[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 11.14.11‏‏-I

Tue Nov 15 08:27:37 UTC 2011

Cops for Labor?‏

Please forward: occupy El Centro on the 19th‏
Chávez Responds to Workers’ Protests, Promises Historic New Labour 
The New, Old Class Warfare
Following Anti-Immigration Law, Alabama Can Say Goodbye to Hundreds of Millions in Tax and Farm Revenue 

500-700 Police Raid Occupy Oakland, While Unions Defend

Graham's Threats Aimed to Stop NLRB Boeing Case‏

Join our CWA Activist Call Thursday 11/17 at 7:30 PM ET‏

Chicago Warehouse Workers Navigate Maze of Contractors to Organize‏

Action at Honokai Hale 11.13.11 / Street Heat at APEC‏

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Cops for Labor?
Police support for protesters in Wisconsin was an
exception to the historical rule.
By Kristian Williams
Dollars and Sense
October 3, 2011

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0911williams.html

In February of this year, Madison, Wisc., became the
front line of the American class war.

Governor Scott Walker announced a bill to strip public
employees of most of their union rights. Thousands of
workers occupied the Capitol building in response. Tens
of thousands participated in protests outside.

The civilly disobedient unions found themselves with a
surprising ally-the police.

Off-duty cops joined the protests, some wearing "Cops
for Labor" and "Deputies for Democracy" t-shirts. When
the governor threatened to close the Capitol and
forcibly end the sit-in, cops showed up with sleeping
bags and stayed the night.

Of course it couldn't last.

Within a few days the police did clear the protestors
out of the Capitol-first by enforcing rules prohibiting
blankets and chairs, then by preventing new protestors
from joining the action, and finally, by escorting out
the remaining stalwarts. A few weeks later, the cops
were less gentle, ejecting protestors who tried to re-
occupy the Capitol and prevent the legislature's vote.
Despite the much-lauded peacefulness of the protests,
the cops made 59 arrests at the Madison rallies, and
cleared away barricades the protestors had erected
around the Capitol building.

And that is exactly what we should have expected.

In the midst of the sit-in, Wisconsin Law Enforcement
Association executive board president Tracy Fuller
confessed that his members would "absolutely" use force
if so ordered. Fuller told reporter Stephen C. Webster
that the notion of resisting orders "hasn't even come
up." He said: "I'm not able to even fathom that any of
those police officers would not carry out whatever
orders were given." Fuller went on: "I guess that's the
one ironic thing about this. ... I could be down there
confronting my wife with the protest sign that I made.
... That's my job."

Fuller is not the first officer to experience this
ambivalence. The police, whose job consists in large
part of controlling the working class and protecting
the interests of the rich, are themselves nevertheless
often of working-class extraction and endure many of
the frustrations of wage labor. As individuals, their
sympathy for striking workers might be expected, but as
a body-as the police-their role in repressing the labor
movement has been a defining element of the
institution's development.

Backing Up Labor

In times of open class conflict the cops have not
generally been on the side of the strikers. That was
true in Chicago in 1886, and in Lawrence in 1912, in
San Francisco and Minneapolis in 1934, Detroit in 1995,
Charleston in 2000-and in dozens of other massacres and
thousands of picket-line skirmishes. Nevertheless,
there have been exceptions-historic moments when the
police sided with the workers.

In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, local cops
repeatedly proved unreliable in the face of labor
unrest-placing personal or class loyalty above the
demands of the job. That was especially true in small
towns where the cops had social and familial ties with
the strikers. For example, in June 1874, the mayor and
sheriff of Braidwood, Ill., refused to deputize
Pinkerton guards. Instead they deputized striking
miners, disarmed the Pinkertons, and arrested
strikebreakers.

The most famous case, thanks to the 1987 John Sayles
movie Matewan, is that of Matewan, W. Va., where Police
Chief Sid Hatfield was himself a former miner. During
the 1920 strike, Hatfield enforced the law in ways that
favored the workers, and ultimately engaged in a shoot-
out with Baldwin-Felts Agency goons working for the
mine owners. He was acquitted of murder charges, but
later assassinated by detective company gunmen.

Even in cities, where the police were more removed from
the larger community, cops did sometimes refuse to move
against strikers.

During a 1902 streetcar strike, the mayor of the
Providence suburb Pawtucket openly sided with the
striking workers, and the police did almost nothing to
impede their activities. That same year, in New
Orleans, the police didn't just stand aside, but
actually attacked the scabs, arresting them on weapons
charges and (as one newspaper put it) "slamming them
about unmercifully."

Police in Richmond, Va., faced criticism for their
sympathetic handling of a 1903 streetcar strike, and
the sheriff of nearby Henrico was even tried for
neglect of duty. According to the Virginia Passenger
and Power Company (which made the complaint), Sheriff
Simon Solomon provided no protection for the
streetcars, refused the militia's assistance, and
arrested scabs "who had bravely fought in defense of
their lives" against striking workers. He was
acquitted.

In 1907, after scabs shot into a crowd of strikers, the
San Francisco chief of police declared "if any
strikebreakers start shooting ... they will be shot in
return by the police." Thirteen scabs were later
arrested for their part in the incident.

