[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 12.31.11‏‏-I‏

[Carlos Pelayo]

In Case You Wanted to Know the Ratio: 3.5 Million Homeless and 18.5 Million Vacant Homes in the US  In Last Three Years, Student Debt Of Middle-Age Americans Grew By Nearly 50 PercentWorking for the minimum   Is a new unionism developing in Israel?‏ 
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In Case You Wanted to Know the Ratio: 3.5 Million Homeless and 18.5 Million Vacant Homes in the US
Read the article at Crooks and Liars

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In Last Three Years, Student Debt Of Middle-Age Americans Grew By Nearly 50 PercentBy Pat Garofalo | Think Progress
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Working for the minimum
By Phillip ReeseSan Francisco will raise its minimum wage to $10.24 an hour next w-San Francisco Becomes First in Nation with $10 Minimum Wage (and the Sky Isn't Going to Fall)The business community is screaming that the higher wages will "cost jobs," but the data suggest otherwise.READ MOREBy John Schmitt / AlterNet
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Is a new unionism developing in Israel? 

http://newunionism.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/is-a-new-unionism-developing-in-israel/

New Unionism Network

The social and democratic revolutions that have been
sweeping the Middle East have redrawn the political map
and rewritten the regional rules, writes Assaf Adiv*,
National Coordinator of WAC-Maan. Antagonisms between
Israel, the Arab world and the Palestinians have taken
on a new dimension, in light of the movement for change
in Arab states. Revolutionaries in Tunisia and Egypt
have brought down the regimes of Ben Ali and Mubarak,
shifting the center of power back to the street. The
order that has prevailed in the region for more than 30
years is being shaken to the core.

In Israel, a social protest movement has been gaining
momentum. Influenced by the Egyptian and Tunisian
uprisings, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken
to the streets to express their lack of faith in the
Netanyahu-Lieberman government and two decades of
neo-liberal economics.

The Workers' Advice Center WAC-Maan (WAC) was
established in the mid-1990s. It was set up outside the
framework of Israel's largest trade union federation --
the Histadrut -- and was openly opposed to
neo-liberalism. WAC has sought to combine social
struggle with the struggle for peace and against the
occupation, together with the fight against
discrimination on a national basis.

While capitalism in the '90s was promising growth for
all, WAC defended workers who were being pushed to the
margins. Confronting insular Jewish and Arab
nationalistic and religious trends, which developed
after the second intifada (in 2000), WAC argued for a
new model of partnership on a class basis between
Jewish and Arab workers.

The workers in Al-Mahala al-Kubra in Egypt and the
mines of Gafsa in southern Tunisia rose up in 2008, and
were joined by the youth and the rest of their nations
in December 2010 and January/February 2011. It was a
clear illustration of WAC's argument that workers in
the Middle East are no different to workers elsewhere
in the world. The revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia have
put social justice and democracy back on the agenda.
Instead of the nationalistic and religious slogans
which have enjoyed complete control in recent years,
demands for democracy and social justice are serving to
unite the nations.

The protest movement that arose in Israel in the summer
of 2011 is without doubt a reflection on the enormous
influence of the Arab uprisings. Predatory capitalism,
which had trampled over human dignity and basic rights
in Egypt and Tunisia, is also deeply felt by many
Israelis. The protests in Israel are still
predominantly a middle-class phenomenon, rather than an
open challenge to the regime, however they are laying
the groundwork for a more comprehensive movement for
social change. The destruction of the social safety net

In Israel, the official trade union (the Histadrut) was
once an incredibly powerful body. At times it served
almost as a second state within the state. Until the
mid-1980s, the Histadrut was also a leading player in
the economy, employing hundreds of thousands in the
firms it owned. It controlled the main health service,
the General Sick Fund, and other organizations
including pension funds, cultural bodies and sports
organizations. Some 85% of the workforce was organized
within the Histadrut framework.

However, with the severe economic crisis of the 1980s,
which featured inflation of hundreds of percent, Israel
adopted the Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan
(1985). With this came a rapid march towards
privatization and the dismantling of the welfare state.
Since then, Israel has been dominated by the view that
market forces are the solution to every problem. The
state's role is to deliver its citizens to the market.
Israel now boasts the widest socioeconomic disparities
and one of the highest rates of poverty in the western
world.

There have been cuts to disability and old-age
benefits, child allowances and unemployment benefits,
along with a dramatic reduction in investment in social
services like health, education and housing. The
withdrawal of the state from housing, job creation and
training have created a new economic situation. Workers
are being pushed into poverty even where they work in
full-time employment. Even middle-class workers with
academic credentials are finding themselves ground
under.

The Histadrut has retained a pragmatic position as
production lines are being moved to poorer countries;
state-owned (and Histadrut-owned) companies have been
privatized; workers have been transferred to manpower
agencies; and migrant labor has been imported without
any social protection. Thatcherite neo-liberalism has
continued to sweep Israel, while the number of workers
organized by the federation has fallen to just 26% of
the workforce. Taking all unions into account, less
than one third of Israeli workers today are organized.

