[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 11.16.11-I
Carlos Pelayo
cgpelayo at hotmail.com
Thu Nov 17 02:30:05 UTC 2011
NAFTA Complaint Highlights Mexico's Disregard for Its Labor Laws
Suburbs Poorer, Middle Class Shrinking, Rich Enclaves Expanding
URGENT: Justice for Janitors Action - Thursday at noon!
Fix This Bridge! THURSDAY, 4 PM
A Return to Jim Crow?
Beware the Trojan Horse
Manifiesto del Movimiento por el Control Obrero de la Gran Caracas
Online DVD Lawsuit -- Current and Former Netflix Subscribers
General Strike/port action proposal for tonight's General Assembly in light of recent attacks
There Is Power in Community Allies
Goodbye to the 'Middle-Class'? A Lesson for Labor From Occupy Wall Street
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"NAFTA Complaint Highlights Mexico's Disregard for Its Labor Laws," November 14, 2011
http://solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=1324
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Ualeindiv mailing list
Ualeindiv at lists.uale.org
http://lists.uale.org/mailman/listinfo/ualeindiv
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Suburbs Poorer, Middle Class Shrinking, Rich Enclaves Expanding
By Loop 21 Staff | The Loop 21
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From: The San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council <info at unionyes.org>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:15:37 -0500 (EST)
To: <info at lclaa-sdimpcounties.org>
ReplyTo: info at unionyes.org
Subject: URGENT: Justice for Janitors Action - Thursday at noon!
EMERGENCY ACTION
Justice for Janitors!
The Department of Homeland Security is threatening to audit janitors here in San Diego, which would devastate more than 1000 hard-working janitors and their families. Join more than 300 janitors and community and union members to protect working families and their jobs in San Diego and advocate an immediate end to enforcement-only immigration policies.
San Diego Day of Action
Thursday, November 17
March at 12 p.m. from Civic Center Plaza (1200 3rd Ave., 92101)
to the Federal Building
Vigil at 5 p.m. at the Federal Building
(880 Front St., 92101)
For more information or to RSVP, please contact Sandy at (619) 228-8101. Your presence is needed to strengthen rights for ALL workers and demand Justice for Janitors!
Click here to unsubscribe
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From: Jerry Tomaszewicz <jtomaszewicz at unionyes.org>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:13:27 +0000
Subject: Fix This Bridge! THURSDAY, 4 PM
Join the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council in a National Infrastructure Day of Action, by calling on Brian Bilbray to support the American Jobs Act! We need to put American back to work and fix our country’s crumbling roads and bridges, and the American Jobs Act is a great first step.
We will rally at 4 p.m. at the parking lot at Clairemont Dr. and Morena Blvd., east of the I-5, and then march to the Clairemont Dr. bridge over the I-5. (See attached flyer for more information.)
We hope to see you on Thursday!
Jerry N. Tomaszewicz, Jr.
Executive Assistant to Secretary-Treasurer & CEO Lorena Gonzalez / Field Organizer
San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, AFL-CIO
3737 Camino del Rio South, Suite 403
San Diego, CA 92108
desk: 619.228.8101, ex. 5
cell: 413.210.3664
fax: 619.281.1296
email: jt at unionyes.org or jtomaszewicz at unionyes.org
web: www.unionyes.org
"Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. And you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." -- Cesar Chavez
jnt/OPEIU-537, AFL-CIO
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Nov. 16, 2011
Tomorrow, at dozens of bridges that are in desperate need of repair, union members and jobless workers will call on Congress to invest in infrastructure to create jobs. Click here to find an event near you.
A delegation of African American labor and civil rights leaders is in Alabama on a fact-finding mission on the state’s new anti-immigrant law that some say is reminiscent of the Jim Crow South. They will investigate the law’s impact on Latino working families, thousands of whom have reportedly fled the state.
Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org.
Find a Bridge Action Near You Nov. 17
Raids on Occupy Protesters ‘Inexcusable,’ Says Trumka
Poet Laureate Levine: I Do Believe in People
IMF Authors: Banking Deregulation Worsens Economic Crises
Harkin to Republicans: Focus on Jobs, Not Attacks on Workers’ Rights
Union/Toys for Tots Partnership Kicks off Annual Drive
Read 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.