In 1913, 29 Indianapolis cops refused to ride
streetcars during a strike; citing Mayor Samuel Shank's
public support of the strike, they managed to avoid
discipline. During the 1919 Steel Strike, Cleveland
Mayor Harry Davis ordered police to treat scabs as
suspicious persons. Likewise, during the 1934 Milwaukee
Electric Railway and Light Company strike, Mayor Daniel
Hoan ordered the arrest of 150 strikebreakers.

Historian James Richardson discerns a pattern in the
way the cops handled strikes: "the police tended to
follow the lines of power. ... If the authorities
favored the workers or were at least neutral, the
police remained neutral. If on the other hand,
political leaders and newspapers viewed the strikers as
un-American radicals or a threat to the town's
prosperity ... then the police acted as agents of
employers in their strikebreaking activities."

Breaking Ranks

However, there have also been times when the police
took their own initiative in supporting strikers,
disobeying orders and even facing discipline.

In 1877, police in Paterson, N.J., refused to
participate in anti-strike activities. In Buffalo,
sympathetic cops were suspended during the 1892
switchman's strike. Chicago police declined to
interfere with the destruction of property during the
Pullman Strike of 1894, and even contributed to the
worker's relief committee; an entire unit was suspended
in response. In Cleveland, 1896, cops were suspended
and fined when they disregarded orders to move against
striking workers.

In Columbus, 1910, 32 patrolmen and 23 special
officers-about a quarter of the police force-were
suspended when they refused orders to protect scabs. In
1916, five NYPD patrolmen were fired for refusing to
guard trains during a transit strike. And in 1929, five
New Orleans cops resigned rather than help break a
streetcar strike there.

In 1974, Baltimore police, in violation of state law,
went on strike in solidarity with the city's AFSCME
workers. Looting broke out, the governor sent in the
State Police, and the strike was defeated. The police
union was fined $25,000 and its president fined another
$10,000.

More recently, during the 1997 UPS strike, Terry
Martin, president of the Houston Police Patrolmen's
Union, issued a memo urging "zero tolerance" for scab
trucks. He advised officers to "do everything possible
to get that UPS `scab' truck off the road."

In Portland, where I live, I once saw a police sergeant
refuse to clear a crowd of supporters of the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW) out of the lobby of a hotel
in the midst of a labor dispute. He told the owner, "We
enforce the criminal law, not labor law." In that case,
the owner went over his head and an hour later the riot
squad showed up, led by a lieutenant. Discipline and
Coercion Of course, those cases are notable precisely
because they are exceptions. More typically police have
responded to strikes with surveillance, harassment,
arrests, and violence.

In his book Policing a Class Society, Sidney Harring
cites several mechanisms that serve to maintain the
obedience of the police during strikes. These include
racism and ethnic divisions, disdain for unskilled or
low-wage workers, organizational norms and discipline,
the law-and-order ideology, the criminalization of
strike activity, and incentives such as overtime pay or
bonuses. Most of these work by using the personal
biases and institutional culture of the police to
undercut their sympathy for disobedient workers-
especially when those workers are immigrants or people
of color. Furthermore, those officers who participate
in strike duty may receive added financial rewards,
while those who avoid strike duty may lose the respect
of their peers or face punishment. This combination of
coercion, compensation, and ideological justification
have mostly worked to keep the cops following their
orders and breaking strikes.

But the minority of cases-those in which these controls
didn't hold-deeply worried the authorities. Individual
refusals or small mutinies could be handled by the
usual methods of discipline. But where the state's
coercive apparatus showed signs of systemic failure,
the authorities have been quick to make new
arrangements.

The move away from the militia system is a case in
point. During the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, while
some militia units simply massacred strikers, others
lent various levels of support to the workers' cause.
In several Pennsylvania towns-Harrisburg, Morristown,
and Altoona-the militia surrendered to the union.
Militiamen openly fraternized with striking workers in
Newark, Ohio, and Hornellsville, N.Y. In Lebanon, Pa.,
the militia mutinied. And in Reading, one militia
company intervened against another to protect the
strikers: "If you fire at the mob, we'll fire at you."

It was the experience of this strike that led to the
re-organization of the traditional militia system into
the modern, more militarized National Guard-arguably, a
change of Constitutional magnitude.

Similarly, it was the unreliability of small-town cops
in cracking down on labor that led private companies in
Pennsylvania to form the Coal and Iron Police in 1865.
This was a private force, controlled by the railroads
and mining companies, but deputized by the state in
exchange for a fee of one dollar per officer. In 1905,
following the Great Anthracite Strike, this private
army was first supplemented and eventually replaced by
the first modern state police force, the Pennsylvania
State Constabulary.

The State Constabulary was designed as a strikebreaking
force and organized along military lines. The men were
recruited from throughout the state to diminish local
loyalties; they were housed in barracks to prevent the
formation of community bonds. And they were rigorously
trained, strictly disciplined, and drilled in military
tactics. The Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor
called them "Cossacks."

