry and power generating industries along with the industrialists and big-agribusiness a real run for their money.
Let’s run these parasites that have been living off of our labor and destroying Mother Nature right out of our state. We can get along just fine--- even better--- without them.
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
and
Candidate for Governor of Minnesota
Former member: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A Real Solution for our Economy
A Real Solution for our Economy
By Joe Wantz
October 7th, 2008 - 3:04pm ET
The national conversation has been focused squarely on the economy in the last several weeks, with pundits and experts breathlessly declaring a financial catastrophe of epic scale. Of course, those of us who live in the real world knew the economy has been in trouble far before Wall Street failed. We know people who had their house lost to foreclosure. We know people who have had their jobs outsourced or eliminated. We know people who work more than one job to pay the bills and support their families. And we know that something needs to change.
Change, however, cannot simply come from the top down. The financial market bailout may help to restore confidence on Wall Street, but does little to cure the many problems on Main Street. The average American worker needs more than assurances that once the financial markets are “fixed” that they will be taken care of. Workers truly need to have their own voice and determine their own economic destiny. One of the best ways to do that, of course, is through forming a union at work. Unfortunately, over the last thirty years, employers across the United States have cracked down on organizing, resulting in a decline of union membership. It comes as no surprise that during that time wages have stagnated, 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and foreclosures have skyrocketed out of control.
The Employee Free Choice Act is an important part of the fight to regain the American dream for millions of workers. It will level the playing field by giving employees a free and direct path to form unions, toughen penalties against employers who break the law, and help restore balance to our obsolete federal labor laws. Union members earn 30% more, have better access to health care and other benefits, and have greater job security. Let’s get the conversation back to where it belongs, on the well-being and strength of the American worker. It’s time our economy worked for everyone again.
The author works for American Rights at Work, www.americanrightsatwork.org
My response:
The Employee Free Choice Act
By Alan Maki | October 7th, 2008 - 4:59pm GMT
Mr. Wantz, you fail to mention that some twenty-eight states have "at-will hiring, at-will firing" legislation which makes the Employee Free Choice Act useless for workers in these twenty-eight states including the huge industrial state of Michigan and Minnesota.
You also fail to mention that the The Employee Free Choice Act will have no affect on some two-million casino workers employed at jobs in the Indian Gaming Industry who are forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws in spite of the fact that the "Compacts" creating this Indian Gaming Industry are the creations of state and federal governments.
These two-million workers employed under these Draconian conditions in the Indian Gaming Industry would, again, be excluded from The Employee Free Choice Act.
When is your organization, American Rights at Work going to acknowledge this problem and bring forward solutions.
As you are fully aware, the Democratic Governor of Michigan has just signed her signature to another one of these "Compacts" without insisting that the rights of workers be protected. Governor Granholm could have withheld her signature from this "Compact" and insisted that before she approved it, all laws regulating terms of employment and working conditions must be adhered to. I would note that the state and federal bureaucracies regulate the one-armed bandits and inspect these slot machines... certainly the lives of working people employed in these casinos are as important as the machines rigged to take in money.
December 10, 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and here we have the Democratic Party touting the Employee Free Choice Act which, for all practical purposes will leave working people in twenty-eight states without protection from a piece of legislation claiming to aid workers in union organizing and some two-million workers employed in more than 450 casinos strung out across this country will have no rights at all... for whom The Employee Free Choice Act will be completely meaningless.
How would you suggest that these casino workers escape from poverty?
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
By Joe Wantz
October 7th, 2008 - 3:04pm ET
The national conversation has been focused squarely on the economy in the last several weeks, with pundits and experts breathlessly declaring a financial catastrophe of epic scale. Of course, those of us who live in the real world knew the economy has been in trouble far before Wall Street failed. We know people who had their house lost to foreclosure. We know people who have had their jobs outsourced or eliminated. We know people who work more than one job to pay the bills and support their families. And we know that something needs to change.
Change, however, cannot simply come from the top down. The financial market bailout may help to restore confidence on Wall Street, but does little to cure the many problems on Main Street. The average American worker needs more than assurances that once the financial markets are “fixed” that they will be taken care of. Workers truly need to have their own voice and determine their own economic destiny. One of the best ways to do that, of course, is through forming a union at work. Unfortunately, over the last thirty years, employers across the United States have cracked down on organizing, resulting in a decline of union membership. It comes as no surprise that during that time wages have stagnated, 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and foreclosures have skyrocketed out of control.
The Employee Free Choice Act is an important part of the fight to regain the American dream for millions of workers. It will level the playing field by giving employees a free and direct path to form unions, toughen penalties against employers who break the law, and help restore balance to our obsolete federal labor laws. Union members earn 30% more, have better access to health care and other benefits, and have greater job security. Let’s get the conversation back to where it belongs, on the well-being and strength of the American worker. It’s time our economy worked for everyone again.
The author works for American Rights at Work, www.americanrightsatwork.org
My response:
The Employee Free Choice Act
By Alan Maki | October 7th, 2008 - 4:59pm GMT
Mr. Wantz, you fail to mention that some twenty-eight states have "at-will hiring, at-will firing" legislation which makes the Employee Free Choice Act useless for workers in these twenty-eight states including the huge industrial state of Michigan and Minnesota.
You also fail to mention that the The Employee Free Choice Act will have no affect on some two-million casino workers employed at jobs in the Indian Gaming Industry who are forced to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws in spite of the fact that the "Compacts" creating this Indian Gaming Industry are the creations of state and federal governments.
These two-million workers employed under these Draconian conditions in the Indian Gaming Industry would, again, be excluded from The Employee Free Choice Act.
When is your organization, American Rights at Work going to acknowledge this problem and bring forward solutions.
As you are fully aware, the Democratic Governor of Michigan has just signed her signature to another one of these "Compacts" without insisting that the rights of workers be protected. Governor Granholm could have withheld her signature from this "Compact" and insisted that before she approved it, all laws regulating terms of employment and working conditions must be adhered to. I would note that the state and federal bureaucracies regulate the one-armed bandits and inspect these slot machines... certainly the lives of working people employed in these casinos are as important as the machines rigged to take in money.
December 10, 2008 marks the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and here we have the Democratic Party touting the Employee Free Choice Act which, for all practical purposes will leave working people in twenty-eight states without protection from a piece of legislation claiming to aid workers in union organizing and some two-million workers employed in more than 450 casinos strung out across this country will have no rights at all... for whom The Employee Free Choice Act will be completely meaningless.
How would you suggest that these casino workers escape from poverty?
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The litany of lies surrounding the Gun Lake casino "Compact" and venture continues
The corruption begins with the lies put forward by the so-called "Friends of the Gun Lake Indians"... This is the way the Fertitta Family and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck work... first come the lies, then the bribes, then the intimidation and terror... from this the profits flow.
Frank Fertitta on right.
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 5:26 PM
To: 'judith_bott@msn.com'; 'kathy_bowerman@hotmail.com'; 'deyoungscarpet@sbcglobal.net'; 'mugs45@yahoo.com'; 'whitley.tn@gmail.com'; 'dorrvillageautobody@sbcglobal.net'; 'jgoldstein@americanrightsatwork.org'
Cc: 'debssoc@sbcglobal.net'; 'pluse@grpress.com'; 'editor@kalamazoogazette.com'; 'editor@penasee.com'; 'bbrown@allegannews.com'; 'jadnews@voyager.net'; 'mzweig@notes.cc.sunysb.edu'; 'rachleff@macalester.edu'
Subject: The litany of lies surrounding the Gun Lake casino "Compact" and venture continues
What kind of liars has Frank Fertitta and Station Casinos purchased? Here are their faces:
Look at the lies:
These are the “TALKING POINTS FOR LETTERS” this group has circulated:
• Provide jobs: Creating 1,800 new jobs with great benefits and an average compensation package of $40,000.
Lie: Why haven’t these liars provided proof of what the actual jobs will pay along with listing the great benefits for each job classification?
• Creating 3,100 new indirect jobs in the local community.
Lie: No proof what so ever.
• Purchasing more than $20 million per year in products and services from West Michigan businesses.
Lie: No proof of this. Where is the list?
• Generating $6 million in additional annual revenues for local hotels and bringing 80,000 new guests to local hotels each year.
Lie: No facts to substantiate this.
• Building a world-class entertainment venue in West Michigan that will increase tourism to the area.
True; and it will attract prostitution, loan-sharking, illegal gambling on everything from the ponies to high school sports along with a huge trade in drugs.
• Sharing millions of dollars in revenues each year with local communities to address needs for education, police, fire, and other public safety services.
Lie: Tax-payers will subsidize infrastructure and public services.
• Boosting the economy: In total, Michigan tribes have contributed more than $225 million to the state and more than $115 million to local governments that are located near the reservations.
Fact: The state has spent over one-billion dollars subsidizing infrastructure for existing casinos and local tax-payers have coughed up 1.4 Billion dollars.
• Matter of fairness: There are 12 federally recognized tribes in the state. The Gun Lake Tribe is the only federally recognized tribe in the state which does not have a compact for class III gaming. The law allows the tribe to build a casino. A compact guarantees that our community will benefit as well.
Question: Does anyone care about the 1,800 workers who will be forced to work in this smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws?
• The tribe and its project is supported by more than 35 Chambers, schools, labor unions, municipalities, tourist councils, alliances, and lodging associations. That number is growing every day.
Name all of them.
• Allow the Gun Lake Tribe the opportunity to promote tribal economic development, self-sufficiency and strong governments. It would help establish education and cultural programs, housing, elders-care facility and senior housing.
This is the biggest lie of all… a few corrupt tribal officials will profit and just like everything else under this rotten system the majority of the people will continue to suffer as the Fertitta family laughs all the way back to the banks in Las Vegas and the no-tax zones of the Caribbean.
Only complete fools would believe the lies being peddled by the so-called “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians;” the very same people who never whimpered a voice of protest as Native Americans have been subjected to a racist campaign of genocide for years… until there are profits to be made.
All lies… the news media prints these lies without one iota of concern for the rights of working people as this front group for the Kansas City Mob and the Fertitta family, which falsely claims ten-thousand members, ignores the real facts and has remained silent concerning the plight of casino workers... just like they have remained silent for years in the face of racism, poverty and despair.
In fact, since these liars did not inform those they have sought support from of the terms of employment of the 1,800 workers they do not have 10,000 supporters. It is deceitful and dishonest to claim 10,000 supporters who have been told only the “facts” of these “talking points.”
When these 10,000 supporters are informed of the health affects from working day in and day out in a smoke-filed casino and shown the wage scales for each of the positions, then, and only then, can the so-called “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” claim 10,000 supporters.
Contacting the American Cancer Society and the Heart and Lung Foundation for the facts is simple and easy--- in fact, one only needs to look at the many bill-boards dotting the highways educating people to the harmful affects of second-hand smoke.
As for pay scales and benefits for these jobs… it should be a relatively simple task for the “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” to post this information on their website, and the Gun Lake Band could do the same thing… then, and only then, can the “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” claim 10,000 supporters.
Contact these uncaring, insensitive liars who don’t care that 1,800 of their fellow human beings will go to work in another smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws so a bunch of fools can sit their butts on a stool and let rigged one-armed bandits steal their money so Frank Fertitta and his friends don’t have to rob jewelry stores and banks… this way, the Kansas City Mob can make their living “skimming” the profits from the Gun Lake Band whose members won’t even be allowed in the “money room”:
Question: Has anyone factored in health care costs for cancers and heart and lung diseases from which so many casino workers suffer?
Comment: Wayne Newton and his quacking white duck will be making an appearance selling Aflack... quack, quack, quack.
Where To Write
*
Grand Rapids Press, 155 Michigan NW, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, Attn: Editor, pulse@grpress.com
*
Kalamazoo Gazette, 410 S. Burdick, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, editor@kalamazoogazette.com
*
Penasee Globe, 133 E. Superior, Wayland, MI 49348, Attn: Editor, editor@penasee.com
*
Allegan County News, 231 Trowbridge St. Allegan, MI 49010, bbrown@allegannews.com
*
Hastings Banner, 1351 N. M-43 Hwy., Hastings, MI 49058, Attn: Editor, jadnews@voyager.net
*
Honorable Governor Granholm, PO Box 30013, Lansing, MI 48909
Saturday, August 16, 2008
American Rights at Work... will David Bonior respond?
John Edwards has been intimidated into silence--- quite typical for the well-heeled who occasionally speak up against injustices; especially when they are trying to get elected to public office.
David Bonior, who worked to elect Edwards, like a rat on a sinking ship jumped off the Edwards' band-wagon real quick, too.
The "commitment" of the well-heeled when it comes to the issues affecting poverty and the rights of working people is always welcome; but, as working people we have come to expect most of these well-heeled, sometimes well-meaning (except when their involvement is just for political convenience as in Edwards' case; making a few extra retirement bucks as in David Bonior's case)will be of a nature of "support" for our struggles which will be subject to the "comfort zone" of these "love me, love me, I'm a liberal" types like David Bonior and John Edwards.
David Bonior is the Chair of American Rights at Work.