(Message and data rates may apply.)
To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.
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The attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and even Social Security are relentless. And instead of helping get Americans back to work, some in Congress are now trying to use tricks to dismantle these basic protections. The latest trick is a Trojan horse called a "Balanced Budget Amendment."
Changing the U.S. Constitution to include a balanced budget requirement would make it even harder fix the jobs crisis and would force deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
That's why I hope you'll take action and send a message to your representative right now as he/she consider this bill.
A balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution is not a solution to the real problems we face. A balanced budget amendment would put the economy in a strait jacket, throwing 15 million more people out of work and doubling the unemployment rate. It would lead to the same deep cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are called for in the House-passed Republican budget. It makes me sick that this proposal would balance the budget on the backs of middle-class families and the most vulnerable in our society.
This proposal is an outright affront to basic American values. It would write into the Constitution unrealistic, inappropriate economic policy. It would put the entire federal budget and safety-net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and even veteran's benefits on the chopping block — while maintaining the millionaire tax giveaways that got us into this mess in the first place. It’s disgraceful.
Take action against this outrageous proposal today.
In Solidarity,
Chuck Loveless
Legislative Director
AFSCME
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http://www.luchadeclases.org.ve/control-obrero-leftmenu-167/7140-movcontrolobrerogccs
Manifiesto del Movimiento por el Control Obrero de la Gran Caracas
Escrito por Mov. Control Obreo GCCS
Martes 15 de Noviembre de 2011
A continuación les presentamos el manifiesto elaborado por los compañeros y compañeras que forman parte del Movimiento por el Control Obrero de la Gran Caracas, de cara al nacimiento del gran Polo patriótico (GPP) y a su construcción desde las bases, así como también, de cara a la situación actual de la lucha del movimiento obrero venezolano contra los ataques del capital y de la burocracia del estado burgués, planteando por lo tanto, la necesidad de profundizar y radicalizar el proceso revolucionario para poder derrotar al capitalismo, y asegurar así el triunfo del pueblo en la próxima batalla electoral del 7 de Octubre.
MANIFIESTO DEL MOVIMIENTO POR EL CONTROL OBRERO DE LA GRAN CARACAS
Vivimos en una sociedad atravesada y desgarrada por profundas y terribles contradicciones. A pesar de que una buena parte de los hombres y mujeres que forman parte de la sociedad venezolana y mundial no se han dado cuenta aún de ello (o no quieren quizás darse cuenta de ello), vivimos en un mundo donde pocos gobiernan a muchos, donde un puñado de capitalistas y latifundistas, se apropian gratuitamente de la mayor parte del fruto del trabajo de las masas obreras y campesinas. La vida bajo el capitalismo es una permanente batalla diaria por el sustento, una batalla que deben realizar todos los días los oprimidos de la sociedad, por alcanzar las condiciones mínimas para sobrevivir, una batalla que cada día más deja de ser netamente económica para pasar a hacer una lucha política tenaz contra la burguesía y sus medios de dominación.
Sin embargo, tal ha sido el impacto de los medios de dominación de la burguesía sobre los pueblos, sobre todo de sus aparatos ideológicos, tales como la educación oficial y los medios de comunicación, que ha logrado la disociación de millones de personas que no desean sentirse parte del pueblo, de las masas trabajadoras, y siguen repitiendo consciente e inconscientemente las mentiras y falsas consignas de la burguesía, sirviendo así a sus mecanismos de dominio que los aislan y alienan del conglomerado explotado.
A pesar de ello, como consecuencia de las propias contradicciones del sistema capitalista que tienden a conducir a la sociedad a períodos de crisis cada vez más graves y profundas, sus efectos sobre la población se hacen cada vez más visibles, devastadores y terribles, como el caso de Grecia donde la edad de jubilación ascendió a 73 años, o en España donde el desempleo general supera el 20% y el juvenil 50%, lo que genera como consecuencia un despertar de las masas trabajadoras que durante años estuvieron en su mayoría aletargadas frente al sistema, generando movilizaciones cada vez mayores y poderosas de las masas obreras contra el capitalismo, no sólo en Grecia o España sino en todo el mundo, como hemos podido ver en Egipto, Túnez, Chile, Gran Bretaña, el resto de Europa y del mundo árabe, e incluso hasta en los EEUU.