Institutionalized Conflict and Vertical Solidarity

We've seen far fewer instances of police/labor
alliances since the 1930s. Ironically, however, this
decline in solidarity has less to do with militarized
repression than with the institutionalization of the
labor movement, on the one hand, and the creation of
police unions on the other.

On the first point, it's important to remember that
before the National Labor Relations Act, unions were
widely treated as criminal conspiracies, strikes as a
form of extortion. Class war under such circumstances
was something more than a metaphor.

When unions were legalized, the focus of struggle moved
off the streets and into the courts-to the benefit of
the bosses, in the long run. As Howard Zinn observed,
"Unions were not wanted by employers, but they were
more controllable-more stabilizing for the system than
the wildcat strikes, the factory occupations of the
rank-and-file." By 1946 GM's main demand in contract
talks was "union responsibility for uninterrupted
production."

In the new period of institutionalized unionism there
was less actual conflict, so the cops were less
frequently presented with the question "Which side are
you on?"

Meanwhile, in the 1940s, police started to form their
own unions. City leaders first responded by firing
union supporters, but soon offered a path of least
resistance that led away from the main body of the
labor movement and toward police-only organizations.
For example, in 1942, police commanders approved the
creation of the Detroit Police Officers Association in
order to undercut a union drive sponsored by the
American Federation of Labor. Likewise, in New York,
facing union-friendly court rulings and a Teamsters
organizing campaign, administrators opted to negotiate
with the existing (and more pliable) Patrolman's
Benevolent Association.

This strategy diminished the possibility of solidarity
between the cops and other public employees, and
allowed local governments to treat police always as a
special case. Cops are generally barred from striking,
but they receive more generous pay, health, and
retirement benefits. Furthermore, unions use the
bargaining process to insulate the police from
meaningful oversight and accountability. Contract
negotiations become, as sociologist Margaret Levi puts
it, an exercise in "collusive bargaining"-taking the
outward appearance of conflict, while actually
operating in terms of a union/management consensus.

The result is a kind of vertical solidarity. The police
unions and police management negotiate a unifying
agenda; the unions then function both internally, as a
mechanism for preserving the loyalty of the low-level
officers and externally, as the political arm of the
police institution overall. The police union becomes,
at once, the lobbying body, the media representatives,
the fundraising mechanism, the electoral machine, and-
when they participate in demonstrations-the shock
troops of the law-and-order agenda.

Moreover, the police union can earn its keep by
defending the indefensible-allowing commanders and
civil authorities to distance themselves from
controversies involving racial profiling or the use of
force. Elected officials need only point to the union
contract and insist that it is beyond their power to
discipline the officers involved.

The power of the police union lies largely in its
ability to insulate individual officers, and thus the
department as a whole, from political pressure,
civilian oversight, and public accountability. One
consequence, as sociologist Rodney Stark noted 40 years
ago, was "the emergence of the police as a self-
conscious, organized, and militant political
constituency, bidding for far-reaching political power
in their own right."

In broad terms, the police agenda has been right-wing-
suspicious of social change, intolerant of disorder,
hostile to individual or civil rights, punitive in its
response to crime, and quick to justify the use of
force. But as the recent events in Wisconsin show, when
their interests are under attack, the police may be
pushed, at least for a while, into alliance with the
left.

Limits and Threats

The instances in which the police align with labor are
remarkable precisely because they are exceptions. And
as exceptions, they are short-lived, disconnected,
isolated occurrences. Yet they point to a possible
limit to the willingness of police officers,
individually or as a group, to protect the interests of
capitalists by repressing the legitimate demands of
labor.

The interesting thing about Wisconsin is not that the
police eventually fell back into their usual role, but
that they briefly threatened to depart from it.
Ultimately, however, this fact may say less about the
cops or their unions than about the severity of the
change that Walker and the Republicans are seeking to
impose.

The threat to unions today is so severe that it has
disrupted the normal institutional framework that
manages and contains class conflict. The main purpose
of that framework is to minimize social and economic
disruption, and it has always protected the interests
of the bosses better than those of the workers.

Governor Walker may believe that by weakening the
unions he can destroy the labor movement. What he
risks, however, is freeing the movement from its
institutional confines. The shifting position of the
police is just one symptom of this destabilizing
effect. It is because the new law limits the legal
rights of unions that the ensuing crisis has opened
space for increased militancy.

What cannot be negotiated under the law will inevitably
be settled by other means.

KRISTIAN WILLIAMS is the author of Our Enemies in Blue:
Police and Power in America (South End Press, 2007),
and a member of the National Writers Union (UAW Local
1981).