Here is the biography he provides:
Now, here we have this guy who pretends to be so concerned about working people and their rights; and, he pretends in the same manner to be so personally hurt by John Edwards little tryst with a cute young hippie chick.
But. Yes, but; Bonior lives among the degenerate and the depraved servants of big-business in Washington D.C., and he has a front row seat at the three-ring circus which passes itself off to the world as the greatest bastion of democracy.
What is interesting about David Bonior is he served such a long tenure in Congress working the entire time with the Michigan legislature, before being appointed to this position of Chair of the "American Rights at Work," which is nothing more than a group which searches the Internet in quest of articles for where working people have had their rights abused... American Rights at Work puts up a few new articles and stories on its web site, and that is where the "struggle" against injustice ends.
David Bonior, as a highly influential Michigan Congressman as his own biography points out, had the opportunity to make a major contribution in the struggle for worker rights--- for human rights, but, Mr. Bonior CHOSE to close his eyes, and cover his ears as the "Compacts" creating the Indian Casino Industry were being created WITHOUT ONE SINGLE CONCERN OR PROTECTION FOR THE RIGHTS OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN WORKERS who would be employed in this industry.
Mr. Bonior was fully aware at the time he voted for these "Compacts," not just one, but many of them in Michigan and around the country, that the thousands of workers who would be employed in these casinos, would have no rights at all under state or federal labor laws.
Where was Mr. Bonior's concern for "social and economic rights" as he was helping to create, and then approve, these casino "Compacts?"
Not once since "American Rights at Work" came into existence for the sole purpose of giving David Bonior a nice cushy retirement income, has this most Draconian arrangement created by these "Compacts" been brought forward or challenged by Mr. Bonior.
The least Mr. Bonior could do is pretend the same moral outrage and disgust demonstrated towards John Edwards' tryst.
Now, with Congressman Bonior's help and David Bonior's silence as Chair of American Rights at Work, the Indian Gaming Industry has grown to over four-hundred casinos spread out across the United States; these are businesses operated and managed by some of the most violent and notorious mobsters, including the most feared Kansas City Mob which Gary Hart tried to destroy until running into his own problems like John Edwards did... although someone--- maybe Brownstein or Schreck or Frank Fertitta--- would know something about this; who picked more sophisticated women for Gary Hart rather than a single hippie chick chosen for John Edwards.
Now, if the rights of American workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry which is nothing more than a front for organized crime which owns the one-armed bandits, operates very lucrative loan-shark operations, together with prostitution and drugs and the illegal betting on everything from the ponies to high school basketball games in these casinos isn't of concern to Mr. Bonior as Chair of American Rights at Work, I don't know what the retired Michigan Congressman would consider an abuse of the rights of working people--- to allow human beings to be forced to work in such an environment without a whimper of protest; where without any rights in the work-place, and without a voice in the workplace--- workers are dragged into this "under-world" as unwilling participants which makes what John Edwards and his cute young hippie chick did as consenting adults seem rather innocent... especially when such behavior is common place among Mr. Bonior's friends of the political elite--- one needs look no further than the "family life" of David Bonior's good friend, Michigan's United States Senator Debbie Stabenow who sent her husband off to get blow-jobs in sleazy motel rooms from young, barely of legal age, prostitutes.
But, what consenting adults do, whether as volunteers or as a "business arrangement"--- you know, I guess there is something to be said about someone having the creativity to take advantage of the great "free market" in the area of the sex industry to the extent that poverty isn't forcing the decision. But, what is done between two consenting adults is no concern of mine as far as judging anyone concerning their morals and it shouldn't be an issue for anyone except some pious preachers (and Presidents) who engage in such decadent and perverted activities only with God's forgiveness.
What goes on with the business elite behind the closed doors in the Presidential Suites of the highest priced hotels we won't discuss nor mention... suffice it to say that St. Paul Police and Colorado police agencies are not only preparing for demonstrators at the Republican and Democratic Party's National Conventions, but for an influx of thousands of prostitutes in each city where the conventions are to be held.
Here in the Twin Cities Mayors R.T. and Coleman are trying to decide how many condoms and needles they need to order for free distribution during the Republican convention in addition to tasars and cattle prods which I assume aren't for erotic pleasures of anyone except the police who get their jollies using them.
However, I do think, unlike the John Edwards' affair, the issue of workers' rights is a question of morals and ethics which should concern us all, especially when we have those like David Bonior feigning being appalled by what John Edwards and a cute young hippie chick did behind closed doors--- at least those doors remained closed until those doors were opened by someone who wanted John Edwards to stop talking about poverty and workers' rights; conveniently those doors to John Edwards' love shack were opened on the heels of the opening of the Democratic Party Convention where he had been scheduled to speak about eliminating poverty and for workers' rights as human rights--- even though he intended to continue the omission of the rights, or lack thereof, of casino workers in the Indian gaming Industry.
But, what I was getting at is David Bonior, had the opportunity as a Congressman--- a long-time serving congressman as he boasts in his own biography; and, a second opportunity as the Chair of "American Rights at Work" to boldly speak up in defence of the rights of those employed in the Indian Gaming Industry--- just as he so quickly did within minutes once the John Edwards "scandal" broke--- gees, David Bonior was just so hurt; to hear David Bonior's pain you would think right-wing rocker Ted Nugent had pierced Bonior's heart with his Jim Bowie hunting knife.
But, where has been David Bonior's concern, and passion, for the rights of more than two-million casino workers now employed in these smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws all of these years he has been so concerned about social justice?
Mr. Bonior's organization, American Rights at Work, cites cases upon case of the abuse of worker's rights--- and it is good that he picks these cases up off the Internet to highlight since the abuses workers are subjected to at work in America are growing rapidly (right along with the increase in corporate profits and the strengthening of state-monopoly capitalism where employers are playing a much more open role in government and the political life of the country to the point where Wal-mart has the arrogance to flaunt the law as they intimidate workers now by "suggesting" who they must vote for).
But, one would think that Mr. Bonior would be able to demonstrate at least some concern for two-million casino workers; and have at least a few words to say about these casino managements and the anti-labor, union busting firms they are hiring as what he has been quick to point out as a breach in morality on the part of John Edwards and his cute hippie chick, which we would never have known about had Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck not wanted John Edwards "wrecking" the Democratic Party National Convention with the call that the Democratic Party should place eradicating poverty and bringing the rights of working people to the center stage of the convention and the three-ring circus in Washington.
I would also point out that David Bonior was aware that John Edwards sat on the board of a corporation, one of the largest corporations in the world--- a corporation funded by the teachers' unions pension funds--- whose primary field of investments is in what? Building casinos for the Indian Gaming Industry!
So much for David Bonior's concern for the rights of American workers and social justice.
I submit, that the plight of more than two-million workers in the Indian Gaming Industry--- a plight which David Bonior played a major role in denying rights to these casino workers--- not the denial one right or the denial of several rights--- but denying ALL RIGHTS to more than two-million workers at their places of employment in the Indian Gaming Industry is what David Bonior and his Democratic Party colleagues should be addressing to the media, and not John Edwards' tryst with what the media calls a "hippie chick."
In fact, there is something to be said about the viciously sexist way Rupert Murdock has portrayed Rielle Hunter as a "hippie chick;" but, again, in comparison to the plight of hundreds of thousands of young women workers, many who are women of color--- all of child-bearing age, employed in the Indian Gaming Industry in smoke-filled casinos... the sexism of Rupert Murdoch seems rather a non-issue... even though I hear United States Senator Debbie Stabenow has asked the National Organization of Women (NOW) to protest.
Not to worry, David Bonior and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck have spared the Nation being subjected to the rantings of an immoral John Edwards against poverty and for the advancement of workers' rights as human rights during prime-time television by having the good wisdom of bringing in Bill Clinton as the speaker to replace him at the Democratic National Convention. And, instead of hearing about the plight of some two-million casino workers and American rights at work and poverty wages, we will now be hearing about the spots on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress.
Like I said, the three-ring circus continues with it pre-show sideshows of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions; always, the show must go on. And, the show goes on at the expense of the rights of all workers in America who are being subjected to greater abuse in their places of employment as big-business gains an even tighter and firmer grip (now, I hope no one reads anything sexual into this) over lives of working people.
Come on, David Bonior, step right up--- pretend you are the ring-master, front and center stage, and call upon the Democratic Party to finally take a stand in defense of the rights of two-million Americans being forced to work in the Indian Gaming Industry because of your own actions... why don't you start demonstrating real concern for working people by insisting that Michigan's "pro-labor" governor, Jennifer Granholm, rescind her support with the corruption plagued "Gun Lake Casino Compact," by insisting--- for the first time in American history--- that this "Compact" contains rights protecting casino workers; that all state and federal labor laws be applicable to workers in the Indian Gaming Industry.
Talk it over with John Sweeney, Andy Stern and your good friends Ron Gettelfinger and Leo Gerard.
You might also want to consult with your good friend Nadine Nosal--- the UAW's lead lobbyist in Lansing, Michigan. Let's get Nadine going on opposing this Gun Lake Casino Compact until the rights of workers are included.
Mr. Bonior, I know your good friends Gary Garbarino and House Majority Leader Steve Tobocman are going to tell you not to listen to me because the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council's Organizing Committees in Michigan in Escanaba (Island Casino) and Petoskey (Odawa Casino) refuse to make any campaign contributions to the Democratic Party; but, consider this part of my contribution towards the 2008 elections. And, consider that the rights of some two-million casino workers should place as a higher priority on your own political agenda and concerns than what John Edwards and his hippie chick did in the privacy of their motel and hotel bedrooms or what they did "flying on a jet plane."
Now, do you have anything to say regarding the plight of two-million casino workers across the Nation?
No, I didn't think so.
The campaign contributions from the illustrious Fertitta family and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck mean more to you.
Your "tenure in Congress was marked by a passion for social and economic justice;" give me a break.
Mr. Bonior, what a hypocrite you are. You are really no different or any better than John Edwards... and maybe that is why you jumped so fast to pounce on your former friend... who I notice, is on the Board of Directors of "Americans Right at Work."
American Rights at Work...Board of Directors
Hon. David Bonior
Chair, American Rights at Work
Julian Bond
Chairman, NAACP
The Right Reverend Jane Holmes Dixon
Bishop of Washington, Pro tempore, retired
Sen. John Edwards
Mayor Shirley Franklin
Atlanta
Wade Henderson
Executive Director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Philip Levine
Poet
Jack Marco
Chairman, Marco Consulting Group
Hon. Kweisi Mfume
Janet Murguia
President & CEO, National Council of La Raza
Carl Pope
Executive Director, Sierra Club
Imam Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini
Leader, The Islamic Center of America
Harley Shaiken
Professor & Director, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Beth Shulman
Author
Congresswoman Hilda Solis
32nd District, California
Rabbi Alana Suskin
John J. Sweeney
President, AFL-CIO
Bradley Whitford
Actor
International Advisor:
Mary Robinson
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Must be Mary Robinson forgot to read the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights along with the rest of the American Rights at Work's Board of Directors.
As for "Card Check," the Employee Free Choice Act; this won't apply to the Nation's two-million workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry... once again, forgotten, by David Bonior and his chums at the helms of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. And, as far as Barack Obama who was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis... well, Obama has his surrogates, like George McGovern, out bashing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Frank Fertitta on right.
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Saturday, August 16, 2008 5:26 PM
To: 'judith_bott@msn.com'; 'kathy_bowerman@hotmail.com'; 'deyoungscarpet@sbcglobal.net'; 'mugs45@yahoo.com'; 'whitley.tn@gmail.com'; 'dorrvillageautobody@sbcglobal.net'; 'jgoldstein@americanrightsatwork.org'
Cc: 'debssoc@sbcglobal.net'; 'pluse@grpress.com'; 'editor@kalamazoogazette.com'; 'editor@penasee.com'; 'bbrown@allegannews.com'; 'jadnews@voyager.net'; 'mzweig@notes.cc.sunysb.edu'; 'rachleff@macalester.edu'
Subject: The litany of lies surrounding the Gun Lake casino "Compact" and venture continues
What kind of liars has Frank Fertitta and Station Casinos purchased? Here are their faces:
Look at the lies:
These are the “TALKING POINTS FOR LETTERS” this group has circulated:
• Provide jobs: Creating 1,800 new jobs with great benefits and an average compensation package of $40,000.
Lie: Why haven’t these liars provided proof of what the actual jobs will pay along with listing the great benefits for each job classification?
• Creating 3,100 new indirect jobs in the local community.
Lie: No proof what so ever.
• Purchasing more than $20 million per year in products and services from West Michigan businesses.
Lie: No proof of this. Where is the list?
• Generating $6 million in additional annual revenues for local hotels and bringing 80,000 new guests to local hotels each year.
Lie: No facts to substantiate this.
• Building a world-class entertainment venue in West Michigan that will increase tourism to the area.
True; and it will attract prostitution, loan-sharking, illegal gambling on everything from the ponies to high school sports along with a huge trade in drugs.
• Sharing millions of dollars in revenues each year with local communities to address needs for education, police, fire, and other public safety services.