This is the background to the social protests in
Israel. After two gratuitous and blood-soaked wars (in
Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008-9), Netanyahu's
government launched a series of anti-Arab legislative
changes, while continuing with privatizations and
transfering more assets and influence into the hands of
a small number of wealthy families.

However, in 2011 Israel revealed its Achilles' heel.
The protest movement is the explosion of an
undercurrent that has been gathering pace for a decade.
It has found its voice in the establishment of hundreds
of organizations, NGOs and unions. These have begun to
demand real social change. In the same way that WAC was
established to assist Arab workers on the periphery,
other organizations such as Kav Laoved, Hotline for
Migrant Workers and Physicians for Human Rights have
concentrated on marginalized groups, working to support
those excluded from the established framework of the
labour movement. It is not relevant whether they are
migrant laborers, Palestinian workers or Israeli
employees of manpower agencies. A new union is launched

Initially, WAC was a workers' advice center. The
transition to a representative workers' organization
came with the struggle against unemployment among Arab
Israeli workers in construction and agriculture. Since
2002, the organization has been involved in campaigning
against the importation of migrant labor under
semi-slavery conditions. At the same time, the union
has established itself as an organization able to
assist employers in recruiting workers in construction
and agriculture in the Arab sector, on condition that
their employment is within the framework of an
industry-wide collective agreement.

This work has led to the employment of thousands from
Arab towns in Israel. It has extended the social base
and enabled the organization to build its public status
vis-a-vis government ministries, employers and the
courts. This new form of organizing was aimed at
fighting unemployment and resisting discrimination
against Arab workers. However, in addition to this, the
work has enabled WAC to develop solid experience in the
recruitment and organization of workers, along with the
negotiation of collective agreements. In 2006-7, the
leadership of WAC decided to become a representative
organization -- a recognized trade union.

WAC is open to Jews and Arabs alike. Branches in Tel
Aviv and Jerusalem now attract workers from many
fields, such as art teachers and truck drivers. A new
branch has been opened in Haifa, aiming to organize
truck drivers (see below). In addition, the
organization has made changes to its own internal
regulations to enable it to establish a democratic
organizational structure and set up workers' committees
and handle labor disputes, as is required by law of
representative trade unions in Israel.

To illustrate WAC's work, here are three examples from
different fields in which it is active. What
characterizes these campaigns is the targeting of
workers who lack of union representation, and building
from the ground up.

1) Targeting truckers - Jews and Arabs in equal
conditions of exploitation

At the end of 2009 WAC began a campaign to unionize
truck drivers. The decision to target this group, which
includes some 15,000 heavy-vehicle drivers, was taken
after contact by drivers through whom WAC learned about
conditions in the sector. This is a central economic
sector (only 5% of goods for import and export or for
the internal market are transported by rail) in which
both Jews and Arabs are employed in equal conditions of
exploitation. This sector, entirely privately-owned by
large and small firms (an estimated 470 companies), is
characterised by long working long hours (some 70 hours
per week) and no effective protection.

To build up a presence and gain familiarity with the
drivers, intensive activity was initiated at the
entrance to Israel's main ports of Haifa and Ashdod. A
new WAC branch was opened in Haifa, in order to be more
accessible for the drivers. Leaflets were produced in
Hebrew, Arabic and Russian (many drivers of former USSR
origin do not read Hebrew or Arabic), exposing the
deceit behind the current system of payments. WAC's
legal department formulated a new wage scale and
presented it as an alternative to the existing
collective agreement.

A legal team helped drivers assert their rights after
dismissal or leaving work. Each success was advertised
and became a talking point among the drivers. At the
same time research and articles were published, and
various government and public bodies were informed of
breaches of safety. This led to extensive media
exposure.

One of the initiatives taken as a result of this work
was the unionization of drivers in the haulage firm
Hamenia - one of the leading companies in the sector.
At the end of November 2010, a workers' committee was
elected. This met strong resistance from the company,
which was supported by all the main companies in the
sector, and a number of drivers were intimidated.
However, in the end a court ruling established WAC in
the haulage industry, giving the first official
confirmation that the organization constitutes a
workers' union.

Special efforts were made to create unity between
Jewish and Arab drivers during this campaign. Truck
drivers in Israel are often considered to be
conservative and nationalist. Arab drivers are
portrayed as insular within their religion (they are
mostly Moslem), while veteran Jewish drivers are
considered mostly to be Likud voters. Russian
immigrants are portrayed as (right wing Israel Beitenu
Party led by the bigot A. Lieberman) Lieberman
supporters. WAC experience in this sector shows that
despite such stereotypes, there is clear common ground
for unity.

2) The Salit quarry workers' strike

Another case that illustrates WAC's work is the
organization of workers at Salit Quarries. The workers
are Palestinian, mostly residents of areas under
Palestinian Authority control and some from East
Jerusalem (annexed by Israel). They are employed by
Israelis in Israeli-occupied territory east of
Jerusalem. This area is a kind of "no-man's land", in
which there is no enforcement of workers' rights or
basic health and safety measures. The Palestinian union
is prevented from representing them in Israeli courts
or in negotiations with Israeli employers.