SELECTED SOURCES: Jeremy Brecher, Strike!, Boston:
South End Press, 1972; Robert M. Fogelson, Big-City
Police, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 1977; Sidney L. Harring, Policing A Class
Society: The Experience of American Cities, 1865-1915,
New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1983; Bruce C.
Johnson, "Taking Care of Labor: The Police in American
Life," Theory and Society, Spring 1976; Eugene L.
Leach, "The Literature of Riot Duty: Managing Class
Conflict in the Streets, 1877-1927," Radical History
Review, Spring 1993; Margaret Levi, Bureaucratic
Insurgency: The Case of Police Unions, Lexington,
Massachusetts: Lexington Books, 1977; Katherine Mayo,
Justice to All: The Story of the Pennsylvania State
Police, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1917; Stephen H.
Norwood, Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries
and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America, Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002; Robert
Reiner, The Blue-Coated Worker: A Sociological Study of
Police Unionism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1978; Robert Michael Smith, From Blackjacks to
Briefcases: A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking
and Unionbusting in the United States, Athens: Ohio
University Press, 2003; Rodney Stark, Police Riots:
Collective Violence and Law Enforcement, Belmont,
California: Focus Books, 1972; Samuel Yellen, American
Labor Struggles, 1877-1934, New York: Pathfinder, 1936.

____________________________________________

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 Chávez Responds to Workers’ Protests, Promises Historic New Labour LawNov 14th 2011, by Rachael Boothroyd - Venezuelanalysis.com Workers marched from Plaza Sucre in Caracas demanding a new and revolutionary labour law (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) Before the march (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) Adelaida Seipa of the Workers’ Councils Platform for Gran Caracas said workers were prepared to go to a referendum on the Special Law of Socialist Workers’ Councils (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis) Pedro Eusse, National Secretary for the Workers and Union Movement in the PCV (Rachael Boothroyd/Venezuelanalysis)Caracas, November 13th 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez pledged to enact a new labour law this Thursday, as workers took to the streets of Caracas demanding “revolutionary” legislation to further advance the workers’ control project and improve working conditions.Speaking to hundreds of workers at the closing ceremony for the Countryside, City and Sea Workers Socialist Central Congress, Chávez stated that he would create a “truly revolutionary and socialist labour law” before workers’ day next year on May 1st.“This is definitely a debt owed to the people, to the workers, by the revolution” said Chávez, who will approve the law through the 18-month law-decree powers granted to him by the National Assembly in December 2010.“This is part of the acceleration process for making the transition from an undeveloped and dependent capitalist model, which we are living at the moment, to a socialist model, equal to the dreams, hopes and historic struggles of the people” he said.The Venezuelan Head of state also indicated that the law would be drafted through a direct consultation process with the Venezuelan people and workers.“We are going to work following the strategic norm of a national debate. We are not going to pull a law out from under our sleeve, like they did in 1997, straight from under the sleeve of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)” said Chávez.Despite this, there is division amongst the workers’ camp, with some organisations such as the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) and the National Workers’ Union (UNETE) publically declaring that they want the law to be approved following a widespread debate at the Venezuelan National Assembly as opposed to via presidential decree.“For the law to be passed, it is absolutely indispensable that a debate takes place at the heart of the National Assembly and the working class,” said Pedro Eusse, National Secretary for the Workers and Union Movement in the PCV.Workers Demand “Revolutionary” LawWorkers and unions such as UNETE have been mobilising since 2003 for the constitution of a new labour law. Despite regular protests and marches, plans to overhaul existing legislation have been consistently held up in the National Assembly (AN). Frustrations came to a head in the days preceding the congress, as some workers’ organisations petitioned Chávez to bypass the AN and use his decree powers to push through the new law. On the same day as Chavez’s announcement, over 2,000 workers attended a march convened by the National Workers’ Union (UNETE) in Caracas.“We are marching for a new and revolutionary labour law...we, the workers’ councils, are also marching to demand that the National Assembly begin a discussion with regard to the Special Law for Socialist Workers’ Councils,” said Adelaida Seipa of the Workers’ Councils Platform to Venezuelanalysis.Seipa pointed out that in July, the workers’ movement handed over more than 52,000 signatures to the AN in support of both legal projects, but that a discussion had still not taken place.“We don’t want reform, we want a new labour law that improves labour conditions within the framework of the construction of socialism. We don’t just want to patch (the law) up, we want a new law that comes from the bases, the workers” she added.Socialist Workers’ Councils are currently being formed throughout Venezuela, with some already having been functioning for a number of months. Independent of unions, the councils are organisations of popular power through which labourers can effectively organise and play a protagonistic role in the running of their companies through their participation in the productive, administrative and management processes at their places of work. Initially proposed to the AN in 2007 by the Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV), the Special Law of Socialist Workers’ Councils would consolidate these collectives as a legal instrument through which to organise the nation’s workplaces and establish the conditions to deepen workers’ control. If the law is passed, workers hope to establish a council in every workplace in the country, an initiative that they see as the first stage in dismantling the exploitative social relations of the capitalist system. Caldera’s LawWorkers have hailed as a historic victory the announcement that a new law will be enacted after many years of mobilisation to replace Venezuela’s current labour legislation, commonly referred to as the “Caldera Law”. Decreed in 1997 by then president Rafael Caldera under considerable pressure from the IMF, the 1997 law eliminated many legal requirements for employers, such as that of severance pay and extra compensation for unfair dismissal. During his speech, president Chávez said that one of the central goals of the new legislation would be to reinstate these requirements and resources, which he said had been expropriated by the Venezuelan oligarchy.