En el caso de nuestro país, como consecuencia de esas contradicciones, que se reflejaron concretamente en décadas de la más cruda miseria y opresión para nuestro pueblo, la clase trabajadora venezolana y el pueblo oprimido en su conjunto despertaron también del letargo político al que estuvieron sometidos durante décadas, para comenzar a tomar con ambas manos las riendas de su propio destino como pueblo, iniciándose así, el período histórico que ha sido denominado como la Revolución Bolivariana.
Es en este contexto histórico que decimos que Bolívar y Zamora han despertado en nosotr at s para continuar la lucha que ellos encabezaron siglos atrás contra los opresores, opresores que a diferencia de aquellas épocas, lo único que han cambiado es el disfraz con el cual se nos presentan, pero sin embargo, no han cambiado casi nada en lo que respecta a la esencia de su explotación sobre el pueblo.
La lucha que actualmente está librando la clase trabajadora contra la burguesía venezolana cada vez que organiza un sindicato revolucionario y clasista en una empresa, o cada vez que ocupa una fábrica cerrada para ponerla a producir bajo control de l at s trabajador at s, así como la lucha que libran l at s trabajador at s estatales cada vez que organizan un sindicato o un consejo de trabajador at s a fin de luchar contra el sabotaje promovido por la burocracia contrarrevolucionaria e implementar el control obrero sobre la administración y producción o sobre el proceso de trabajo en general, es una continuación de las luchas que libraron Zamora y del ejército campesino revolucionario contra los antiguos latifundistas, usureros y empresarios de la época, así como la lucha de Bolívar y del ejército popular independentista contra esclavistas, latifundistas y contra el imperio español. Todas estas luchas son simplemente fases históricas de una única lucha, la lucha de clases entre opresores y oprimidos, la lucha de las masas trabajadoras por expropiar a quienes diariamente han expropiado durante siglos el fruto de su sudor y esfuerzo, a fin de poner tales riquezas al servicio de toda la sociedad y no de un puñado de parásitos.
A pesar de que como planteamos arriba, millones de trabajador at s a nivel mundial no se consideran parte de la clase obrera, es importante destacar que todos y todas las que devengamos un salario, que vendemos nuestra fuerza de trabajo a un patrono y que no poseemos otros medios de producción ni herramientas de trabajo más que nuestra propia fuerza de trabajo y preparación técnica, somos todos obreros; ya sea que laboremos de conserjes, vigilantes, ingenier at s, oficinistas u otr at s, todos generamos la riqueza que hace posible la existencia de la sociedad, ya sea en forma de dinero o de bienes y servicios, a cambio de lo cual recibimos una parte muy pequeña en forma de salario.
Ahora bien, dentro de la lucha de clases, la burguesía trata siempre de acercarse a los propios dirigentes de la clase trabajadora, a fin de engañarles y comprarles, siendo éstos al final víctimas de la avaricia heredada del sistema, que terminan colocándose también el disfraz de la burguesía, repitiendo muchas veces sus peores prácticas. Todo esto lo realiza la burguesía con el fin de tener sus propios agentes políticos dentro de nuestras propias filas revolucionarias, como un mecanismo más sutil de dominación de la clase obrera.
He allí una de las contradicciones políticas esenciales de nuestro proceso revolucionario: La existencia de una burocracia contrarrevolucionaria que posee todavía un fuerte liderazgo frente al movimiento popular revolucionario, y que sin embargo, no apoya un programa de cambios y transformaciones verdaderas y radicales de nuestra sociedad actual, que plantee como tareas esenciales, la abolición del estado burgués como aparato de opresión de la clase obrera por parte de la burguesía, y su substitución por un estado construido sobre la base de los consejos de trabajador at s, verdaderamente democrático y al servicio de las mayorías oprimidas, así como también, la socialización de la propiedad de los latifundios, de la industria y de la banca, a fin de ponerles al servicio de la construcción de una economía socialista bajo control de la clase trabajadora, que satisfaga las principales necesidades de nuestro pueblo, y contribuya a lograr para éste la mayor suma de felicidad posible.