Lie: Tax-payers will subsidize infrastructure and public services.
• Boosting the economy: In total, Michigan tribes have contributed more than $225 million to the state and more than $115 million to local governments that are located near the reservations.
Fact: The state has spent over one-billion dollars subsidizing infrastructure for existing casinos and local tax-payers have coughed up 1.4 Billion dollars.
• Matter of fairness: There are 12 federally recognized tribes in the state. The Gun Lake Tribe is the only federally recognized tribe in the state which does not have a compact for class III gaming. The law allows the tribe to build a casino. A compact guarantees that our community will benefit as well.
Question: Does anyone care about the 1,800 workers who will be forced to work in this smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws?
• The tribe and its project is supported by more than 35 Chambers, schools, labor unions, municipalities, tourist councils, alliances, and lodging associations. That number is growing every day.
Name all of them.
In fact, the Southwest Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council has entered into a thoroughly corrupt and illegal sweetheart contract with the Gun Lake Band and the Fertitta family for casino construction.
• Allow the Gun Lake Tribe the opportunity to promote tribal economic development, self-sufficiency and strong governments. It would help establish education and cultural programs, housing, elders-care facility and senior housing.
This is the biggest lie of all… a few corrupt tribal officials will profit and just like everything else under this rotten system the majority of the people will continue to suffer as the Fertitta family laughs all the way back to the banks in Las Vegas and the no-tax zones of the Caribbean.
Only complete fools would believe the lies being peddled by the so-called “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians;” the very same people who never whimpered a voice of protest as Native Americans have been subjected to a racist campaign of genocide for years… until there are profits to be made.
Fact: Most people will not be able to afford the gas to get to these jobs.
All lies… the news media prints these lies without one iota of concern for the rights of working people as this front group for the Kansas City Mob and the Fertitta family, which falsely claims ten-thousand members, ignores the real facts and has remained silent concerning the plight of casino workers... just like they have remained silent for years in the face of racism, poverty and despair.
In fact, since these liars did not inform those they have sought support from of the terms of employment of the 1,800 workers they do not have 10,000 supporters. It is deceitful and dishonest to claim 10,000 supporters who have been told only the “facts” of these “talking points.”
When these 10,000 supporters are informed of the health affects from working day in and day out in a smoke-filed casino and shown the wage scales for each of the positions, then, and only then, can the so-called “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” claim 10,000 supporters.
Contacting the American Cancer Society and the Heart and Lung Foundation for the facts is simple and easy--- in fact, one only needs to look at the many bill-boards dotting the highways educating people to the harmful affects of second-hand smoke.
As for pay scales and benefits for these jobs… it should be a relatively simple task for the “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” to post this information on their website, and the Gun Lake Band could do the same thing… then, and only then, can the “Friends of the Gun Lake Indians” claim 10,000 supporters.
Contact these uncaring, insensitive liars who don’t care that 1,800 of their fellow human beings will go to work in another smoke-filled casino at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws so a bunch of fools can sit their butts on a stool and let rigged one-armed bandits steal their money so Frank Fertitta and his friends don’t have to rob jewelry stores and banks… this way, the Kansas City Mob can make their living “skimming” the profits from the Gun Lake Band whose members won’t even be allowed in the “money room”:
Question: Has anyone factored in health care costs for cancers and heart and lung diseases from which so many casino workers suffer?
Comment: Wayne Newton and his quacking white duck will be making an appearance selling Aflack... quack, quack, quack.
Friends Of Gun Lake Indians COUNCIL MEMBERS
Name Phone Email
Judy Bott (616) 878-4167 judith_bott@msn.com
Kathy Bowerman (616) 681-2310 kathy_bowerman@hotmail.com
Elise DeYoung (616) 681-9669 deyoungscarpet@sbcglobal.net.
Marcia Halloran (616) 877-4554 mugs45@yahoo.com
Terry Whitley - whitley.tn@gmail.com
Bob Wagner (616) 681-9776 dorrvillageautobody@sbcglobal.net
Where To Write
*
Grand Rapids Press, 155 Michigan NW, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, Attn: Editor, pulse@grpress.com
*
Kalamazoo Gazette, 410 S. Burdick, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, editor@kalamazoogazette.com
*
Penasee Globe, 133 E. Superior, Wayland, MI 49348, Attn: Editor, editor@penasee.com
*
Allegan County News, 231 Trowbridge St. Allegan, MI 49010, bbrown@allegannews.com
*
Hastings Banner, 1351 N. M-43 Hwy., Hastings, MI 49058, Attn: Editor, jadnews@voyager.net
*
Honorable Governor Granholm, PO Box 30013, Lansing, MI 48909
Saturday, August 16, 2008
American Rights at Work... will David Bonior respond?
John Edwards has been intimidated into silence--- quite typical for the well-heeled who occasionally speak up against injustices; especially when they are trying to get elected to public office.
David Bonior, who worked to elect Edwards, like a rat on a sinking ship jumped off the Edwards' band-wagon real quick, too.
The "commitment" of the well-heeled when it comes to the issues affecting poverty and the rights of working people is always welcome; but, as working people we have come to expect most of these well-heeled, sometimes well-meaning (except when their involvement is just for political convenience as in Edwards' case; making a few extra retirement bucks as in David Bonior's case)will be of a nature of "support" for our struggles which will be subject to the "comfort zone" of these "love me, love me, I'm a liberal" types like David Bonior and John Edwards.
David Bonior is the Chair of American Rights at Work.
Here is the biography he provides:
David Bonior is the Chair of American Rights at Work’s Board of Directors and has served in this role since the organization’s founding in 2003. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976, he served Michigan’s Macomb and St. Clair Counties for 26 years—the longest tenure of any Congressman from this district. When he retired at the end of 2002, he had held the position of Democratic Whip, the second ranking Democrat in the House, for 10 years.
His tenure in Congress was marked by a passion for social and economic justice. Bonior earned a reputation as a strong voice for working families and as a leader on the environment, fair trade, jobs, and human and civil rights.
Born in Detroit, he graduated from the University of Iowa, received a Masters Degree in history from Chapman College, served in the Air Force, and worked as a probation officer and adoption caseworker before he was elected to the Michigan Legislature in 1972.
Bonior is the author of two books: The Vietnam Veteran: A History of Neglect and Walking to Mackinac. He previously served as University Professor of Labor Studies at Wayne State University and on the boards of Public Citizen and Community Central Bank in Mount Clemens, Mich. In 2007-2008, Bonior took a leave of absence from American Rights at Work to join John Edwards’ presidential campaign as the national campaign manager.
He and his wife Judy live in Washington, DC, and are the parents of three adult children.
Now, here we have this guy who pretends to be so concerned about working people and their rights; and, he pretends in the same manner to be so personally hurt by John Edwards little tryst with a cute young hippie chick.
But. Yes, but; Bonior lives among the degenerate and the depraved servants of big-business in Washington D.C., and he has a front row seat at the three-ring circus which passes itself off to the world as the greatest bastion of democracy.
What is interesting about David Bonior is he served such a long tenure in Congress working the entire time with the Michigan legislature, before being appointed to this position of Chair of the "American Rights at Work," which is nothing more than a group which searches the Internet in quest of articles for where working people have had their rights abused... American Rights at Work puts up a few new articles and stories on its web site, and that is where the "struggle" against injustice ends.
David Bonior, as a highly influential Michigan Congressman as his own biography points out, had the opportunity to make a major contribution in the struggle for worker rights--- for human rights, but, Mr. Bonior CHOSE to close his eyes, and cover his ears as the "Compacts" creating the Indian Casino Industry were being created WITHOUT ONE SINGLE CONCERN OR PROTECTION FOR THE RIGHTS OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN WORKERS who would be employed in this industry.
Mr. Bonior was fully aware at the time he voted for these "Compacts," not just one, but many of them in Michigan and around the country, that the thousands of workers who would be employed in these casinos, would have no rights at all under state or federal labor laws.
Where was Mr. Bonior's concern for "social and economic rights" as he was helping to create, and then approve, these casino "Compacts?"
Not once since "American Rights at Work" came into existence for the sole purpose of giving David Bonior a nice cushy retirement income, has this most Draconian arrangement created by these "Compacts" been brought forward or challenged by Mr. Bonior.
The least Mr. Bonior could do is pretend the same moral outrage and disgust demonstrated towards John Edwards' tryst.
Now, with Congressman Bonior's help and David Bonior's silence as Chair of American Rights at Work, the Indian Gaming Industry has grown to over four-hundred casinos spread out across the United States; these are businesses operated and managed by some of the most violent and notorious mobsters, including the most feared Kansas City Mob which Gary Hart tried to destroy until running into his own problems like John Edwards did... although someone--- maybe Brownstein or Schreck or Frank Fertitta--- would know something about this; who picked more sophisticated women for Gary Hart rather than a single hippie chick chosen for John Edwards.
Now, if the rights of American workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry which is nothing more than a front for organized crime which owns the one-armed bandits, operates very lucrative loan-shark operations, together with prostitution and drugs and the illegal betting on everything from the ponies to high school basketball games in these casinos isn't of concern to Mr. Bonior as Chair of American Rights at Work, I don't know what the retired Michigan Congressman would consider an abuse of the rights of working people--- to allow human beings to be forced to work in such an environment without a whimper of protest; where without any rights in the work-place, and without a voice in the workplace--- workers are dragged into this "under-world" as unwilling participants which makes what John Edwards and his cute young hippie chick did as consenting adults seem rather innocent... especially when such behavior is common place among Mr. Bonior's friends of the political elite--- one needs look no further than the "family life" of David Bonior's good friend, Michigan's United States Senator Debbie Stabenow who sent her husband off to get blow-jobs in sleazy motel rooms from young, barely of legal age, prostitutes.
But, what consenting adults do, whether as volunteers or as a "business arrangement"--- you know, I guess there is something to be said about someone having the creativity to take advantage of the great "free market" in the area of the sex industry to the extent that poverty isn't forcing the decision. But, what is done between two consenting adults is no concern of mine as far as judging anyone concerning their morals and it shouldn't be an issue for anyone except some pious preachers (and Presidents) who engage in such decadent and perverted activities only with God's forgiveness.
What goes on with the business elite behind the closed doors in the Presidential Suites of the highest priced hotels we won't discuss nor mention... suffice it to say that St. Paul Police and Colorado police agencies are not only preparing for demonstrators at the Republican and Democratic Party's National Conventions, but for an influx of thousands of prostitutes in each city where the conventions are to be held.
Here in the Twin Cities Mayors R.T. and Coleman are trying to decide how many condoms and needles they need to order for free distribution during the Republican convention in addition to tasars and cattle prods which I assume aren't for erotic pleasures of anyone except the police who get their jollies using them.
However, I do think, unlike the John Edwards' affair, the issue of workers' rights is a question of morals and ethics which should concern us all, especially when we have those like David Bonior feigning being appalled by what John Edwards and a cute young hippie chick did behind closed doors--- at least those doors remained closed until those doors were opened by someone who wanted John Edwards to stop talking about poverty and workers' rights; conveniently those doors to John Edwards' love shack were opened on the heels of the opening of the Democratic Party Convention where he had been scheduled to speak about eliminating poverty and for workers' rights as human rights--- even though he intended to continue the omission of the rights, or lack thereof, of casino workers in the Indian gaming Industry.
But, what I was getting at is David Bonior, had the opportunity as a Congressman--- a long-time serving congressman as he boasts in his own biography; and, a second opportunity as the Chair of "American Rights at Work" to boldly speak up in defence of the rights of those employed in the Indian Gaming Industry--- just as he so quickly did within minutes once the John Edwards "scandal" broke--- gees, David Bonior was just so hurt; to hear David Bonior's pain you would think right-wing rocker Ted Nugent had pierced Bonior's heart with his Jim Bowie hunting knife.
But, where has been David Bonior's concern, and passion, for the rights of more than two-million casino workers now employed in these smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws all of these years he has been so concerned about social justice?
Mr. Bonior's organization, American Rights at Work, cites cases upon case of the abuse of worker's rights--- and it is good that he picks these cases up off the Internet to highlight since the abuses workers are subjected to at work in America are growing rapidly (right along with the increase in corporate profits and the strengthening of state-monopoly capitalism where employers are playing a much more open role in government and the political life of the country to the point where Wal-mart has the arrogance to flaunt the law as they intimidate workers now by "suggesting" who they must vote for).
But, one would think that Mr. Bonior would be able to demonstrate at least some concern for two-million casino workers; and have at least a few words to say about these casino managements and the anti-labor, union busting firms they are hiring as what he has been quick to point out as a breach in morality on the part of John Edwards and his cute hippie chick, which we would never have known about had Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck not wanted John Edwards "wrecking" the Democratic Party National Convention with the call that the Democratic Party should place eradicating poverty and bringing the rights of working people to the center stage of the convention and the three-ring circus in Washington.
I would also point out that David Bonior was aware that John Edwards sat on the board of a corporation, one of the largest corporations in the world--- a corporation funded by the teachers' unions pension funds--- whose primary field of investments is in what? Building casinos for the Indian Gaming Industry!