“That is what the AD (Democratic Action) and Copei (Christian Democrat Party) parties did. That is what the Fourth Republic (1958-1998) did. They looted the people, they robbed the workers in order to meet the demands of a mandate from the International Monetary Fund, international imperialism and the national bourgeoisie” said Chávez.Chávez estimates that this mandate has robbed workers of over 100 billion dollars since 1997, a debt which he said would be addressed and paid back in full to workers through the new law. According to the president, new legislation should create a “cumulative system,” which recognises how long the worker has been employment with the company, as well as conduct a “retroactive calculation” of severance pay, based on the employee’s salary at the time of dismissal. “It is about doing justice, even though the fiscal burden may be large,” he said. Workers reacted with jubilation upon hearing Chavez’s announcement, although some sectors are concerned that they have still received no concrete answer from the government with regard to the Special Law of Socialist Workers’ Councils.  In July, the worker’s movement vowed to keep mobilising until the AN set a date for a discussion of the law. “We’re prepared to go to a national referendum,” stated Seipa, who reiterated that the workers’ movement would continue to organise until the law is passed.Source URL (retrieved on 14/11/2011 - 5:26pm): http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6629
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@The New, Old Class Warfare
Michael Pirsch, Truthout: "Our history of struggle in class warfare should give us reason to be optimistic. After all, it was our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our great-great-grandparents who fought against all odds to build a more just society. They did so at great sacrifice to themselves in order that their children would not have to suffer as they did." 
Read the Article 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Following Anti-Immigration Law, Alabama Can Say Goodbye to Hundreds of Millions in Tax and Farm Revenue 
Read the Article at Center for American Progress
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@500-700 Police Raid Occupy Oakland, While Unions DefendBy caitlinus | DailyKos
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Nov. 14, 2011
Philip Levine, America’s poet laureate, who spent years working in Detroit factories, will give a reading of his poetry at the AFL-CIO at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Click here to register to attend.Just-released documents show that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened to attack the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with “full guns a-blazing” if the board issued a complaint against the Boeing Co. for retaliating against workers for exercising their right to strike. The NLRB didn’t back down and Graham has been leading a Capitol Hill attack against the NLRB.
Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org. Philip Levine: Reflecting the Poet’s Vision of Working in America Tell the Banks: This Home Is Occupied South Carolina Activists Rally for Workers Outside GOP Debate Colombian Palm Oil Workers Win Protections in New Agreement APWU Says Honor Vets with Jobs  More Proof of CEO Greed (In Case You Had Doubts) Corporations Pushing Bill to Take Away Overtime from Computer and Web WorkersRead more important news of the day on the issues working families care about. Follow the AFL-CIO:
      Take the next step. Become a mobile activist
by joining the AFL-CIO Rapid Action Text Team.
Text NEWS to AFLCIO (235246) to receive action alerts and more.
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To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Dear Friend,Last week the citizens of Ohio sent a message to extremist politicians: stop the attacks on working families and against workers who keep our communities secure.This victory was the result of movement building. Community groups and citizen activists came together to stand up for bargaining rights.The movement to stop the attacks on workers' rights, civil rights, our communities and the environment is growing stronger every day. And CWA members like you are making critical contributions.This Thursday, November 17, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, CWA is hosting our next Union Hall call. We will start off with an update on Verizon bargaining, then CWA leaders and activists will provide updates on the movement building that is going on in our communities.Sign up now to join the Union Hall call on Thursday, November 17.We must build the movement for a better America from the ground up. That means ensuring that all of our members and activists throughout the country are working together in support of workers' rights.We can't wait for it. We can't hope for it. We have to fight for it.Let's share our strategies and learn from each other. Sign up to join Thursday's Union Hall Call right now:
www.cwa-union.org/cwacallIn unity,Beth Allen
Online Mobilization CoordinatorYou have received this message through your subscription to a Communications Workers of America e-mail list.  If you did not subscribe or would like to unsubscribe click here.Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. All Rights Reserved. 
501 Third Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Chicago Warehouse Workers Navigate Maze of Contractors
to Organize