Dicha burocracia, es la misma que le cierra cada vez más las puertas al pueblo en las instituciones, que sabotea el funcionamiento de las misiones, que hace más lentos los procesos de trámite para la ejecución de políticas gubernamentales que son imprescindibles para el bienestar de nuestras comunidades, que desvía recursos para proyectos sociales de salud, alimentación o infraestructura, que persigue y acosa al movimiento obrero organizado dentro del estado, que le tiende la mano a la derecha cuando habla de revolución, en fin, que sabotea descaradamente al proceso revolucionario jugando a su derrota y buscando hacer un daño enorme a la gestión de nuestro Camarada Presidente Hugo Chávez.
Por todo lo expuesto arriba, nosotr at s, l at s trabajador at s que formamos parte del Movimiento por el Control Obrero de la Gran Caracas, conscientes de nuestro papel en la historia, y por lo tanto, conscientes de que es necesario dotar de un programa de lucha revolucionario al movimiento popular, así como de construir espacios para la dirección colectiva del proceso revolucionario que hagan frente al ala reformista y burocrática de la dirigencia de nuestra revolución, hemos tomado por obligación trabajar arduamente en la construcción colectiva de tales espacios, que nos permitan articular las distintas luchas de los trabajadores y trabajadoras de distintos ministerios, instituciones estatales, fábricas y demás empresas en una sola lucha, a fin de promover la unidad del movimiento obrero y la movilización cada vez más masiva de la clase trabajadora y el pueblo todo en la lucha por la construcción del socialismo.
En ése sentido DECLARAMOS:
Basta de precarización del trabajo juvenil y del adulto mayor, la tercerización e inestabilidad laboral.
Contra la discriminación por raza genero o edad de cualquier trabajador o trabajadora.
Basta de persecuciones, acoso laboral, amedrentamiento contra l at s trabajador at s que se organizan en sus centros de trabajo. l at s trabajador at s tienen plenos derechos a organizarse, ya sea en sindicatos, comités de prevención y salud laboral y/o en consejos de trabajador at s.
Contra la discriminación por orientación sexual, identidad de género y/o expresión de género.
Apoyo total a las luchas de mujeres y hombres por sus derechos a la crianza de sus hij at s en edad inicial y la extensión de los periodos de lactancia materna.
Basta de cerrar los medios de comunicación del Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos (SNMP) a la difusión de las luchas de la clase obrera contra la burocracia y contra la manipulación sobre la noticia de las luchas obreras que hace el sector privado.
Contra la discrecionalidad del Ministerio del Trabajo en relación con los conflictos laborales del sector público.
Por una nueva y revolucionaria Ley Orgánica del Trabajo y la Ley Especial de Consejos de Trabajador at S
Basta del sicariato por parte de patronos privados y uso de los organismos de fuerza pública e inteligencia contra la clase obrera.
Nuestra defensa del internacionalismo proletario, en ése sentido apoyamos todas las luchas de la clase obrera contra la burguesía y su aparato represivo de estado en cualquier lugar del planeta.
Nuestro total apoyo al camarada Presidente Hugo Chávez frías de cara a la misión 7 de octubre.
¡NI BUROCRACIA NI CAPITAL! ¡MÁS SOCIALISMO Y MÁS REVOLUCIÓN PARA VENCER EL 7 DE OCTUBRE!
¡TODO EL PODER PARA LA CLASE OBRERA!
Visita: http://controlobrerogc.blogspot.com/ Siguenos en el twitter: @ControlObreroGC o por nuestro grupo en el fb: controlobreroencaracas at groups.facebook.com
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From: OnlineDVDclass.com <donotreply at OnlineDVDclass.com>
To: inmart5 <inmart5 at aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Nov 15, 2011 4:54 pm
Subject: Online DVD Lawsuit -- Current and Former Netflix Subscribers
If You Rented Online DVDs from Netflix
A Class Action and a Settlement with Wal-Mart May Affect Your Rights
Para una notificación en Español, llamar 1-877-389-4469 o visitar www.OnlineDVDclass.com
Records show that you paid a subscription fee to rent DVDs online from Netflix anytime from May 19, 2005 to September 2, 2011. We are emailing to tell you about a Settlement and lawsuit that may affect your legal rights. You may be eligible to receive a cash payment or gift card from the Settlement. Please read this email carefully. Go to www.OnlineDVDclass.com for more information.