So much for David Bonior's concern for the rights of American workers and social justice.
I submit, that the plight of more than two-million workers in the Indian Gaming Industry--- a plight which David Bonior played a major role in denying rights to these casino workers--- not the denial one right or the denial of several rights--- but denying ALL RIGHTS to more than two-million workers at their places of employment in the Indian Gaming Industry is what David Bonior and his Democratic Party colleagues should be addressing to the media, and not John Edwards' tryst with what the media calls a "hippie chick."
In fact, there is something to be said about the viciously sexist way Rupert Murdock has portrayed Rielle Hunter as a "hippie chick;" but, again, in comparison to the plight of hundreds of thousands of young women workers, many who are women of color--- all of child-bearing age, employed in the Indian Gaming Industry in smoke-filled casinos... the sexism of Rupert Murdoch seems rather a non-issue... even though I hear United States Senator Debbie Stabenow has asked the National Organization of Women (NOW) to protest.
Not to worry, David Bonior and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck have spared the Nation being subjected to the rantings of an immoral John Edwards against poverty and for the advancement of workers' rights as human rights during prime-time television by having the good wisdom of bringing in Bill Clinton as the speaker to replace him at the Democratic National Convention. And, instead of hearing about the plight of some two-million casino workers and American rights at work and poverty wages, we will now be hearing about the spots on Monica Lewinsky's blue dress.
Like I said, the three-ring circus continues with it pre-show sideshows of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions; always, the show must go on. And, the show goes on at the expense of the rights of all workers in America who are being subjected to greater abuse in their places of employment as big-business gains an even tighter and firmer grip (now, I hope no one reads anything sexual into this) over lives of working people.
Come on, David Bonior, step right up--- pretend you are the ring-master, front and center stage, and call upon the Democratic Party to finally take a stand in defense of the rights of two-million Americans being forced to work in the Indian Gaming Industry because of your own actions... why don't you start demonstrating real concern for working people by insisting that Michigan's "pro-labor" governor, Jennifer Granholm, rescind her support with the corruption plagued "Gun Lake Casino Compact," by insisting--- for the first time in American history--- that this "Compact" contains rights protecting casino workers; that all state and federal labor laws be applicable to workers in the Indian Gaming Industry.
Talk it over with John Sweeney, Andy Stern and your good friends Ron Gettelfinger and Leo Gerard.
You might also want to consult with your good friend Nadine Nosal--- the UAW's lead lobbyist in Lansing, Michigan. Let's get Nadine going on opposing this Gun Lake Casino Compact until the rights of workers are included.
Mr. Bonior, I know your good friends Gary Garbarino and House Majority Leader Steve Tobocman are going to tell you not to listen to me because the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council's Organizing Committees in Michigan in Escanaba (Island Casino) and Petoskey (Odawa Casino) refuse to make any campaign contributions to the Democratic Party; but, consider this part of my contribution towards the 2008 elections. And, consider that the rights of some two-million casino workers should place as a higher priority on your own political agenda and concerns than what John Edwards and his hippie chick did in the privacy of their motel and hotel bedrooms or what they did "flying on a jet plane."
Now, do you have anything to say regarding the plight of two-million casino workers across the Nation?
No, I didn't think so.
The campaign contributions from the illustrious Fertitta family and Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck mean more to you.
Your "tenure in Congress was marked by a passion for social and economic justice;" give me a break.
Mr. Bonior, what a hypocrite you are. You are really no different or any better than John Edwards... and maybe that is why you jumped so fast to pounce on your former friend... who I notice, is on the Board of Directors of "Americans Right at Work."
American Rights at Work...Board of Directors
Hon. David Bonior
Chair, American Rights at Work
Julian Bond
Chairman, NAACP
The Right Reverend Jane Holmes Dixon
Bishop of Washington, Pro tempore, retired
Sen. John Edwards
Mayor Shirley Franklin
Atlanta
Wade Henderson
Executive Director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
Philip Levine
Poet
Jack Marco
Chairman, Marco Consulting Group
Hon. Kweisi Mfume
Janet Murguia
President & CEO, National Council of La Raza
Carl Pope
Executive Director, Sierra Club
Imam Sayed Hassan Al-Qazwini
Leader, The Islamic Center of America
Harley Shaiken
Professor & Director, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Beth Shulman
Author
Congresswoman Hilda Solis
32nd District, California
Rabbi Alana Suskin
John J. Sweeney
President, AFL-CIO
Bradley Whitford
Actor
International Advisor:
Mary Robinson
Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Must be Mary Robinson forgot to read the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights along with the rest of the American Rights at Work's Board of Directors.
As for "Card Check," the Employee Free Choice Act; this won't apply to the Nation's two-million workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry... once again, forgotten, by David Bonior and his chums at the helms of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. And, as far as Barack Obama who was mentored by Frank Marshall Davis... well, Obama has his surrogates, like George McGovern, out bashing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
St. Paul Twin Cities Ford Plant
Save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant
Sisters and Brothers;
Unless we act together the Ford Plant will close soon and two thousand jobs will go down the drain and into the river with it.
It will take the initiative of community activists and rank and file activists from your plant working together to save the Ford Plant and two-thousand jobs. It will require activity on a variety of levels from a variety of partners working in coalition.
I would encourage you to ask the UAW leadership of your local (UAW Local 879) to push the MN DFL to reconsider the legislation Democratic Senator Metzen dropped the ball on after Representative Tom Rukavina successfully pushed it through his Committee in the House. It is important that this Plant and Dam remain intact as one unit.
As you know, the great “free market forces” of capitalism have not been able to keep this perfectly good plant in operation.
This leaves us but one option; the option of Public Ownership. Public Ownership has been used all over the world to save many plants and even entire industries. The New Flyer Bus Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba is one such example.
To be quite frank, our primary concern has to be with saving these two-thousand jobs. The jobs of those presently employed and for generations to come.
No one is considering the tremendous struggle and sacrifice of Ford workers and your union in securing a good place to work as part of the investment. No one is talking about the huge investment taxpayers have made in this Plant and Hydro Dam… not to mention training employees. No one mentions that workers create all wealth and as such are entitled to participate as equals in the decision-making process. The Ford Motor Company never sat down and talked about the future of this plant with workers or tax-payers.
I ask you to take these resolutions to your party precinct caucus meetings in February. Ford workers are scattered all over, even in Wisconsin… we need to reach out for support in order to save this plant. Just clip one of these resolutions to the resolution form.
Resolution #1 (Short Version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs
Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;
Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;
Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.
Resolution #2 (Full version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs
Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;
Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;
Whereas this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;
Whereas the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;
Whereas all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;
Whereas a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;
Whereas “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs; (over please)
Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;
Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;
Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;
Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;
Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;
Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.
Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota DFL State Central Committee
and
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
If you have friends working in casinos please have them get in touch with me.
Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog; it’s where rank and file activists go for information:
Thoughts From Podunk:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Suggestions for how to use these resolutions:
• Take it to your precinct caucus meeting
• Get your union or community organization to support this resolution
• Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution
• Copy and distribute this resolution widely
• Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it
• Write a letter to the editor
• Blog this issue
• Post the resolution on web sites
• Discuss this resolution on Internet “list serves”
**************
This leaflet made as a contribution in kind by the:
Iron Range Rank and File Labor Network… concerned and involved members of USW Locals 1938, 2705, 6860, 2660
All labor and materials for this leaflet have been contributed in solidarity with workers of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… On the Iron Range we understand the future of our jobs hinge on the future of your jobs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Maki for taking up this struggle in his capacity as a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee. Without these kinds of community grassroots and rank and file outreach efforts we are all doomed as recent contract “negotiations” in our industries have demonstrated.
Please consider making a contribution to help us put this issue on the front burner where it belongs.
Out of sight… is out of mind.
Sisters and Brothers;
Unless we act together the Ford Plant will close soon and two thousand jobs will go down the drain and into the river with it.
It will take the initiative of community activists and rank and file activists from your plant working together to save the Ford Plant and two-thousand jobs. It will require activity on a variety of levels from a variety of partners working in coalition.
I would encourage you to ask the UAW leadership of your local (UAW Local 879) to push the MN DFL to reconsider the legislation Democratic Senator Metzen dropped the ball on after Representative Tom Rukavina successfully pushed it through his Committee in the House. It is important that this Plant and Dam remain intact as one unit.
As you know, the great “free market forces” of capitalism have not been able to keep this perfectly good plant in operation.
This leaves us but one option; the option of Public Ownership. Public Ownership has been used all over the world to save many plants and even entire industries. The New Flyer Bus Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba is one such example.
To be quite frank, our primary concern has to be with saving these two-thousand jobs. The jobs of those presently employed and for generations to come.
No one is considering the tremendous struggle and sacrifice of Ford workers and your union in securing a good place to work as part of the investment. No one is talking about the huge investment taxpayers have made in this Plant and Hydro Dam… not to mention training employees. No one mentions that workers create all wealth and as such are entitled to participate as equals in the decision-making process. The Ford Motor Company never sat down and talked about the future of this plant with workers or tax-payers.
I ask you to take these resolutions to your party precinct caucus meetings in February. Ford workers are scattered all over, even in Wisconsin… we need to reach out for support in order to save this plant. Just clip one of these resolutions to the resolution form.
Resolution #1 (Short Version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs
Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;
Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;
Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs.
Resolution #2 (Full version) 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs
Whereas Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation with the workers, the community, or local and state governments;
Whereas this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;
Whereas this Plant forms an important an integral component of Minnesota’s industrial base;
Whereas the closing of this Plant will cause very significant economic harm to the local community and the state including placing a strain on already overburdened social services which have already been drastically cut back;
Whereas all conciliatory efforts, as demanded, in favor of the management of Ford Motor Company have been granted by all levels of government under the promise Ford would maintain operations in St. Paul;
Whereas a similar threatened plant closing of the New Flyer Plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada during the 1970’sresulted in all levels of government intervening on behalf of the members of the United Automobile Workers union resulting in the public takeover of the operation with continuing successful operation at present;
Whereas “the free market” has not resulted in a solution to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam which powers the plant along with two-thousand union jobs; (over please)
Be it resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instruct its State Legislative Caucus to bring forward the previous resolution in the form of legislation supported by the United Auto Workers Union and its members of Local 789 to save the plant and dam intact until a solution is found to continue operations and production;
Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party instructs all of its federal, state, and local Twin Cities elected officials to convene a special conference to explore public ownership as the remedy to saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, the hydro dam, and two thousand union jobs;
Be it further resolved that the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party support public ownership and democratic control of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant with production taking place in the best interests of the workers and the people of the State of Minnesota;
Be it further resolved that public ownership is the only viable means of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant as all other means have been tried and exhausted;
Be it further resolved that funding is not an issue since any country which can squander billions of dollars on the occupation of Iraq can find the resources for saving this Plant, dam, and jobs;
Be it further resolved that the very significant burden of health care costs for employees be resolved through the State of Minnesota enacting legislation implementing single-payer, universal health care.
Alan L. Maki
Member, Minnesota DFL State Central Committee
and
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
If you have friends working in casinos please have them get in touch with me.
Twenty-thousand Minnesotans go to work in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under tribal, state or federal labor laws.
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog; it’s where rank and file activists go for information:
Thoughts From Podunk:
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
Suggestions for how to use these resolutions:
• Take it to your precinct caucus meeting
• Get your union or community organization to support this resolution
• Write a letter to your state legislators supporting this resolution
• Copy and distribute this resolution widely
• Use this resolution as a petition, ask your friends to sign it
• Write a letter to the editor
• Blog this issue
• Post the resolution on web sites
• Discuss this resolution on Internet “list serves”
**************
This leaflet made as a contribution in kind by the:
Iron Range Rank and File Labor Network… concerned and involved members of USW Locals 1938, 2705, 6860, 2660
All labor and materials for this leaflet have been contributed in solidarity with workers of the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant… On the Iron Range we understand the future of our jobs hinge on the future of your jobs. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Maki for taking up this struggle in his capacity as a member of the MN DFL State Central Committee. Without these kinds of community grassroots and rank and file outreach efforts we are all doomed as recent contract “negotiations” in our industries have demonstrated.
Please consider making a contribution to help us put this issue on the front burner where it belongs.
Out of sight… is out of mind.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Call to Action for Decent Work, Decent Life
Call to Action for Decent Work, Decent Life
Initiated by the: International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
This text is also available in other languages:
Despite the world economic boom, most of the world’s population are not seeing their lives improve as a result.
As well as significant open unemployment, many are underemployed, or not paid for work performed. Half of the world’s workforce earns less than 2 $ a day. 12.3 million women and men work in slavery. 200 million children under the age of 15 work instead of going to school. 2.2 million people die due to work-related accidents and diseases every year. People in developed and developing countries work more for less money, and more and more people – overwhelmingly women - are forced to make their living in the so-called informal economy, without social protection or rights and in precarious jobs. Meanwhile, companies are using the threat of outsourcing to drive down wages and hard fought for rights such as the right to collective bargaining and to strike. Trade unionists that fight these trends are dismissed, threatened, jailed and even killed.