by Jane Slaughter
Labornotes
November 11, 2011

http://labornotes.org/print/2011/10/chicago-warehouse-workers-navigate-maze-contractors-organize

Heading down I-55 or I-80 southwest of Chicago, a
driver passes mile after mile of anonymous, windowless
warehouses. Each year a trillion dollars worth of goods
moves through the area, one of the bigger nodes in the
global distribution network of consumer products.

Computers, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, Halloween
costumes arrive at West Coast ports on ships from Asia,
are loaded onto trains, and chug to the City of Big
Shoulders, where all six Class 1 railroads meet.
Workers offload the goods, which are piled onto trucks
or other trains and travel to the big boxes.

In between, those goods spend some time in a warehouse.
"If it wasn’t for us, none of the stuff you have in
your house would be in your house," says Monica
Morales, a former worker at a warehouse for Bissell,
the vacuum cleaner maker. "There’s not many items that
we don’t touch."

Morales was fired in November 2009, along with 70 co-
workers, a week after they filed charges against their
employer, the contractor Maersk Logistics, for
violations of minimum wage, civil rights, and labor
laws and told management they had formed a union.

She is a member of Warehouse Workers for Justice, a
worker center affiliated with the United Electrical
Workers (UE). WWJ unites workers from across the
dizzying array of contractors that operate in the
warehouses and helps them fight for their rights with
lawsuits, media pressure, and in-plant actions.

On October 15, with support from WWJ, UE launched an
organizing committee, pulling together 50 leaders from
different shops as a first step toward forming a union
among the 150,000 warehouse workers in the area.

The dues-paying membership organization elected a
steering committee and video-conferenced with warehouse
workers in New Jersey and the Inland Empire in
California (see box) who were having similar meetings
at the same time.

TEMP MAJORITIES

Workers’ issues are abundant and so are their
obstacles.

The big retailers like Walmart often hire logistics
companies that manage the warehouses, and those
companies often staff through temp agencies.

A survey WWJ conducted with university researchers
found 63 percent of warehouse workers in Will County,
west of Chicago, are employed by temp agencies. There
are 100 temp agencies in that county alone, both big
national companies like Staffmark and small ones that
are locally owned.

"This is where our economy is headed," said UE
International Rep Mark Meinster. "We’re seeing this
type of temporary employment in manufacturing,
hospitality, health care, even retail. Unions need to
organize temp workers if we’re going to build power in
this economy."

A fifth of the workers surveyed had been working as a
temp for more than a year. Forty-four percent had
worked in two or more warehouses in the last year,
unable to land a "direct-hire" job.

The median wage for the temps surveyed was $9 an hour,
while direct-hire employees’ was $12.48. Almost no temp
workers had sick days, vacation, or health insurance. A
quarter of all warehouse workers received government
benefits of some sort.

A quarter of the workers were women, and more than a
third were under 26 years old. Nearly half were African
American and more than a third Latino.

A big issue is piecework, where workers are paid by the
shipping container. Depending on the contents, a team
of two workers might take a few hours or a whole shift
to unload a container, sometimes leaving them with less
than minimum wage.

BEATING CONTRACTORS

Though the contracting-out system poses an organizing
challenge, Meinster says it can be overcome. "Much in
the way the SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign
targeted building owners who had the real power," he
said, "we are targeting the large retailers who benefit
from the labor abuse in their supply chains."

In its organizing thus far, WWJ has found enough
stability in the workforce to form an organization that
can win gains. It is aided by an unusual Illinois law
that gives some rights to temp workers. The law spells
out temp companies’ obligations to inform workers of
their pay and job duties and specifies their right to a
secure, heated waiting area, with a restroom.

Most important, the law makes not only the temp agency
but also its client company responsible for following
the law. Workers can file a complaint against Walmart
or Home Depot for violations that happen in their
warehouses.

"Instead of simply filing a lawsuit, workers will march
on the boss or do press conferences to expose these
abuses," said Meinster.

In one large warehouse that distributes foods to ethnic
grocery stores, 10 Latino workers alleged they were
fired based on their national origin. With assistance
from WWJ, workers signed petitions and organized
protests against management.

WWJ organized a large delegation of Chicago Latino
community leaders to visit the plant and warn
management that discrimination against Latino workers
would bring on a boycott of the company’s products. The
workers were rehired.

At a warehouse that shipped Cadbury candy, WWJ got
complaints from workers about swastikas and KKK signs
in the bathrooms and break areas. They said managers
for the temp company that ran the warehouse sexually
harassed women workers and discriminated against Blacks
and Latinos for promotions.

Workers went to management repeatedly about the
graffiti and old, unsafe forklifts, but supervisors
turned a deaf ear.

WWJ helped workers organize a committee that circulated
petitions and carried out marches on the boss. They
filed suit and went public with their claims, garnering
media attention. Cadbury’s parent company, the
multinational Kraft Foods, intervened, firing managers,
scrubbing the graffitti, and addressing safety issues.
The discrimination cases are pending at the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.

On October 18 WWJ filed a class-action suit against
Nexus Employment Solutions, the temp agency at a Tyson
warehouse. Workers allege they were required to work
without pay for almost an hour before being allowed to
clock in. "If we didn’t show up 45 minutes early, they
wouldn’t let us work," said Nancy Price, who worked for
Nexus for 10 months.

EVERY DAY A RACE

WWJ member Uylonda Dickerson lost her job at a Walmart
warehouse six months ago. "This job was actually like a
race," she said. She and a partner, who were paid by
the piece, would pull up a cart to a trailer door and
unload, by hand, whatever items were inside, from
swimming pools to patio sets.

They then pulled the cart, by hand, to the other side
of the warehouse, where the items were loaded onto
another trailer bound for Walmart stores. "Then you go
back and do it all over again," Dickerson said.

Now Dickerson is a regular at WWJ rallies and has gone
door to door to recruit. She says at meetings, "we talk
amongst ourselves to see what we can do better. We make
each other feel good, because we might be down and out.
If you can go sit down and talk with strangers that
feel like family to you, that makes a big difference."

