[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 12.01.11‏‏-I‏II

Fri Dec 2 08:12:19 UTC 2011

Cash-Strapped Cities Want Workers to Contribute More to Pensions‏
Kazakhstan oil workers’ strike: International solidarity urgently needed!‏
As Public Sector Sheds Jobs, Blacks Are Hit Hardest

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Cash-Strapped Cities Want Workers to Contribute More to
Pensions
By Catherine Saillant
Los Angeles Times
latimes.com
November 27, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-city-pensions-20111128,0,1938506.story

It's business as usual at Santa Ana City Hall as
residents trickle up to the counter to pay business
fees, pick up a dog license or, in a newer wing next
door, apply for a free solar permit.

But on the top floor of the eight-story concrete
fortress, city officials in Orange County's most
labor-friendly city are doing the once unthinkable:
demanding big benefit concessions from their employee
unions.

Getting a handle on pension costs in the county's
largest city is a must, officials here say. Santa Ana
is facing a $30-million deficit, has only $300,000 in
reserves and is jettisoning jobs by the dozens to keep
its head above water. Last year, the city paid out
about $11.3 million for employee pension costs.

Now the city and scores of others around the state are
getting a potential assist from Gov. Jerry Brown, who
is calling for sweeping reforms in public-employee
pensions. Santa Ana is among the cities that would see
the most significant cost reductions if workers were
required to pick up more of their retirement costs.

A Times analysis based on 2009 payrolls shows that
cities and counties in California would save an
estimated $1.3 billion if local government workers
statewide paid what the governor's office determines to
be the normal employee share of pension contributions.
Brown says workers should be contributing about 8% of
their paychecks to their own retirement. Police and
firefighters, who have more generous pensions, should
pay about 9%, Brown says.

In Santa Ana, a densely packed city of 320,000 where
nearly one-fifth of the residents live at the poverty
line, there would be an immediate annual savings of
$4.5 million if workers paid their normal share,
officials said. Santa Ana was already negotiating to
get employees to pay more of their pension costs when
Brown made his proposal, said Paul Walters, the city's
longtime police chief who is filling in as city
manager.

"Anything that helps that along is good for us,
definitely," Walters said. "Every little bit helps."

Newport Beach, Fullerton, Santa Monica and Long Beach
are taking a similar hard-line approach to gain
concessions on retirement costs. Like Santa Ana, all
have been generous in picking up pension costs in the
past.

In Los Angeles, city and county employees are already
required to contribute nearly all of the normal
employee portion. But under Brown's plan, they could be
required to kick in more.

The governor's reform package is one of several
circulating the state. Democrats, backed by unions, are
expected to unveil a legislative response to the
governor's 12-point plan early next year. Advocates of
even tougher measures, meanwhile, are building support
for a voter initiative that would require workers to
pick up the full normal employee share and pay for any
pension debts caused by lower-than-expected investment
earnings.

(For the entire article, go to latimes.com/news/local/la-me-city-pensions-20111128,0,1938506.story)

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http://www.marxist.com/kazakhstan-oil-workers-strike-solidarity-needed.htm
Kazakhstan oil workers’ strike: International solidarity urgently needed! 
Written by New Socialists of Kazakhstan Tuesday, 29 November 2011 