This is not an isolated case. In East Jerusalem some
50,000-70,000 Palestinian residents employed by Israeli
companies find themselves in the same situation. The
30,000-50,000 Palestinian workers employed in
industrial zones of Israeli settlements in the West
Bank are also lacking union protection. To assist these
workers, WAC have been operating an office in East
Jerusalem for over a decade.

At Salit, WAC has worked for four years to improve
conditions, implement safety protocols, raise wages,
and ensure pension fund contributions from the
employer. During efforts to unionize, they compelled
the management to provide dining and washing
facilities. Likewise, the workers have been issued with
wage slips for the first time, and basic insurance
contributions have been paid (national insurance and
basic pension payments). Management has agreed to
elections for a workers' committee and has begun
negotiations towards a collective agreement. In 2010,
the workers declared a four-day strike to compel the
management to start negotiations. Later, when a draft
agreement had been reached and the management backed
down from signing, another strike of nearly three
months was declared. At the end of this the quarry
declared bankruptcy. Despite the complex situation in
which the workers find themselves due to the
bankruptcy, they continue to view their struggle as a
success, and believe victory will be achieved in the
legal arena too.

WAC has established itself as a responsible and
determined workers' organization, ready to fight
relentlessly for Palestinian workers' rights.

3) Organizing teachers in private art colleges

Various private art schools have opened in Israel
during the last 30 years, due to an increase in the
number of artists and craftspeople working in fields
such as painting, music, alternative therapy etc. These
establishments, which demand high fees from students,
employ thousands of teachers. Many of these are
well-known artists - in conditions of poor wages via
subcontracting agencies and without peripheral benefits
or employment security.

This stratum of teachers (a great majority of whom are
Israeli Jews) is not unionized. WAC's links with
artists via solidarity initiatives with Arab workers
led to a number of opportunities to organize these
teachers.

At Tel Aviv's Minshar School of Art WAC reached an
agreement with management in 2008, according to which
teachers would be employed directly (instead of by the
hour via agencies) with all peripheral benefits. In
2010, organizers began a process of unionization at the
Musrara School of Photography (70 teachers), and a
collective agreement was signed in October 2010. The
teachers' committee was a partner in the process, which
included a general assembly outside the premises due to
the management's initial opposition. WAC won the
management's cooperation only after presenting a
sufficient number of signatures and demonstrating that
the teachers were determined to reach an agreement. An
agreement was reached within four months.

At the Jerusalem School of Visual Theatre a similar
process was begun in 2011, and negotiations began in
June towards a collective agreement. Here, too, WAC
encountered difficulties, but the teachers were
determined to unionize, and rejected all attempts to
deter or scare them. When it was said that WAC was a
small, new organization with a radical character
("supports the Arabs"), the teachers said that was
exactly why they chose WAC, whose leaders and activists
believe in social justice.

A new type of union

WAC is becoming a significant player in the industrial
relations arena in Israel. It gives a voice to young
people, women and men, both Jews and Arabs, people who
have lost their dignity as well as their rights in a
state that worships capital and neglects labor.
Furthermore, the organization's position is gaining
ground in central media channels.

WAC's members have played an active part in the social
protest movement that erupted in the the summer of 2011
in Israel; well aware of both its strength and
limitations. The movement, irrespective of numbers and
ethics, will not be able to change the situation in
Israel if it does not translate its influence into
political power. The tents currently erected in central
squares in cities throughout Israel will not remain
there forever. Their place as symbols of protest must
be taken by organizations and unions who will unite the
workers and political forces, and give expression to
the deep desire for change and an end to destructive,
unbridled capitalism.

WAC works to give a voice to the forces currently not
represented. It is convinced that the new protest
movement in Israel opens opportunities for the working
class and Arab workers to rise out of passivity and
despair. Within the demonstrations and events and
during countless debates, activists spoke of the need
to place the issues of social justice and peace
together. WAC's call for bringing down the rightwing
government is not just due to the government's
anti-social agenda, but also its extremely militant
approach towards the Palestinians.

The deep lack of faith in the economic and political
establishment which is being expressed through social
protest enables WAC to promote the unionization of
workers and encourage workers to defend themselves and
act independently on the political level too. Changes
throughout the region and in Israel have prepared the
ground for the creation of new movements, unions and
political parties, within Israel and throughout the
whole region.

* About the author

Assaf Adiv is National Co-ordinator of the independent
union WAC-Maan. He has been active in the movement
against the oppression of Palestinians and the struggle
for workers' rights since the 1970s. During this time
he worked as a journalist in the ArabicHebrew
newspaper Tarik Al-Shararaa, spending 18 months in jail
on political charges along with 3 other editors of the
paper. He is a leading member of the left
Marxist-oriented "Daam - Workers Party" and writes on
social and political issues in the local Hebrew and
Arabic press and in the e-magazines Etgar (Hebrew)
Al-Sabar (Arabic) Challenge (English).@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 







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