Railroad Van Drivers Organize

UE scored a victory among another category of workers
in the sprawling intermodal facilities around Chicago:
those who drive the vans that shuttle railroad
employees from yard to yard and from trains to hotels.

Twenty years ago this was a union railroad job at $20
an hour. Today it’s contracted out to a company called
Renzenberger, and pay started at minimum wage with no
paid days off-- until the union arrived.

The railroads haul goods from West Coast ports to
Chicago for big retailers like Target and Walmart. The
retailers’ relentless squeeze for cost reductions led
the railroads to contract out to a bottom-feeder like
Renzenberger.

Much of the workforce is on call 24 hours a day, and
many work second jobs, creating a safety issue for
sleep-deprived drivers and their passengers.

Last year the 160 Chicago-area Renzenberger workers at
the Burlington Northern Santa Fe voted for the UE by a
3-to-1 margin.

James Hill, president of the new local, says they won a
dollar an hour raise over three years-- but he’ll still
be making only $11.25.

The Steelworkers have won a Renzenberger unit in
Pennsylvania, and UE is organizing in California, Ohio,
and New Jersey. The company has thrown a wrench in
those plans by bringing in National Production Workers
Union Local 707, an outfit known for signing sweetheart
deals with employers that want to keep workers from
forming legitimate unions.

California Raids, Fines Walmart Warehouse

The Change to Win labor federation is sponsoring a
group called Warehouse Workers United to organize in a
similar complex of warehouses in California’s "Inland
Empire" east of Los Angeles.

Their organizing received a boost October 12 when the
state labor commissioner raided a Schneider Logistics
facility that moves stock for Walmart. Schneider is one
of the country’s largest shipping and warehousing
firms, and this warehouse is the most important Walmart
facility in Southern California.

Guadalupe Palma of WWU said, "This raid will force the
entire logistics industry to take notice."

Two subcontractors were issued citations for violating
labor law, such as failing to provide workers with wage
statements or keep wage and hour records. False pay
records were found. One company was fined $499,000.
Labor Commissioner Julie Su said the state would assess
the companies for "all wages owed to the workers."

Everardo Carrillo said his subcontractor "didn’t
respect our hours or shifts. They would tell you there
is no set schedule." He would be told to arrive at 5
a.m. and then wait until 8 a.m to start. Workers were
not paid for waiting time, which is illegal, and wage-
cheating was common.

Carrillo said workers were paid by the container they
unloaded. "They [management] didn’t care if you killed
yourself working there," he said. "It didn’t matter the
size of the boxes that you had to move. You had to move
it however you could do it."

Didn’t the company provide forklifts? "They said, ‘If
we help you with the forklift, it’s like we’re giving
you money for free,’" Carrillo said.

Warehouse Workers United said workers at the Schneider
warehouse function in temperatures sometimes over 100
degrees, for up to 15 hours a day, often seven days a
week.

On October 18 the group announced a federal class
action suit against Schneider and the two
subcontractors, alleging they regularly pay less than
minimum wage, deny overtime pay, and have fired workers
who challenged the vagueness of their checks.

____________________________________________

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@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@Waikiki Beach Protest (Brian Tseng)View slide show (1)|View on Flickr *Photos from anti-APEC / Free Hawai'i Demonstration (hopefully viewable):

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150350031051507.344948.668411506&type=1&l=b24f0f6825

*******

*Story From: Portside Moderator [mailto:moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG]
Sent: Sunday, November 13, 2011 8:04 PM
To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: Street Heat at APEC

Street Heat at APEC
By Tina Gerhardt
Published by Portside
November 13, 2011

Honolulu, Hawai'i - As President Obama sought to make
headway on the first significant Free Trade Agreement
since NAFTA, a week of demonstrations protested the
move.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit
kicked off on Tuesday, November 8 and runs through
Sunday, November 13, 2011.

Numerous actions have been protesting the APEC summit.
And not only here in Honolulu.

The summit brings together 21 Pacific Rim economies.
Currently, the United States is seeking to pave the way
for a Free Trade Agreement of the Asia Pacific region.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an agreement to
liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, is
its first incarnation. Signed in 2005 and implemented in
2006, the TPP includes Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and
Singapore.

Australia, Malaysia, Peru, United States and Vietnam are
negotiating to join.

On Friday, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
announced interest in joining.

Memories of the 1997 Economic Meltdown in Southeeast Asia

In response to Prime Minister Noda's decision, 6000
protestors demonstrated against the TPP in Tokyo.

Joining the TPP would deeply impact farmers,
particularly rice and wheat farmers, since a free trade
agreement would erase the tariffs on imported grains,
allowing Australia, the United States and Vietnam to
import cheaper grain.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis is seared into the minds
of farmers of the region. Countries most effected were
Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand, as well as Japan,
Laos, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

As the economies of these countries melted down, the IMF
offered loans. These funds were typically tied to
neoliberal realignments of economy. Abolishing tariffs
on imports forms one part of such an economic
integration.

Under this system, local farmers would not be able to
compete with cheap imported grain.

Thus, the current free trade agreements under discussion
are already meeting with strong resistance througout the
region.