We have just received this letter from Kazakhstan, which contains an important appeal on behalf of workers who have been in struggle under very difficult conditions for the last seven months. The Western media, which is very quick to denounce authoritarian regimes in Libya and Syria, has maintaned a shameful silence concerning the situation in this oil rich country. We appeal to the world working class to express solidarity with the workers of Kazakhstan who are fighting for their rights.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the profile of Kazakhstan was raised as one of the biggest world states, rich in oil and other resources with a big industrial potential.
Kazakhstan became independent and the former party bureaucracy led by Kazakhstan’s President for Life Nursultan Nazarbarv came to power. They drastically changed the previous Soviet policy of building socialism and went over to capitalism.
This was a real tragedy for the people. In the first years of independence they began a programme of mass privatization of strategic industries. Millions of workers lost their jobs, millions emigrated to other countries. Factories, workshops and gas and oil reserves were sold to multinational companies that manipulated corrupt local government officials, exploited the working class and destroyed the Kazakhstan economy.
High oil prices on world markets and high unemployment paralyzed the workers' protest movement. Part of the oil profits were destined to the state budget but also to the corrupt Nazarbaev clan. The rest of the money was used to subsidize the bureaucracy and to build a repressive machine that transformed Kazakhstan into an authoritarian dictatorship.
Nazarbaev also sponsored the establishment of a powerful lobby in Europe and the USA. It helped to present Kazakhstan as a prosperous and stable country, especially in contrast with neighbouring Afghanistan. The “democratic” West has established close ties with the one party system, which carries out repression against the free trade unions that have been replaced by “yellow” unions, collaborating with the bosses against the workers.
In May 2011 workers in big companies such as “Karazanbasmunay” and “Industrial filial “Ozenmunaigaz” based in the city of Zanaozen in Western Kazakhstan finally lost their patience and rose up against the bosses who had forced them to work in inhuman condition with low wages.  The oil-workers declared a hunger strike and soon workers from other companies in the region jointed them.
Hundreds of workers courageously started to go on strike. The bosses refused to negotiate with the workers and from the beginning pronounced the strike illegal. Demands to change the social conditions of the workers and raise wages were described as “unjustified”.
The workers’ leaders became the victims of repression. Natalia Sokolova, the Lawyer of the independent union of “Karazanbasmunay” was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. In Zanaozen some striking workers were killed and others found themselves the target of provocations.
Workers lost their patience and came with their families and supporters onto the central city square under the symbolic name of “Independence”. About 5000 people took part in this action. It was the biggest workers’ protest in Kazakhstan’s history. The authorities were scared that the social demands would soon become political and started to sack workers en masse. The media received orders to silence these events.
It is now 7 months since thousands of sacked workers together with small children and old people came onto the square, demanding an answer to their just demands. Food is running out, entire families have lost their income and are facing starvation, workers’ children have stopped going to school.
Some international unions have sent letters to the authorities, asking them to explain the situation with the striking oil workers. Among them was Manfred Vada (general secretary of ICEM) and Ierki Rein (general secretary of IFM – the International Federation of Metalworkers). But the Kazakhstan government deceived them with disinformation.
Up to the present time, the company directors and the authorities have refused to negotiate with the workers. The situation changed before the so-called “parliamentary elections”. These elections are scheduled to be held on 15th January 2012 and the regime has stated that they are willing to talk with the workers. They say they are ready to take back all the sacked workers, but they are still refusing to raise wages or to give social guarantees.

The workers believe in victory! The truth in on their side!
International workers’ and union solidarity is needed!
Kazakhstan workers are now alone in the struggle, but you can help, comrades!
Model letter of protestWe [name of organization] wish to protest against the brutal repression of the workers of Kazakhstan. We demand:

Immediate reinstatement of all sacked workers.
An increase in workers’ wages.
Improvement of working conditions.
Immediate release from prison of Natal'ya Sokolova, the attorney of the Independent Trade Union of Karadzanbus.
Signed:

_________ 
Please send protests to Nursultan Nazarbayev 010000, Astana, Ak-Orda and to your nearest Kazakhstan embassy.
To the company:
AO "National company KazMunayGaz"
Kazakhstan, Astana 010000
Kabanbye-batur 19 (пр. Кабанбай-батыра, 19)
fax: +7 (7172) 97 60 00, 97 60 01

e-mail: info at kmg.kz 
Office: (3172) 977429, 977617
PR: (3172) 977924, 977923
Letters of solidarity should be sent to qybrai at list.ru 
We would appreciate it if you could also send copies to editor at marxist.com 

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As Public Sector Sheds Jobs, Blacks Are Hit Hardest
Timothy Williams, The New York Times News Service: "Don Buckley lost his job driving a Chicago Transit Authority bus almost two years ago and has been looking for work ever since, even as other municipal bus drivers around the country are being laid off. At 34, Mr. Buckley, his two daughters and his fiancee have moved into the basement of his mother's house. He has had to delay his marriage, and his entire savings, $27,000, is gone. 'I was the kind of person who put away for a rainy day,' he said recently. 'It's flooding now.'"
Read the Article 

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