There is a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Walmart.com USA LLC (together called “Wal-Mart”) and Netflix, Inc. (“Netflix”) involving the price of online DVD rentals. The Class Action seeks money for current and former Netflix subscribers. A Settlement has been reached with Wal-Mart. Netflix and Wal-Mart believe that the lawsuit has no basis. Netflix has not settled the lawsuit and the litigation continues against it.
What is the lawsuit about?
The lawsuit claims that Wal-Mart and Netflix reached an unlawful agreement under which Wal-Mart would withdraw from the online DVD rental market and Netflix would not sell new DVDs. Wal-Mart and Netflix deny that they entered into such an agreement or that they have done anything wrong, that the Plaintiffs have been harmed in any way, or that the price of online DVD rentals was raised or inflated by any agreement between Wal-Mart and Netflix. The Court has not decided who is right.
The Litigation Class Against Netflix
Who’s included in the Netflix Litigation Class? Any person or entity in the United States that paid a subscription fee to Netflix anytime from May 19, 2005 to September 30, 2010.
What are my rights in the Netflix Litigation Class?
Remain in the Litigation: If you wish to remain in the Litigation, you do not need to take any action at this time.
Get out of the Litigation: If you wish to keep your individual right to sue Netflix about these claims you must exclude yourself. To ask to be excluded, send a letter to the address below, postmarked by February 14, 2012, that says you want to be excluded from In re: Online DVD Rental Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2029. Include your name, address, and telephone number.
The Wal-Mart Settlement Class
Who’s included in the Wal-Mart Settlement Class? Any person or entity living in the United States or Puerto Rico that paid a subscription fee to rent DVDs online from Netflix anytime from May 19, 2005 to and including September 2, 2011.
What does the Settlement provide? Wal-Mart will pay $27,250,000, in cash and gift cards, to settle the lawsuit. If you qualify, you can get a cash payment or a gift card that can be used at www.walmart.com. The actual amount paid in cash and in gift cards depends on the total number of valid claims filed.
Class Counsel will ask the Court to award the following: (1) attorneys’ fees up to 25% of the Settlement Fund, plus costs that Class Counsel estimate at up to $1.7 million, (2) administration and notice costs, and (3) $5,000 for each of the Class Representatives (up to $80,000 total which could include the class representatives from cases filed in California state courts). After these fees and costs are deducted from the Settlement Fund, the remaining amount will be equally divided amongst the Wal-Mart Settlement Class Members who file valid claims.
How to get Settlement benefits? You must submit a Claim Form to get benefits. You can submit a Claim Form online (for gift cards only) or by mail. The deadline to submit a Claim Form is February 14, 2012. Click here to get a Claim Form or call 1-877-389-4469.
What are my rights in the Wal-Mart Settlement Class?
Remain in the Settlement: If you wish to remain in the Wal-Mart Settlement Class and get benefits, you need to file a claim.
Get out of the Settlement: If you wish to keep your right to individually sue Wal-Mart about the claims in this case you must exclude yourself by February 14, 2012 from both the Wal-Mart Settlement Class and the Netflix Litigation Class. See the instruction on how to “Get out of the Litigation” above.
Remain in the Wal-Mart Settlement Class and Object: If you stay in the Wal-Mart Settlement Class you can object to it by February 14, 2012.
The detailed notice, available at www.OnlineDVDclass.com or by calling 1-877-389-4469, explains how to exclude yourself or object.
The Court will hold a hearing on March 14, 2012 to consider whether to approve the Settlement, and a request for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses. If you wish, you or your own attorney may ask to appear and speak at the hearing at your own cost.
For More Information: 1-877-389-4469 www.OnlineDVDclass.com
Netflix Lawsuit, PO Box 2602, Faribault, MN 55021-9602
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Sent: Tue, November 15, 2011 10:36:24 AM
Subject: General Strike/port action proposal for tonight's General Assembly in light of recent attacks
The following proposal will be presented to the GA tonight by the Port Action/General Strike affinity group which met the last two Sundays on the west steps:
OccupyLA Proposal by Port Action/General Strike affinity group
What: Carry out a port action, "Occupy the Ports/A Day without Goldman Sachs," on December 12 as part of the Dec. 12 day of action, Boycott and March already adopted by the GA. The occupation will take place at at least one facility owned by SSA Marine, a shipping company belonging to Goldman Sachs, (coordinated with a possible port shut down by the port truck drivers) as a build up towards a General Strike on May 1, 2012.