De-Occupy Honolulu

In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and "with the
people of occupied lands everywhere," Occupy Honolulu
movement has been underway since Saturday, October 8.
http://www.deoccupyhonolulu.org/

Reflecting local politics, the first general assembly
kicked off with a heated discussion about the very name
of the movement: occupy? (in solidarity with Wall
Street); de-occupy? (to reflect local positions on
sovereignty rights); or re-occupy?

Occupy Honolu established an encampment in Thomas Park
to settle in overnight last Saturday, November 5, 2011.
Eight persons were arrested. Since then, Occupy Honolulu
has re-occupied the park.

Honolulu Police Department threatens to evict them,
arguing that the park closes at 10:00 pm and the
protestors do not have the right to stay beyond that
time.

Insisting on their first amendment rights, the
encampment continues to occupy Thomas Park in downtown
Honolulu.

Megan Brooker with De-Occupy Honolulu said "20 to 25
people stayed on last night. We are joining the march
this afternoon and then heading back to the encampment,
which is in Thomas Park across from the Honolulu Academy
of Arts, where an APEC related event will take place
tonight. So we plan to protest that and camp out."

APEC attendees have been invited to a cultural reception
at the Honolulu Academy of Arts to take place this
evening from 7:00-10:00 pm.

Iolani Palace

On Monday, twenty-two persons calling itself "Aupuni O
Ko Hawaii Pae Aina" (Hawaiian Kingdom Government) were
arrested at a sovereignty rights protest at Iolani
Palace.

On Sunday evening, the Native Hawaiian group had locked
the gates surrounding the palace grounds and occupied
the area.

Iolani Palace is the only royal palace used as an
official residence by a reigning monarch. It served in
this capacity until the overthrow of the Kingdom of
Hawai'i in 1893.

On Monday, after the group was arrested, Governor
Abercrombie announced that the Iolani Palace would be
closed during the APEC summit, as a security precaution,
and would re-open on Tuesday November 15.

The decision was made without consulting the Iolani
Palace managers. Many are not pleased.

Kippen de Alba Chu, Executive Director of Iolani Palace,
said the palace "had to issue apologies to the
delegations of China, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Taiwan
and the U.S. Department of Commerce, all of whom had
planned special visits to the historical site for high-
ranking officials."

As Lorenz Gonschor, Ph.D. student in Department of
Political Science at UHM, focusing on Hawaiian history,
put it, "precisely the closure of the palace would have
provided the ideal security conditions for a tour by
high-ranking delegates. The palace is one of the most
important sites documenting the history and annexation
of Hawai'i."

Many of the countries, who are members of APEC,
previously had diplomatic relations with the independent
nation and royalty of Hawai'i, and underscored this
history explicitly in their request to be able to visit
the Iolani Palace.

Whose Security?

Tuesday, the summit's kickoff was greeted by a
demonstration of around 100 persons that proceeded from
the Old Stadium Park to the Convention Center.

The demonstration protested the killing of 23 year-old
local resident Kollin Eldert by State Department special
agent Christopher Deedy, who was part of a special task
force brought into Honolulu by to provide security.

The fatal shooting took place Sunday, November 6, the
weekend before the APEC summit kicked off.

Deedy has been put on administrative leave and is
scheduled to face trial after APEC concludes, on
November 17.

Human Rights

In conjunction with a march this afternoon, members of
the Vietnamese-American community in Hawai'i have
gathered to raise public awareness of human rights
violations in Vietnam.

In particular, they seek the repeal or revision of
article 88, which prohibits "writings against the
Socialist state." The protestors argue that it is
"frequently used to arrest and detain peaceful bloggers
and democracy activists."

They also demand revision of article 79, which prohibits
"carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the
people's administration." Being charged with violating
article 79 is punishable with death.

Beach Heat

This morning, demonstrators protested APEC with a jog
along the beach, in bikinis and carrying protest
banners.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/civilbeat/6337978311/in/set-72157627988580397/

Street Heat

Saturday afternoon, demonstrators marched against APEC.
Hundreds gathered and walked about 1.5 miles to the Hale
Koa Hotel, where heads of state were due to arrive for
dinner.

The protesters yelled "we are the 99%," and "No Aloha
APEC," as secret service men and police officers teemed
and videotaped the action.

Signs read "Robin Hood was right" and "I need a bail
out."

The action proceeded peacefully. After about 20 to 30
minutes of cheering, dancing and chanting at the chain
link fence that barricaded the Hale Koa Hotel, the
demonstrators continued to Old Stadium Park and to the
Occupy Honolulu encampment at Thomas Park.

=====

Tina Gerhardt is an independent journalist and academic,
who covers international summits and climate
negotiations, climate policy, and related direct
actions.

Her work has appeared in Alternet, Earth Island Journal,
Environment News Service, Grist, The Huffington Post, In
These Times, The Progressive, The Nation, and Salon.com.

She has appeared on the Laura Flanders' Show on GRIT tv;
Pacifica Stations KPFA's Against the Grain, KPFK's
Sojourner Truth and WBAI's Wake Up Call; and the
National Radio Project.

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: portside at portside.org

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