Only an international system based on solidarity and respect for people’s rights, as enshrined in United Nations and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, can put a stop to these trends. We call on our governments to sign these conventions, to implement them urgently and to put decent work at the heart of their policy-making.
In July 2006, governments at the UN Economic and Social Council adopted a Ministerial Declaration whose first article states: “We are convinced of the urgent need to create an environment at the national and international levels that is conducive to the attainment of full and productive employment and decent work for all as a foundation for sustainable development.” Their call must be matched by ratification and implementation of the ILO's standards, at the same time as international agencies use the UN’s new Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work as a first step towards fostering greater policy coherence and convergence for implementing the promise of Decent Work for All.
The time to start implementing these promises is now.
We believe that decent work is central to eradicating poverty, improving the lives of women and men and enabling people to live in peace and dignity. We hence call on decision-makers urgently to:
Decent work: Reaffirm the contribution stable and quality jobs make to a healthy economy and just and equal communities by implementing inclusive strategies for full and productive employment, including for those currently working in the so-called informal economy who need rights and justice to defend their interests. All people have the right to work, to good working conditions and to sufficient income for their basic economic, social and family needs, a right that should be enforced by providing adequate living wages.
Rights: Workers’ rights to form and join trade unions and bargain collectively with their employer are fundamental to realising decent work, and all international organisations, governments and businesses must live up to their responsibilities to respect workers’ human rights.
Social protection: Strengthen and broaden social protection coverage by ensuring access to social security, pensions, unemployment benefits, maternity protection and quality health care to all. These benefits should be available to everyone, including workers in the so-called informal economy.
Trade: Change unfair trade rules and ensure that trade agreements are used as an instrument for decent work, sustainable development and empowerment of the world’s workers, women, the unemployed and the poor. Binding mechanisms for the promotion and enforcement of decent work, including core labour standards, must be included in trade agreements. Governments must stop making trade deals which hurt the poor, create unemployment and lead to exploitation. The demands of workers’ organisations and the rest of civil society must be listened to.
Debt: Ensure that the priorities of the international financial institutions incorporate social and environmental concerns. Particularly, loan and debt conditions which force countries to deregulate labour markets, reduce public spending and privatise public services at the cost of access and quality must be stopped. All projects funded by these institutions must adhere to core labour standards in their implementation.
Aid: Ensure that governments keep their commitment to increase the level of official development aid of rich countries to at least 0.7% of GDP. Adequate financing for development is imperative if the UN’s Millennium Development Goals are to be reached.
Migration: Ensure that migrant workers are not exploited and enjoy the same rights as other workers by ratifying the relevant ILO Conventions and the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
Sign this call to action by filling the form below!
To sign this on-line petition go to:
http://www.decentwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=29
Gerado Castillo Me interesa recibir peridicament este tipo de informacion y si fuera posible materiales referidos a la Empresas Multinacinales.
Yann GELISTER
Jens Rydder
Isabelle Hoferlin
Louis Garcia III You can attack it with malice,ignorance can deride it,but in the end it\'s still there. The truth. Winston Churchill
Mamadou Diallo
Lise Paulsen Galal
JAMES HOWARD
Anneke van Luijken most urgent to act on this
Marcio Kameoka
Conny Reuter more than a campaign: a concept for a large social movement
Peteris Krigers
Ludmila Jevsejenkova
Lorena Rojas Avalos \"unirnos para transformar\", esa es la clave si queremos lograr un trabajo y una vida digna para todas las personas sin ningún tipo de distinción.
Esther Niubó
Maria Badia
Yolanda Torres
Alejandro Cercas
Stephen Hughes MEP
Michael Contes
Laurence Corréard
Anna Wolanska Decent work and decent life is not a privilage. This is our fundamental right.
Livija Marcinkevica
Linda Romele
Ariadna Abeltina
Christopher F. Vota Everyone should maintain a standard of living that includes health of body and mind. No way should anyone anywhere be denied medical care for lack of funds. All people everywhere have the right to work under the best conditions possible for good wages and benefits. Even by doing this, the rich will always get richer, but not nearly at the expense of the rest of us, who slowly sink into serfdom!
Javier Jesús Fernánd
My V. Nguyen Decent work for a decent life is the root of democracy!
David Bayle
Elena Tabanelli
Daniel Terra Jorge
Rosemary Whitmore
Bruce Wheeler
Volker Blaschke
Nele Hess Demokratie und Partizipation durch GUTE ARBEIT!
Shaun O\'Connell The world will never find peace until the 7 promises are implemented ASAP.
Hilda Sanchez I sign this call to action
DOSSOU SIMEON TOUNDE Tout en étant d\'accord avec le contenu, je pense qu\'il faut appeler aussi les gouvernements de nos pays (de l\'Afrique)à une meilleure gouvernance et une meilleure gestion des avoirs publics et de l\'aide au développement
Silva Descent work for young people!
Elisa Caracciolo
Claire Moon
Kristian Weise
Velibor
teresa alfani
CAYETANO GUERRERO FE NO PUEDO ESTAR MÁS DE ACUERDO
Donald Spatz
Wirth, Kurt
Unna Kuessner
Kevin J. O\'Rourke
Marijana Bordage
MP Clark
David Yao
Peter L. Gale
Ramon Certeza United we stand, divided we fall!
Bradley A Harris
Richard Creswell Workers of the world unite!
Albert M. Jenkins
Carole O\'Connell
Nanette Folsom Respect Human Beings!!!!
Eileen Boris
Joy Krom
Dusty Washburn
Dusty Washburn
Wolfgang Stier
Catherine Pottinger Urgently needed.
Büsing, Harald
wallace need fair labor practice.
william t glover jr. we need fair labor practices not exploting workers that the only way will ever make a dent in poverty
Richard J. Bargans It is imperative that these goals be immediately implimented and achieved!
Donna Stein
Edward Sussex Great initiative. Also support decent wages and a basic income guarantee for everyone, starting with family allowances for the poor.
Lynn Cardiff
Rick
Janet Roe-Darden
Russ Scheidler
Thomas Fahey
Alexandre Seron
Ralf Pomplitz Zukunft braucht Gerechtigkeit!
Remi Bazillier Decent Work for all!
neil alldred We are very keen to ensure all our own campaigning work is supportive of the Decent Work, Decent Life campaign
Doris Schröder ES ist wichtig, dass menschenwürdige Arbeit für alle Menschen überall geschaffen wird. Sonst erleben wir das, was wir gerade erleben: Der ewige Kreisel nach unten, der überall die Lebensstandards für die arbeitende Bevölkerung nach unten schraubt.
Regina Stolte
Dr. Juergen Eckl Decent work, Trabajo digno, menschenwürdige Arbeit für Alle ist eine Strategie mit vier gleichwertigen Säulen: Respektierung der Kernarabeitsnormen, gute Beschäftigung für alle, Ausbau der Sozialen Sicherheit, mitbestimmender Sozialer Dialog!
Andrea Maksimovic
arun daur Decent Work means respect for workers right to organise and right of union to negotiate - without these two linked rights it is not possible to promote Decent Work in its true sense.
David Seligson
andres penuela
Mathias Maucher
Yan Giroud
Philippe Gousenbourg Decent Work for young people!
Réal Gagnon
tunde animasaun decent work is central to poverty elimination and the guaranteeing of a humane life for all
Concha de Sena Decent work for all!!!
Camelia Constantin
Florentina Constanti Action, not charity!Thsi is what we need.
Michot
Barbara Caracciolo This is great and hope that million of people will sign the Call!
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 October 2007 )
Initiated by the: International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
This text is also available in other languages:
Despite the world economic boom, most of the world’s population are not seeing their lives improve as a result.
As well as significant open unemployment, many are underemployed, or not paid for work performed. Half of the world’s workforce earns less than 2 $ a day. 12.3 million women and men work in slavery. 200 million children under the age of 15 work instead of going to school. 2.2 million people die due to work-related accidents and diseases every year. People in developed and developing countries work more for less money, and more and more people – overwhelmingly women - are forced to make their living in the so-called informal economy, without social protection or rights and in precarious jobs. Meanwhile, companies are using the threat of outsourcing to drive down wages and hard fought for rights such as the right to collective bargaining and to strike. Trade unionists that fight these trends are dismissed, threatened, jailed and even killed.
Only an international system based on solidarity and respect for people’s rights, as enshrined in United Nations and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, can put a stop to these trends. We call on our governments to sign these conventions, to implement them urgently and to put decent work at the heart of their policy-making.
In July 2006, governments at the UN Economic and Social Council adopted a Ministerial Declaration whose first article states: “We are convinced of the urgent need to create an environment at the national and international levels that is conducive to the attainment of full and productive employment and decent work for all as a foundation for sustainable development.” Their call must be matched by ratification and implementation of the ILO's standards, at the same time as international agencies use the UN’s new Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work as a first step towards fostering greater policy coherence and convergence for implementing the promise of Decent Work for All.
The time to start implementing these promises is now.
We believe that decent work is central to eradicating poverty, improving the lives of women and men and enabling people to live in peace and dignity. We hence call on decision-makers urgently to:
Decent work: Reaffirm the contribution stable and quality jobs make to a healthy economy and just and equal communities by implementing inclusive strategies for full and productive employment, including for those currently working in the so-called informal economy who need rights and justice to defend their interests. All people have the right to work, to good working conditions and to sufficient income for their basic economic, social and family needs, a right that should be enforced by providing adequate living wages.
Rights: Workers’ rights to form and join trade unions and bargain collectively with their employer are fundamental to realising decent work, and all international organisations, governments and businesses must live up to their responsibilities to respect workers’ human rights.
Social protection: Strengthen and broaden social protection coverage by ensuring access to social security, pensions, unemployment benefits, maternity protection and quality health care to all. These benefits should be available to everyone, including workers in the so-called informal economy.
Trade: Change unfair trade rules and ensure that trade agreements are used as an instrument for decent work, sustainable development and empowerment of the world’s workers, women, the unemployed and the poor. Binding mechanisms for the promotion and enforcement of decent work, including core labour standards, must be included in trade agreements. Governments must stop making trade deals which hurt the poor, create unemployment and lead to exploitation. The demands of workers’ organisations and the rest of civil society must be listened to.
Debt: Ensure that the priorities of the international financial institutions incorporate social and environmental concerns. Particularly, loan and debt conditions which force countries to deregulate labour markets, reduce public spending and privatise public services at the cost of access and quality must be stopped. All projects funded by these institutions must adhere to core labour standards in their implementation.
Aid: Ensure that governments keep their commitment to increase the level of official development aid of rich countries to at least 0.7% of GDP. Adequate financing for development is imperative if the UN’s Millennium Development Goals are to be reached.
Migration: Ensure that migrant workers are not exploited and enjoy the same rights as other workers by ratifying the relevant ILO Conventions and the 1990 UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
Sign this call to action by filling the form below!
To sign this on-line petition go to:
http://www.decentwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=29
Alan L. Maki As the Director of Organizing for the Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council representing casino workers employed in the more than 400 Indian owned and mobster managed casinos employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under State or Federal Labor laws we would like to see full implementation of the \"Call for Action for Decent Work, Decent Life\" with a method of forced compliance in all Nations.
Gerado Castillo Me interesa recibir peridicament este tipo de informacion y si fuera posible materiales referidos a la Empresas Multinacinales.
Yann GELISTER
Jens Rydder
Isabelle Hoferlin
Louis Garcia III You can attack it with malice,ignorance can deride it,but in the end it\'s still there. The truth. Winston Churchill
Mamadou Diallo
Lise Paulsen Galal
JAMES HOWARD
Anneke van Luijken most urgent to act on this
Marcio Kameoka
Conny Reuter more than a campaign: a concept for a large social movement
Peteris Krigers
Ludmila Jevsejenkova
Lorena Rojas Avalos \"unirnos para transformar\", esa es la clave si queremos lograr un trabajo y una vida digna para todas las personas sin ningún tipo de distinción.
Esther Niubó
Maria Badia
Yolanda Torres
Alejandro Cercas
Stephen Hughes MEP
Michael Contes
Laurence Corréard
Anna Wolanska Decent work and decent life is not a privilage. This is our fundamental right.
Livija Marcinkevica
Linda Romele
Ariadna Abeltina
Christopher F. Vota Everyone should maintain a standard of living that includes health of body and mind. No way should anyone anywhere be denied medical care for lack of funds. All people everywhere have the right to work under the best conditions possible for good wages and benefits. Even by doing this, the rich will always get richer, but not nearly at the expense of the rest of us, who slowly sink into serfdom!
Javier Jesús Fernánd
My V. Nguyen Decent work for a decent life is the root of democracy!
David Bayle
Elena Tabanelli
Daniel Terra Jorge
Rosemary Whitmore
Bruce Wheeler
Volker Blaschke
Nele Hess Demokratie und Partizipation durch GUTE ARBEIT!
Shaun O\'Connell The world will never find peace until the 7 promises are implemented ASAP.