How: a) Establish a General Strike Preparation Committee of OccupyLA, which will work with the Dec. 12 Coalition, port truck drivers, longshore, warehouse and other port workers, community residents, unions, and OccupyLongBeach to plan and organize the Dec. 12 actions. b) Develop alliances in the process with organized and unorganized labor, student and community groups to prepare for and build towards a General Strike on May 1, 2012, >> EMPHASIS ADDED: or at any moment that circumstances and conditions demand<<. c) Call on other Occupations to act on Dec. 12 and May 1.
Why: The 1% are depriving port truck drivers and other workers of decent pay, working conditions and the right to organize, even while the port of LA/LB is the largest in the US and a huge engine of profits for the 1%. They have pursued a conscious policy of de-industrialization that has resulted in "trade" at the port meaning that there are 7 containers coming in for every one going out. They have driven migrant workers into a "grey market" economy and repression. The port drivers and other workers have the power to push forward the kind of change we need. By building towards a general strike, we can spread the Occupy movement and sink roots in the 99%.
I intend to add the following two sentences near the end of the "why" section as a friendly amendment during discussion, to go between "...repression." and "The port drivers...:"
The 1% use police brutality and repression, jails and prisons to suppress, divide and try to silence the 99% and all who oppose their insatiable greed. To put an end to all that, we call on the 99% to march, boycott, occupy the ports, and STRIKE on December 12 for full legalization, good jobs for all, equality and justice.
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There Is Power in Community Allies
BY JAKE BLUMGART
WEDNESDAY NOV 16, 2011 8:59 AM
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12300/there_is_power_in_community_allies/
NYC wage theft victory shows growing role of nonunion
labor groups
Jesus Najera's job at the Brooklyn grocery store Master
Food, where he has worked since 2004, used to force him
to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, with no overtime,
for less than $4 an hour. (The minimum wage is currently
$7.25.) Abuses of this magnitude are quite common in the
low-pay, service sector, especially among the immigrant
community.
It has been estimated that more than $30 billion is
stolen from American workers every year. If the cases
are fought at all, workers are usually able to reclaim
some of their stolen wages, but not their jobs.
But the Master Store story is atypical. Najera and some
of his co-workers fought back, with the help of New York
Communities for Change (NYCC), a Brooklyn-based
community advocacy organization, and Local 338 of the
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store/United Food and
Commercial Workers union. "Things were very, very bad,"
Najera says. "But we started to organize in the store so
they didn't keep abusing us."
Now, a little less than a year later, the workers have
won back a significant amount of their stolen wages and
secured a union contract specifying benefits and
increased pay.
This innovative settlement, ratified by workers on
October 31, is the result of a collaboration between
NYCC and Local 338, which has many grocery worker
members. In 2010, the local began canvassing
neighborhoods across Brooklyn, talking to workers and
trying to get them interested in the organization. In
December they met a couple of the Master Food workers,
and three months later the workers voted to join the
RWDSU/UFCW local 338.
After negotiations with the employer broke down, they
filed a lawsuit against the company in May. But instead
of merely securing the stolen wages, they used the
employer's illegal actions and the staggering sums
stolen as leverage. The amount owed to the workers was
enough to bankrupt the business, but the workers agreed
to settle for well below the total amount in exchange
for continued employment under a union contract.
"There wasn't much the employers could do because we
were hitting them from both sides," says Lucas Sanchez,
an organizer with NYCC. "We had the workers organized in
the union and we had the workers organized as plaintiffs
in the lawsuit. The employer tried to retaliate by
cutting some hours, but we responded immediately. We had
rallies, the support of local elected officials, and
press coverage. There wasn't much he could do except try
to negotiate the best settlement possible."