Hilda Sanchez I sign this call to action
DOSSOU SIMEON TOUNDE Tout en étant d\'accord avec le contenu, je pense qu\'il faut appeler aussi les gouvernements de nos pays (de l\'Afrique)à une meilleure gouvernance et une meilleure gestion des avoirs publics et de l\'aide au développement
Silva Descent work for young people!
Elisa Caracciolo
Claire Moon
Kristian Weise
Velibor
teresa alfani
CAYETANO GUERRERO FE NO PUEDO ESTAR MÁS DE ACUERDO
Donald Spatz
Wirth, Kurt
Unna Kuessner
Kevin J. O\'Rourke
Marijana Bordage
MP Clark
David Yao
Peter L. Gale
Ramon Certeza United we stand, divided we fall!
Bradley A Harris
Richard Creswell Workers of the world unite!
Albert M. Jenkins
Carole O\'Connell
Nanette Folsom Respect Human Beings!!!!
Eileen Boris
Joy Krom
Dusty Washburn
Dusty Washburn
Wolfgang Stier
Catherine Pottinger Urgently needed.
Büsing, Harald
wallace need fair labor practice.
william t glover jr. we need fair labor practices not exploting workers that the only way will ever make a dent in poverty
Richard J. Bargans It is imperative that these goals be immediately implimented and achieved!
Donna Stein
Edward Sussex Great initiative. Also support decent wages and a basic income guarantee for everyone, starting with family allowances for the poor.
Lynn Cardiff
Rick
Janet Roe-Darden
Russ Scheidler
Thomas Fahey
Alexandre Seron
Ralf Pomplitz Zukunft braucht Gerechtigkeit!
Remi Bazillier Decent Work for all!
neil alldred We are very keen to ensure all our own campaigning work is supportive of the Decent Work, Decent Life campaign
Doris Schröder ES ist wichtig, dass menschenwürdige Arbeit für alle Menschen überall geschaffen wird. Sonst erleben wir das, was wir gerade erleben: Der ewige Kreisel nach unten, der überall die Lebensstandards für die arbeitende Bevölkerung nach unten schraubt.
Regina Stolte
Dr. Juergen Eckl Decent work, Trabajo digno, menschenwürdige Arbeit für Alle ist eine Strategie mit vier gleichwertigen Säulen: Respektierung der Kernarabeitsnormen, gute Beschäftigung für alle, Ausbau der Sozialen Sicherheit, mitbestimmender Sozialer Dialog!
Andrea Maksimovic
arun daur Decent Work means respect for workers right to organise and right of union to negotiate - without these two linked rights it is not possible to promote Decent Work in its true sense.
David Seligson
andres penuela
Mathias Maucher
Yan Giroud
Philippe Gousenbourg Decent Work for young people!
Réal Gagnon
tunde animasaun decent work is central to poverty elimination and the guaranteeing of a humane life for all
Concha de Sena Decent work for all!!!
Camelia Constantin
Florentina Constanti Action, not charity!Thsi is what we need.
Michot
Barbara Caracciolo This is great and hope that million of people will sign the Call!
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 31 October 2007 )
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Has the Change Led to Wins? AFL-CIO and Change to Win
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3379/has_the_change_led_to_wins/
"Working together" (AFL-CIO & Change to Win) on the local level in politics might have created some victories for individual Democratic Candidates; however, even if the U.S. House and Senate was filled completely with such worthless candidates working people wouldn't win anything.
Here in Minnesota, a State Senate Legislative Committee, comprised by a majority of Democrats, all elected with the full support of both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win couldn't even muster enough votes to get a piece of legislation out of committee that would have helped save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant along with two-thousand jobs.
The Republicans took one of the Democrats out for drinks and never stayed for the vote they were so confident these Democrats would do their dirty work for them.
On the Iron Range a new cancer cluster has been detected among iron ore miners in the taconite industry. What did the Democrats, all endorsed, supported, and financed by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win propose? Single-payer, universal health care which was endorsed by 72% of the delegates to the last state convention of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer Labor Party? No; these Democrats called for another "study"... just what working people and their families need when they are facing foreclosures on their homes to pay for mounting medical bills.
Over two-million American workers are employed in some 400 smoke-filled casinos strung out across the United States... all receiving poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws; subjected to the most Draconian working conditions at the hands of mobsters who "manage" these so-called "Indian owned" casinos under special "Compacts." Not one of these Democrats elected by the AFL-CIO or Change to Win has uttered a peep of protest.
In fact, Michigan's labor endorsed, labor supported, and labor financed Governor, Jennifer Granholm, recently negotiated another one of these despicable "Compacts" with the Gun Lake Band outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan which will employ another 1,800 workers in another smoke-filled casino at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws. And, the Michigan Legislature, fully endorsed by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win is considering approving this "Compact." Worse yet, the Michigan AFL-CIO and Change to Win have remained silent... so, their candidates take their lead.
These so-called labor "leaders" who can't develop winning struggles at the negotiating table can't develop winning strategies at the polls... at least not to the benefit of working people.
The war in Iraq is a related matter... organized labor could take the lead from some of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals and shut this country right down until the war is brought to an end... but, here again, who has voted to continue funding this dirty war for oil and regional domination in Iraq? You got it... labor endorsed candidates which both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win worked together on to put in office. And labor backed Hillary Clinton has given Bush the go ahead to start another war with Iran.
What we need is a labor movement which understands "class."
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
"Working together" (AFL-CIO & Change to Win) on the local level in politics might have created some victories for individual Democratic Candidates; however, even if the U.S. House and Senate was filled completely with such worthless candidates working people wouldn't win anything.
Here in Minnesota, a State Senate Legislative Committee, comprised by a majority of Democrats, all elected with the full support of both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win couldn't even muster enough votes to get a piece of legislation out of committee that would have helped save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant along with two-thousand jobs.
The Republicans took one of the Democrats out for drinks and never stayed for the vote they were so confident these Democrats would do their dirty work for them.
On the Iron Range a new cancer cluster has been detected among iron ore miners in the taconite industry. What did the Democrats, all endorsed, supported, and financed by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win propose? Single-payer, universal health care which was endorsed by 72% of the delegates to the last state convention of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer Labor Party? No; these Democrats called for another "study"... just what working people and their families need when they are facing foreclosures on their homes to pay for mounting medical bills.
Over two-million American workers are employed in some 400 smoke-filled casinos strung out across the United States... all receiving poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws; subjected to the most Draconian working conditions at the hands of mobsters who "manage" these so-called "Indian owned" casinos under special "Compacts." Not one of these Democrats elected by the AFL-CIO or Change to Win has uttered a peep of protest.
In fact, Michigan's labor endorsed, labor supported, and labor financed Governor, Jennifer Granholm, recently negotiated another one of these despicable "Compacts" with the Gun Lake Band outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan which will employ another 1,800 workers in another smoke-filled casino at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws. And, the Michigan Legislature, fully endorsed by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win is considering approving this "Compact." Worse yet, the Michigan AFL-CIO and Change to Win have remained silent... so, their candidates take their lead.
These so-called labor "leaders" who can't develop winning struggles at the negotiating table can't develop winning strategies at the polls... at least not to the benefit of working people.
The war in Iraq is a related matter... organized labor could take the lead from some of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals and shut this country right down until the war is brought to an end... but, here again, who has voted to continue funding this dirty war for oil and regional domination in Iraq? You got it... labor endorsed candidates which both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win worked together on to put in office. And labor backed Hillary Clinton has given Bush the go ahead to start another war with Iran.
What we need is a labor movement which understands "class."
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Controversy swirls around SEIU... class struggle... a rank and file workers' viewpoint
The Service Employees International Union, SEIU, is both one of the largest and most controversial US trade unions. Its growing numbers go counter to the wider trend of declining membership and concentration of union members while its leadership, spearheaded by Pres. Andy Stern, carries out what they call a ‘win-win’ strategy relying on cooperation with corporate management.
This spring, opposition within the SEIU forced the national leadership to abandon one such agreement with the northern California nursing home operators on May 31st. This article seeks to examine that agreement and the push against it. Hopefully, there are useful lessons for us who face the ‘bottom line’ pressure of Corporate America on our jobs and in our lives outside work. Currently, working people in the US are moving down the slippery slope: for example, most US workers have less income now than 5 years ago, fewer have health care, pensions, etc. The goal here is to examine this internal SEIU conflict with an eye towards squeezing out some useful lessons - both in the fight for day-to-day improvements and longer-term for those who believe in the possibility of replacing the current capitalist system.
Ending the agreement, while good, doesn’t point any way forward either for the overworked nursing home workers, the retired workers living there with too little help, or those of us who face corporate ‘bottom line’ pressures. For those of us living under similar union collaboration, there re useful lessons:
For one, this SEIU internal fight illustrates how different interests of different sections of the union hierarchy drove this fight even while both sides share a common practice of collaboration. It shows how the SEIU’s so-called ‘win-win’ strategy hurt both the workers there and the wider, working class public who lives in these nursing homes. The conditions show the common needs of the nursing home workers and the patients; this is the ground for workers to plant class solidarity, not in books alone. It also illuminates the need for workers to have organizations not dependent on the feuding factions of the unions’ management structures; we need organizations founded on our common interests as part of the working class, worldwide, faced with today’s cutthroat global capitalism. To stand up to management, it’s inadequate and a dead end to simply back the ‘lesser of 2 evils’. To create our own networks and organizations and learn more on how to fight, we need a careful examination of such struggles.
The initial Union-corporate agreement lasted 4-1/2 years of its 7-year package before the national SEIU leadership was forced to end it as of May 31, 2007. The initial agreement was a tradeoff: the union agreed not to publicize or oppose any unhealthy or harmful practices, such as short staffing, to state regulators or the media, except those already mandated by law. The SEIU in CA even opposed legislation that would have forced healthcare owners to improve patient care and safety. To start the ball rolling, the union led the successful fight for higher state payments to the operators.
In exchange for all this and more, the owners/operators agreed to allow employees to join the union without opposition. These new union members, some 3,000+, were then covered by ‘template agreements’, put into the master agreement and not negotiated by the workers themselves or their chosen representatives. These template agreements gave up the right to strike as well as the right to campaign against mistreatment of the workers and the patients.
According to an internal analysis done after 4 years under this ‘win-win’ agreement by the regional SEIU branch, United Healthcare Workers – West (UHW), these deals “allowed for very little power on the shop floor with no right to strike and no clear path towards full collective bargaining rights.” (This quote and much of the information regarding the partnership and the reform effort come from “Internal Pressure Ends ‘Sweetheart’ Contract Early” by Mark Brenner-http://labornotes.org/node/989)
This agreement with the northern CA nursing home owners was also important since it also served as a template for the wider international union strategy espoused by the SEIU’s Stern but also by most national US unions- partnership with the employers. This trend is to ‘grow the union’ by such agreements while creating huge, so-called locals as big as 100,000 members. Internally, the SEIU is moving towards the corporate mirror image, internally as well in its main relationship with corporate management.
The SEIU may be the most ‘advanced’ example, but it is not alone in its practice of selling out the workers’ need for actual power in exchange for ‘peaceful relations’ with management. In fact, this has been the dominant, if contested, practice in US unions at least since the victory of the Cold War anti- communism of the late 1940s. That victory was sealed at the 1949 CIO convention when those who believed in working class unity against the demands and priorities of capitalism (sometimes referred to as class-struggle unionism) were excluded from union positions and whole unions from the CIO itself. It was consummated when the CIO rejoined the AFL back in ’55. Today, Andy Stern is the most outspoken union leader espousing this ‘win-win’ collaboration (combined with judicious pressure). Thus, this agreement, its effects, and its demise have relevance greater than its impact upon those workers directly.
The UHW elected leadership and their staff members began a campaign to change or scrap the operating agreement several months before the national leadership gave in and dropped it. The UHW leaders made a study of the agreement, mentioned earlier, and sent out a letter to all members which said, in part, “ Some in the national SEIU are negotiating an agreement with nursing home employers-in California and nationally- and have repeatedly excluded UHW nursing home members and elected representatives from the process.”
Of course, the newly organized members had always been excluded, from the first day of the agreement. They had lived under this preset agreement from day one, so, what was new? Why did the local leadership only organize opposition after over 4 years? After all, this deal had excluded the workers themselves from negotiating their ‘template’ agreements which gave up the right to strike and the right to campaign for their own and patients’ safety. Why did this fight start then? “Why Now?” is always a timely question.
One reason appears to have been the growing exclusion of UHW leaders from negotiating the follow-up agreements. This is part of the SEIU’s super-centralization whereby most ‘local’ unions are organized in ‘efficient’ organizations of up to 200.000, often encompassing entire states or even geographical regions. As with all big organizations, this super-centralization minimizes the ability of local work groups to impact their own ‘local’ union. As with organizing against national and international employers, this shows the necessity of workers putting forth the time and effort to create wider networks and organizations.
Beyond being pushed aside in negotiations, the UHW leaders had more at stake than is visible. In fact, there is a looming reorganization fight within SEIU over who will control new, huge, healthcare ‘locals’ on the West coast andelsewhere. For them, showing their muscle by energizing the membership was merely a tactic to strengthen their hand in these fights. Still, to do that, they had to begin informing and mobilizing members, with stewards circulating petitions which 20,000 signed within a few weeks. The workers’ quick response shows the widespread dissatisfaction which the ‘win-win’ collaboration has generated. Thus, they demonstrated the potential for a real fight, one which this and similar leaderships will not make and which they actually and actively oppose.
Instead of developing the natural affinity and common interests over working and health conditions, SEIU’s agreement – written and implemented by the entire SEIU leadership here- actually pit the healthcare workers and the union against the patients and their families. It forbids any public campaign for better worker-patient ratios, for example. This illustrates perfectly the contrast between class collaboration and class- struggle unionism. This development also shows how the different and competing interests within the union structures can and did lead to greater worker involvement. Breaking the agreement also shows the workers there and elsewhere the potential of organized campaigns forcing needed changes within the union.
Once the UHW leaders did initiate open and internal struggle against the agreements and the negotiations that froze them out, over 20,000 UHW members signed the petition within a few weeks. This response shows some potential for a real fight. As a shop steward Brenner talked with put it, “We’ve signed up over half the members where I work. What really got people upset was this idea that guys in suits, sitting in Washington, D, C,, will bargain our contracts. These are people who have never worked in a hospital and who don’t know anything about our jobs. Then, to top it off, we won’t even have a right to vote on the contract they negotiate.”
The UHW workers outside the healthcare agreements opposed the SEIU’s extending that template contract onto them. They showed no trust in the national leadership to ‘look out for them’. Quite the contrary. These developments testify to the lie that workers are passive and trust their leadership. It shows the potential for a powerful working class fight, but only if an alternative develops to challenge the strategy of ‘win-win’ collaboration with class solidarity unionism.
In other words, when the SEIU leadership froze out the local leaders from negotiations and threatened to set up competing huge superlocals outside their control, those leaders took the initiative to fight, for their own reasons. When it was ‘just’ the workers who were frozen out, these same UHW leaders did nothing. The local leaders had their own reasons for fighting; that fight then illuminated the level of discontent of most members. It opened the door to workers’ organizing and talking amongst themselves over what this would mean. It created an opening which will need to go beyond this limited resistance if they’re to realize the potential for expanding their own networks not dependent upon the initiatives of the local leaders.
I don’t write this to denigrate those UHW leaders. Far from it: in fact, they undertook a fight, which could have put them out of a job. The SEIU, like most national unions, including my own, AFSCME, has constitutional, vague provisions allowing the national leaders to place local unions under trusteeship, wherein the national leaders take over the local and appoint officers who make decisions for the local. The fact that the UHW-W leaders started this internal fight shows how threatened they (and others in such positions) must have felt by this totally centralized, corporatized setup pushed by Stern and his allies.
You might recall the original “Justice for Janitors” campaign in Los Angeles back in the early ‘90s. There was even a movie based upon it. The national SEIU paid local activists to organize mostly Central American and Mexican immigrant communities for militant confrontations and mass marches in solidarity with the union organizing drive for downtown janitors. After the workers and SEIU forced the corporate employers to sign a decent contract, the militant activists formed a slate and won local union election. To show that they didn’t mean to threaten the union establishment, this solidarity slate chose not to run a candidate for president. The SEIU leadership responded quickly; they took over that local, dissolved it into a statewide SEIU ‘local’ and bought off one or two of the original local leaders. Who were the chief SEIU officers at he time? John Sweeney, current AFL-CIO president, was then the SEIU president while Andy Stern was his loyal VP. It took courage and shrewd judgement for those UHW leaders to make this fight; make no mistake. But it’s also important not to lionize them and their initiative.
In fact, like most unions committed to such ‘junior partnerships’, the UHW-W has consistently promoted corporate interests over workers’ for many years. A recent article by Charles Andrews, “Who’s Right about Kaiser—Michael Moore or SEIU?” gives us several examples and insights based on their, SEIU’s, junior partnership with Kaiser Permanente. (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/andrews050907.html)
While Moore’s recent movie SiCKO refers to Kaiser as an example of profiteering health exploiters. It ran tape where Nixon approves the Kaiser practice of using healthcare premiums as their money, essentially for profits and not to provide healthcare. In fact, Kaiser was the poster child for the HMO Act of 1973. As Andrews puts it, “ Erlichman assured Nixon that the incentives at Kaiser run toward less medical are. The less care provided to members paying a flat premium, the more money Kaiser makes.”
A document supplied by Kaiser, responding to SiCKO, was a Feb. 6, 1971 letter from chairman Edgar Kaiser to Erlichman in which “ Mr. Kaiser explained that Kaiser physicians, organized as the Permanente Group, receive both a salary and a share in any surplus left over from the contractual payments by the Kaiser Heath Plan to the Permanente Group.” According to Andrews, “The incentive is to minimize the number of physicians in ratio to Kaiser members.” In other words, these doctors got a piece of the pie in exchange for short-changing patients, for increasing the ration of patients to doctors.
That’s not all. According to Andrews’ report, UHW-W actively helped Kaiser Permanente train and “… award bonuses to call-center clerks who spent the least amount of time on the phone with each patient and limited the number of doctors’ appointments.” ( Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2002) As Andrews puts it, “UHW-W officials served as straw bosses, working with Kaiser bosses urging clerks to get with the program.” This gives workers a small payoff for helping management screw over and exploit everyone else. This is poison to the solidarity of workers with those we impact or serve. It pits some against all. That’s what this ‘win-win’ junior partnership means, in daily life.
How did the UHW-W leaders respond to Moore’s charges and Kaiser’s defense? Andrews puts it this way: “UHW-W attacked Michael Moore for ‘smearing the reputation of one of our nation’s most progressive, reform-minded, pro-worker health-care organizations: American’s premier not-for-profit, pre-paid, integrated health-care delivery system, Kaiser Permanente.’ ”
Is this just a war of words or part of a war against the working class, playing divide and rule with payoffs for those who collaborate and hard time for those who don’t?
From what I can see, they only stepped up after the national leadership was freezing them out and marking them as expendable. The UHW-W leadership’s letter and petition was coupled with an intense internal SEIU fight. It apparently caused the end of the northern CA agreement within days of the petition. That internal union fight is not over, altho this particular battle is. One thing is clear: contradictions exist between the national leadership and local leaders. The strategy to centralize everything has and will create more such. So far, this internal fight appears to be between two wings that essentially agree on the overall jr. partnership relationship with capitalist management and priorities.
Brenner illustrates this with the case of Jerome Brown, former president of SEIU’s massive 1199 New England health care regional union. According to Brenner, Brown exemplifies a dissenting voice within the national SEIU, one who recognizes that “only after a period of open conflict can ‘strong unions and engaged members enter into mature, cooperative relationships’ with their employers.” In other words, Brown is all for these ‘cooperative relationships’, but only after establishing and then taming an ‘engaged’ membership. Same goals, different tactics. Still, here’s yet another example of contradictions within the same structures, more conflicts that can and do open more doors to similar developments. You can see the contradictions when Brown wrote, in a review of Andy Stern’s latest book, “A Country That Works” (which I plan to review here soon),
“We have to ask ourselves if these methods (referring to practices like the northern CA nursing home agreement) can produce a real, democratic workers’ organization or if it is more likely that they will produce a ‘membership’ that sees itself, correctly, as a third party in a relationship with union brokers and employers—the very antithesis of true rank-and-file unionism.” We might also ask, “how does pursing ‘mature’ collaboration of once-militant unions help workers? Should we take a close look at how this has played out in the airlines, in steel, or in auto where pay, conditions, pensions and healthcare are all being sacrificed on the same alter?
Still, that process of inner-union conflicts opens the door to a deeper development- one where the active workers can break free to pursue their own interests as workers, unlimited by what’s acceptable to various layers of union officials who are ‘on board’ for the collaboration strategy embodied by Andy Stern and the current SEIU national leadership.
For the recently- activated northern CA healthcare workers in UHW, this means more a chance to develop local and regional networks and groups to discuss and possibly fight for their own working conditions. This then means they can take up the direct and public fight for better healthcare conditions for the patients and through them with the wider working class. This would no longer depend upon the local leaders, altho it doesn’t have to be against them where they’re willing to support and help lead such a fight. The parallel with education and other public sector workers seems clear: we are the largest unionized sector of the workforce. Our working conditions are usually other people’s care or ‘service’. For teachers, our working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
And that can encourage those who are also discontented with their/our own union leaders, most of whom practice the same ‘win-win’ partnership as the SEIU, even if not always taken to Stern’s extreme. Clearly, the growing pressures of corporate capitalism are tilling and preparing the ground for resistance. The question then is, “What kind of resistance?” We can sit back and feel good about this victory in CA, or we can take heart and use it to build on, towards a working class movement that organizes around our common good and living links, rejecting the ‘win-win’ collaboration strategy which is really a ‘lose-lose’ for us. In my experience, those who reject capitalist priorities and work for a different society have special contributions to make.
To fight effectively, the internal opponents, like in UHW-W, must sometimes mobilize and try to steer the workers affected. This opens the door to workers to fight for things like good staffing, providing quality healthcare, defending pensions, et.al. To fight within such a context, it is necessary to reject the ideas that guide collaboration and have ideas and goals- like providing quality health care for all by building worker-patient or teacher-student-family unity. Ideas and strategy/tactics, which make sense and can inspire others to stand up and face attacks. Since most unions oppose this outlook, in daily life, we must develop organizations working towards working class solidarity, of one-for-all-and-all-for-one, and against this dog-eat-dog, illustrated by even the ‘reform’ leaders of UHW-W in this case.
The deepest expression of and the goal of creating solidarity requires overturning the capitalist system and creating a socialism that Marx saw as inherent in our struggle with the domination of capital. He saw and worked for a world free of class or other forms of oppression. For those of us who’re either convinced of Marx’s analysis or just engaging his ideas, this successful fight inside the SEIU points towards the living class struggle as the organic, natural grounds for developing class awareness, independent organization, and greater understanding of how the system works and how we can all ‘work it’ for our common good and future.
Earl Silbar is a lifelong socialist activist who has been a Teamster, a member of Laborer’s International, the IBEW, part of an in-plant IAM organizing committee, and a founding member, activist and citywide elected officer, delegate to state and national AFSCME conventions, Local 3506 delegate to the Chicago Fed. of Labor, and as chief steward of AFSCME 3506. He recently retired after teaching GED for 27 years in Chicago’s City Colleges. Red1pearl@aol.com
This spring, opposition within the SEIU forced the national leadership to abandon one such agreement with the northern California nursing home operators on May 31st. This article seeks to examine that agreement and the push against it. Hopefully, there are useful lessons for us who face the ‘bottom line’ pressure of Corporate America on our jobs and in our lives outside work. Currently, working people in the US are moving down the slippery slope: for example, most US workers have less income now than 5 years ago, fewer have health care, pensions, etc. The goal here is to examine this internal SEIU conflict with an eye towards squeezing out some useful lessons - both in the fight for day-to-day improvements and longer-term for those who believe in the possibility of replacing the current capitalist system.
Ending the agreement, while good, doesn’t point any way forward either for the overworked nursing home workers, the retired workers living there with too little help, or those of us who face corporate ‘bottom line’ pressures. For those of us living under similar union collaboration, there re useful lessons:
For one, this SEIU internal fight illustrates how different interests of different sections of the union hierarchy drove this fight even while both sides share a common practice of collaboration. It shows how the SEIU’s so-called ‘win-win’ strategy hurt both the workers there and the wider, working class public who lives in these nursing homes. The conditions show the common needs of the nursing home workers and the patients; this is the ground for workers to plant class solidarity, not in books alone. It also illuminates the need for workers to have organizations not dependent on the feuding factions of the unions’ management structures; we need organizations founded on our common interests as part of the working class, worldwide, faced with today’s cutthroat global capitalism. To stand up to management, it’s inadequate and a dead end to simply back the ‘lesser of 2 evils’. To create our own networks and organizations and learn more on how to fight, we need a careful examination of such struggles.
The initial Union-corporate agreement lasted 4-1/2 years of its 7-year package before the national SEIU leadership was forced to end it as of May 31, 2007. The initial agreement was a tradeoff: the union agreed not to publicize or oppose any unhealthy or harmful practices, such as short staffing, to state regulators or the media, except those already mandated by law. The SEIU in CA even opposed legislation that would have forced healthcare owners to improve patient care and safety. To start the ball rolling, the union led the successful fight for higher state payments to the operators.
In exchange for all this and more, the owners/operators agreed to allow employees to join the union without opposition. These new union members, some 3,000+, were then covered by ‘template agreements’, put into the master agreement and not negotiated by the workers themselves or their chosen representatives. These template agreements gave up the right to strike as well as the right to campaign against mistreatment of the workers and the patients.