Negotiations ended last month, and the workers came away
with $300,000 of the $500,000 claimed in back wages and,
of course, the contract. (Najera personally won
$15,000.) In addition to the standard minimum wage pay
which they were cheated out of before, the workers will
receive a raise of 35 cents an hour, followed by another
25 cents next year. Benefits include vacation, holiday,
sick, personal and funeral days, and a guarantee that
"the Employer shall not hire any new employee if said
hiring results or would result in the reduction of any
current employee's hours of work."
The new contract also includes grievance procedures to
resolve issues that arise in the workplace. As much as
the material gains, the union contract is important
because it gives the workers protection from abuse or
retaliation, especially important for low-wage workers.
Few people realize that a union is basically the only
sure way to protect a worker from employers who are
legally allowed to fire-at-will, for any reason.
"It's a complicated world out there, and being a union
puts them on firm footing to analyze what's going on
around them," says Kevin Lynch, former organizing
director for Local 338 and an advisor to NYCC. "The fact
that a boss can fire you because of the color of your
hat comes as a shock to natives, but it isn't a shock to
immigrants, because they are often treated with total
contempt on the job. What's going to be a learning
experience for them is that the boss can lo no longer do
that--the confidence that comes with a written contract."
The Master Food campaign wasn't an isolated fight. It is
part of a wider campaign orchestrated by NYCC, and
several other lawsuits are pending against other
employers with similar records of wage theft and other
kinds of abuse. They hope to use the model organize
other unjust, low-wage workplaces, including car washes
and restaurants.
These industries have proved difficult for unions to
organize through traditional means. Low-wage workers are
often unaware of their rights and work in establishments
with high turnover rates, making organizing drives
difficult to sustain. Immigrant workforces present
special challenges, including language barriers and
fears of immigration authorities for those workers who
do not have the proper documentation.
Because labor unions can be hesitant to invest scarce
resources in such a risky organizing drive, workers'
centers and community groups have been low-income
workers' chief source of support and solidarity. While
workers' centers have experienced success winning back
wages and educating workers, they largely haven't been
able to provide the long-term protections afforded by a
union contract. But many of those within the workers'
center movement are expanding their efforts by working
with unions. The NYCC model is just one example. In
Chicago, the Arise Chicago workers' center and the
United Steelworkers are acting in concert to organize
carwash employees who have long been cheated of their
wages and their rights.
"Unions are not going to go after small workplaces,
because they have to be resource efficient," says Adam
Kader, director of Arise Chicago, which is working on
several union-organizing projects. "Workers centers can
make it worth a unions' while. If you partner with a
workers center you'll have an organized, militant,
competent group of people to work with. And we have a
point of access with hard to reach workers, because we
are rooted in those hard-to-reach communities."
In the meantime, the Master Food employees are going
about their jobs with a heightened sense of confidence.
"I'm so happy, extremely happy, and so are all my other
co-workers," Najera says. "I'd like to send a send a
message to the Hispanic community here in New York that
we do have rights, we just have to organize each other
to defend our rights. We are not alone. We just have to
look for the support."
____________________________________________
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Goodbye to the 'Middle-Class'?
A Lesson for Labor From
Occupy Wall Street
BY STEVE EARLY
Working om The Times
Nov. 15, 2011
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12299/good-bye_to_the_middle-class_a_lesson_for_labor_from_occupy_wall_street/
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has given our timorous,
unimaginative and politically ambivalent unions a
much-needed ideological dope slap. Some might describe
this, more diplomatically, as a second injection of
"outside-the-box" thinking and new organizational
blood.
Top AFL-CIO officials first sought an infusion of those
scarce commodities in labor when they jetted into
Wisconsin last winter. Without their planning or
direction, the spontaneous community-labor uprising in
Wisconsin was in the process of recasting the debate
about public sector bargaining throughout the U.S. So
they were eager to join the protest even though it was
launched from the bottom up, rather than in response to
union headquarters directives from Washington, D.C.
This fall, OWS has become the new Lourdes for the old,
lame, and blind of American labor. Union leaders have
been making regular visits to Zuccotti Park and other
high-profile encampments around the country. According
to NYC retail store union leader Stuart Applebaum, "the
Occupy movement has changed unions"--both in the area of
membership mobilization and "messaging."