According to an internal analysis done after 4 years under this ‘win-win’ agreement by the regional SEIU branch, United Healthcare Workers – West (UHW), these deals “allowed for very little power on the shop floor with no right to strike and no clear path towards full collective bargaining rights.” (This quote and much of the information regarding the partnership and the reform effort come from “Internal Pressure Ends ‘Sweetheart’ Contract Early” by Mark Brenner-http://labornotes.org/node/989)
This agreement with the northern CA nursing home owners was also important since it also served as a template for the wider international union strategy espoused by the SEIU’s Stern but also by most national US unions- partnership with the employers. This trend is to ‘grow the union’ by such agreements while creating huge, so-called locals as big as 100,000 members. Internally, the SEIU is moving towards the corporate mirror image, internally as well in its main relationship with corporate management.
The SEIU may be the most ‘advanced’ example, but it is not alone in its practice of selling out the workers’ need for actual power in exchange for ‘peaceful relations’ with management. In fact, this has been the dominant, if contested, practice in US unions at least since the victory of the Cold War anti- communism of the late 1940s. That victory was sealed at the 1949 CIO convention when those who believed in working class unity against the demands and priorities of capitalism (sometimes referred to as class-struggle unionism) were excluded from union positions and whole unions from the CIO itself. It was consummated when the CIO rejoined the AFL back in ’55. Today, Andy Stern is the most outspoken union leader espousing this ‘win-win’ collaboration (combined with judicious pressure). Thus, this agreement, its effects, and its demise have relevance greater than its impact upon those workers directly.
The UHW elected leadership and their staff members began a campaign to change or scrap the operating agreement several months before the national leadership gave in and dropped it. The UHW leaders made a study of the agreement, mentioned earlier, and sent out a letter to all members which said, in part, “ Some in the national SEIU are negotiating an agreement with nursing home employers-in California and nationally- and have repeatedly excluded UHW nursing home members and elected representatives from the process.”
Of course, the newly organized members had always been excluded, from the first day of the agreement. They had lived under this preset agreement from day one, so, what was new? Why did the local leadership only organize opposition after over 4 years? After all, this deal had excluded the workers themselves from negotiating their ‘template’ agreements which gave up the right to strike and the right to campaign for their own and patients’ safety. Why did this fight start then? “Why Now?” is always a timely question.
One reason appears to have been the growing exclusion of UHW leaders from negotiating the follow-up agreements. This is part of the SEIU’s super-centralization whereby most ‘local’ unions are organized in ‘efficient’ organizations of up to 200.000, often encompassing entire states or even geographical regions. As with all big organizations, this super-centralization minimizes the ability of local work groups to impact their own ‘local’ union. As with organizing against national and international employers, this shows the necessity of workers putting forth the time and effort to create wider networks and organizations.
Beyond being pushed aside in negotiations, the UHW leaders had more at stake than is visible. In fact, there is a looming reorganization fight within SEIU over who will control new, huge, healthcare ‘locals’ on the West coast andelsewhere. For them, showing their muscle by energizing the membership was merely a tactic to strengthen their hand in these fights. Still, to do that, they had to begin informing and mobilizing members, with stewards circulating petitions which 20,000 signed within a few weeks. The workers’ quick response shows the widespread dissatisfaction which the ‘win-win’ collaboration has generated. Thus, they demonstrated the potential for a real fight, one which this and similar leaderships will not make and which they actually and actively oppose.
Instead of developing the natural affinity and common interests over working and health conditions, SEIU’s agreement – written and implemented by the entire SEIU leadership here- actually pit the healthcare workers and the union against the patients and their families. It forbids any public campaign for better worker-patient ratios, for example. This illustrates perfectly the contrast between class collaboration and class- struggle unionism. This development also shows how the different and competing interests within the union structures can and did lead to greater worker involvement. Breaking the agreement also shows the workers there and elsewhere the potential of organized campaigns forcing needed changes within the union.
Once the UHW leaders did initiate open and internal struggle against the agreements and the negotiations that froze them out, over 20,000 UHW members signed the petition within a few weeks. This response shows some potential for a real fight. As a shop steward Brenner talked with put it, “We’ve signed up over half the members where I work. What really got people upset was this idea that guys in suits, sitting in Washington, D, C,, will bargain our contracts. These are people who have never worked in a hospital and who don’t know anything about our jobs. Then, to top it off, we won’t even have a right to vote on the contract they negotiate.”
The UHW workers outside the healthcare agreements opposed the SEIU’s extending that template contract onto them. They showed no trust in the national leadership to ‘look out for them’. Quite the contrary. These developments testify to the lie that workers are passive and trust their leadership. It shows the potential for a powerful working class fight, but only if an alternative develops to challenge the strategy of ‘win-win’ collaboration with class solidarity unionism.
In other words, when the SEIU leadership froze out the local leaders from negotiations and threatened to set up competing huge superlocals outside their control, those leaders took the initiative to fight, for their own reasons. When it was ‘just’ the workers who were frozen out, these same UHW leaders did nothing. The local leaders had their own reasons for fighting; that fight then illuminated the level of discontent of most members. It opened the door to workers’ organizing and talking amongst themselves over what this would mean. It created an opening which will need to go beyond this limited resistance if they’re to realize the potential for expanding their own networks not dependent upon the initiatives of the local leaders.
I don’t write this to denigrate those UHW leaders. Far from it: in fact, they undertook a fight, which could have put them out of a job. The SEIU, like most national unions, including my own, AFSCME, has constitutional, vague provisions allowing the national leaders to place local unions under trusteeship, wherein the national leaders take over the local and appoint officers who make decisions for the local. The fact that the UHW-W leaders started this internal fight shows how threatened they (and others in such positions) must have felt by this totally centralized, corporatized setup pushed by Stern and his allies.
You might recall the original “Justice for Janitors” campaign in Los Angeles back in the early ‘90s. There was even a movie based upon it. The national SEIU paid local activists to organize mostly Central American and Mexican immigrant communities for militant confrontations and mass marches in solidarity with the union organizing drive for downtown janitors. After the workers and SEIU forced the corporate employers to sign a decent contract, the militant activists formed a slate and won local union election. To show that they didn’t mean to threaten the union establishment, this solidarity slate chose not to run a candidate for president. The SEIU leadership responded quickly; they took over that local, dissolved it into a statewide SEIU ‘local’ and bought off one or two of the original local leaders. Who were the chief SEIU officers at he time? John Sweeney, current AFL-CIO president, was then the SEIU president while Andy Stern was his loyal VP. It took courage and shrewd judgement for those UHW leaders to make this fight; make no mistake. But it’s also important not to lionize them and their initiative.
In fact, like most unions committed to such ‘junior partnerships’, the UHW-W has consistently promoted corporate interests over workers’ for many years. A recent article by Charles Andrews, “Who’s Right about Kaiser—Michael Moore or SEIU?” gives us several examples and insights based on their, SEIU’s, junior partnership with Kaiser Permanente. (http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/andrews050907.html)
While Moore’s recent movie SiCKO refers to Kaiser as an example of profiteering health exploiters. It ran tape where Nixon approves the Kaiser practice of using healthcare premiums as their money, essentially for profits and not to provide healthcare. In fact, Kaiser was the poster child for the HMO Act of 1973. As Andrews puts it, “ Erlichman assured Nixon that the incentives at Kaiser run toward less medical are. The less care provided to members paying a flat premium, the more money Kaiser makes.”
A document supplied by Kaiser, responding to SiCKO, was a Feb. 6, 1971 letter from chairman Edgar Kaiser to Erlichman in which “ Mr. Kaiser explained that Kaiser physicians, organized as the Permanente Group, receive both a salary and a share in any surplus left over from the contractual payments by the Kaiser Heath Plan to the Permanente Group.” According to Andrews, “The incentive is to minimize the number of physicians in ratio to Kaiser members.” In other words, these doctors got a piece of the pie in exchange for short-changing patients, for increasing the ration of patients to doctors.
That’s not all. According to Andrews’ report, UHW-W actively helped Kaiser Permanente train and “… award bonuses to call-center clerks who spent the least amount of time on the phone with each patient and limited the number of doctors’ appointments.” ( Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2002) As Andrews puts it, “UHW-W officials served as straw bosses, working with Kaiser bosses urging clerks to get with the program.” This gives workers a small payoff for helping management screw over and exploit everyone else. This is poison to the solidarity of workers with those we impact or serve. It pits some against all. That’s what this ‘win-win’ junior partnership means, in daily life.
How did the UHW-W leaders respond to Moore’s charges and Kaiser’s defense? Andrews puts it this way: “UHW-W attacked Michael Moore for ‘smearing the reputation of one of our nation’s most progressive, reform-minded, pro-worker health-care organizations: American’s premier not-for-profit, pre-paid, integrated health-care delivery system, Kaiser Permanente.’ ”
Is this just a war of words or part of a war against the working class, playing divide and rule with payoffs for those who collaborate and hard time for those who don’t?
From what I can see, they only stepped up after the national leadership was freezing them out and marking them as expendable. The UHW-W leadership’s letter and petition was coupled with an intense internal SEIU fight. It apparently caused the end of the northern CA agreement within days of the petition. That internal union fight is not over, altho this particular battle is. One thing is clear: contradictions exist between the national leadership and local leaders. The strategy to centralize everything has and will create more such. So far, this internal fight appears to be between two wings that essentially agree on the overall jr. partnership relationship with capitalist management and priorities.
Brenner illustrates this with the case of Jerome Brown, former president of SEIU’s massive 1199 New England health care regional union. According to Brenner, Brown exemplifies a dissenting voice within the national SEIU, one who recognizes that “only after a period of open conflict can ‘strong unions and engaged members enter into mature, cooperative relationships’ with their employers.” In other words, Brown is all for these ‘cooperative relationships’, but only after establishing and then taming an ‘engaged’ membership. Same goals, different tactics. Still, here’s yet another example of contradictions within the same structures, more conflicts that can and do open more doors to similar developments. You can see the contradictions when Brown wrote, in a review of Andy Stern’s latest book, “A Country That Works” (which I plan to review here soon),
“We have to ask ourselves if these methods (referring to practices like the northern CA nursing home agreement) can produce a real, democratic workers’ organization or if it is more likely that they will produce a ‘membership’ that sees itself, correctly, as a third party in a relationship with union brokers and employers—the very antithesis of true rank-and-file unionism.” We might also ask, “how does pursing ‘mature’ collaboration of once-militant unions help workers? Should we take a close look at how this has played out in the airlines, in steel, or in auto where pay, conditions, pensions and healthcare are all being sacrificed on the same alter?
Still, that process of inner-union conflicts opens the door to a deeper development- one where the active workers can break free to pursue their own interests as workers, unlimited by what’s acceptable to various layers of union officials who are ‘on board’ for the collaboration strategy embodied by Andy Stern and the current SEIU national leadership.
For the recently- activated northern CA healthcare workers in UHW, this means more a chance to develop local and regional networks and groups to discuss and possibly fight for their own working conditions. This then means they can take up the direct and public fight for better healthcare conditions for the patients and through them with the wider working class. This would no longer depend upon the local leaders, altho it doesn’t have to be against them where they’re willing to support and help lead such a fight. The parallel with education and other public sector workers seems clear: we are the largest unionized sector of the workforce. Our working conditions are usually other people’s care or ‘service’. For teachers, our working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
And that can encourage those who are also discontented with their/our own union leaders, most of whom practice the same ‘win-win’ partnership as the SEIU, even if not always taken to Stern’s extreme. Clearly, the growing pressures of corporate capitalism are tilling and preparing the ground for resistance. The question then is, “What kind of resistance?” We can sit back and feel good about this victory in CA, or we can take heart and use it to build on, towards a working class movement that organizes around our common good and living links, rejecting the ‘win-win’ collaboration strategy which is really a ‘lose-lose’ for us. In my experience, those who reject capitalist priorities and work for a different society have special contributions to make.
To fight effectively, the internal opponents, like in UHW-W, must sometimes mobilize and try to steer the workers affected. This opens the door to workers to fight for things like good staffing, providing quality healthcare, defending pensions, et.al. To fight within such a context, it is necessary to reject the ideas that guide collaboration and have ideas and goals- like providing quality health care for all by building worker-patient or teacher-student-family unity. Ideas and strategy/tactics, which make sense and can inspire others to stand up and face attacks. Since most unions oppose this outlook, in daily life, we must develop organizations working towards working class solidarity, of one-for-all-and-all-for-one, and against this dog-eat-dog, illustrated by even the ‘reform’ leaders of UHW-W in this case.
The deepest expression of and the goal of creating solidarity requires overturning the capitalist system and creating a socialism that Marx saw as inherent in our struggle with the domination of capital. He saw and worked for a world free of class or other forms of oppression. For those of us who’re either convinced of Marx’s analysis or just engaging his ideas, this successful fight inside the SEIU points towards the living class struggle as the organic, natural grounds for developing class awareness, independent organization, and greater understanding of how the system works and how we can all ‘work it’ for our common good and future.
Earl Silbar is a lifelong socialist activist who has been a Teamster, a member of Laborer’s International, the IBEW, part of an in-plant IAM organizing committee, and a founding member, activist and citywide elected officer, delegate to state and national AFSCME conventions, Local 3506 delegate to the Chicago Fed. of Labor, and as chief steward of AFSCME 3506. He recently retired after teaching GED for 27 years in Chicago’s City Colleges. Red1pearl@aol.com
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