It would be a miraculous transformation indeed if
organized labor suddenly embraced greater direct
action, democratic decision-making and rank-and-file
militancy. Since that's unlikely to occur in the
absence of internal upheavals, unions might want to
focus instead on casting aside the crutch of their own
flawed messaging. That means adopting the Occupation
movement's brilliant popular "framing" of the class
divide and ditching labor's own muddled conception of
class in America.
Them and us, updated
In his 1974 memoir and union history, United Electrical
Workers co-founder Jim Matles reminded readers that
labor struggles are about "them and us"--or, as OWS puts
it, "the 1 percent" vs. the "99 percent."
Unfortunately, most other unions have long relied on
high-priced Democratic Party consultants, their focus
groups and opinion polling, to shape labor's public
"messaging" in much less effective fashion. The results
of this collaboration have been unhelpful, to say the
least. Organizations that are supposed to the voice of
the working class majority have instead positioned
themselves-narrowly and confusedly-as defenders of
America's "middle class," an always fuzzy construct now
being rendered even less meaningful by the
recession-driven downward mobility of millions of
people.
As SUNY professor Michael Zweig argued in his book, The
Working Class Majority: America's Best-Kept Secret,
labor's never ending mantra about the "middle class"
leaves class relations--and the actual class position of
most of the population--is shrouded in rhetorical fog.
Zweig points out that the working class in America
today looks quite different than the blue-collar
proletariat of the last century, which leads many to
believe that differences in "status, income, or
life-styles" define where they stand on the economic
and social ladder. But "the real basis of social class
lies in the varying amounts of power people have at
work and in the larger society....The sooner we realize
that classes exist and understand the power relations
that are driving the economic and political changes
swirling around us, the sooner we will be able to build
an openly working class politics."
As Zweig would agree I'm sure, labor's "framing" not
only lacks the clear resonance of that employed by the
new anti-capitalist campaigners of OWS; "one of the
great weaknesses" of the standard union view of class
"is that it confuses the target of political conflict."
When the working class disappears into an amorphous
"middle class," not only do the "working poor" (a mere
46 million strong) drop out of the picture, but "the
capitalist class disappears into 'the rich.' And when
the capitalist class disappears from view, it cannot be
a target."
Well, thanks to OWS --but not most unions--that target is
back in view. As a result of Occupation activity, there
is now a far more favorable climate of public opinion
for waging key contract fights at Verizon and other
Fortune 500 companies.
A corporate pig roast in Albany
During the two-week strike by 45,000 Verizon workers in
August, union PR people issued leaflets urging support
for the CWA-IBEW "fight to defend middle-class jobs."
This characterization of strike goals enabled Verizon
to run newspaper ads claiming that the $75,000 a year
or more earned by telephone technicians made them part
of the "upper middle class"--and thus, apparently not
worthy of sympathy from customers or members of the
public whose jobs provide family incomes closer to the
national or regional average.
By late October, Verizon technicians, who are part of a
reform movement in CWA Local 1101, had marched through
lower Manhattan in solidarity with OWS and along with
NYC teachers, teamsters, and transit workers. Similar
links between occupiers and Verizon contract
campaigners developed in Boston.
Meanwhile, in upstate New York, members of CWA Local
1118 held a "corporate pig roast"--right around the
corner from "Cuomoville," the OWS encampment in
downtown Albany that has so annoyed the state's
Democratic governor. At this OWS-inspired event,
Verizon workers invited occupiers (more used to vegan
and vegetarian fare) to join them. They were also
brandishing new signs, with a far better, more
universalist message: "We are the 99 percent!"
Interaction like this, between OWS and union
rank-and-filers, has been mutually beneficial in many
other places. On the labor side, Occupation activity
has been a much-needed source of new energy and ideas.
Lets hope that union members can keep pushing labor's
communications strategy in a more resonant
OWS-influenced direction. If they succeed with that
objective, more substantive and harder to achieve
organizational change could be next on the agenda.
An earlier version of this article appeared in Logos.
Steve Early is a former national staff member of the
Communications Workers of America (CWA) who has been
active in labor causes since 1972. He is the author of
The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor (Haymarket Books, 2010)
and a contributor to the forthcoming, Wisconsin
Uprising: Labor Fights Back, from Monthly Review Press.
____________________________________________
PortsideLabor 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: labor at portside.org
Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3
Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq
Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe
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Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate
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