[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 11.23.11-I
Carlos Pelayo
cgpelayo at hotmail.com
Thu Nov 24 07:00:57 UTC 2011
Bridge Actions Cross The Country
Will Labor Say Good-Bye To Middle-Class "Messaging?"
We're taking the initiative to improve healthcare
union supporters still fired with impunity
Students in Debt: "Can't Pay, Won't Pay, Don't Pay"
LLTV on YouTube
Happy Thanksgiving
Star Tribune to Target Employee Forced to Work on Thanksgiving: "Buck up, Take This Job and Be Grateful"
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#N17: Bridge Actions Cross The Country
by SEIU New Media
SEIU Blog
November 17, 2011 - 8:35 PM EST
http://www.seiu.org/2011/11/bridge-actions-break-out-across-the-country.php
We're declaring an Economic Emergency for the 99%.
Despite months of demands by our community, despite millions
of people out of work calling for change, Congress and the
Wall Street banks continue to maintain the status quo,
enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of us.
Today we are saying enough is enough.
Our bridges need repair. Fixing them could put unemployed
people back to work. These actions are a powerful symbol of
our leaders' failure to pass a jobs bill or do anything to
help the 99%, while the richest 1% keep getting richer.
We're live-blogging throughout the day as these actions take
place in dozens of cities, including New York, Los Angeles,
Portland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, DC,
Seattle, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Houston and Miami.
You can also follow us on Twitter at @SEIU for breaking
news, photos and lots of live updates.
[Reports on actions in Augusta (ME), Baltimore, Chicago,
Cleveland, Detroit, Great Falls (MT), Hartford, Houston,
Iowa City, Kalamazoo (MI), Los Angeles, Milwaukee,
Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Portland, Richmond, Saginaw (MI), Seattle, Washington, DC
follows]
[pictures on actions in each city can be found at:
http://www.seiu.org/2011/11/bridge-actions-break-out-across-the-country.php ]
CHICAGO
Roughly 1,000 protestors gathered in Chicago, IL on the
LaSalle bridge. Shortly after kicking off their march at
4:30EST, protestors blocked the bridge for over an hour.
Protestors also marched to the Chicago Board of Trade and
Grant Park to round out their day of action.
48 protestors were taken away by the police during the
bridge action and were cited for "Pedestrian Failure to
Exercise Due Care" for blocking traffic on the bridge. View
more photos of the Chicago protest at NBC Chicago.
Chicago photo:
http://www.seiu.org/assets_c/2011/11/photo-thumb-640x480-4978-4980.php
SEATTLE
7:38pm -- 800 protestors marching in Seattle to the
University Bridge.
8:05pm -- An image from the protest:
http://twitpic.com/7fko0b
NEW YORK CITY
8:05 PM: Watch footage of SEIU President Mary Kay Henry
being arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge today. The New York
Times reported this evening that more than 200 people in
total were arrested in NYC.
1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East members are turning
out in full force.
New York photo:
http://www.seiu.org/1199SEIUNYC_ows.jpg
Students on strike are also out in the streets today to take
NYC back.
additional New York photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/NYC_IMAG0615.jpg
PHILADELPHIA
6:20 PM: As protestors continue to rally, 25 people engaged
- and subsequently arrested - in a sit-in on the bridge.
Philly photo:
http://www.seiu.org/Philly1.jpg
Roughly 1,500 protestors in Philadelphia, PA marched across
the Market Street Bridge this afternoon -- a bridge that's
in bad a state of disrepair as the Minneapolis bridge when
it collapsed.
MILWAUKEE
8:25PM EST: The Action in Milwaukee is over. The protestors
marched from the bridge to Micah in solidarity and victory.
Wisconsin Jobs Now tweeted some great things to wrap up
their bridge action:
"And thanks to the Milwaukee pd on being so very civil
and helpful, we're all the 99%." "?So congratulations
everyone on an incredibly successful day of action.
Bridge occupied, cold defeated, victory declared".
6:10 PM: Protesters have surrounded the sitters in
solidarity after cops tear down the tape barrier. The
chanting keeps getting louder.
Milwaukee photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/Wisconsin-sitdowncops.jpg
5:50 PM: Protestors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin are setting up
camp for the night at the protest.
GREAT FALLS
Today in Great Falls, Montana, more than 40 protestors and
members of the Montana Organizing Project protested
peacefully to show their solidarity with millions of other
Americans to fight for jobs--and tell Wall Street that
enough is enough.
Great Falls photo:
http://www.seiu.org/assets_c/2011/11/montana-4973.php
MINNEAPOLIS
Clergy, unemployed workers, and local residents in
Minneapolis, Minnesota marched to "Bridge the Jobs Gap" and
win good jobs and economic and racial justice. Protesters
occupied the 10th Street bridge near the Mondale University
of Minnesota Law
Minneapolis photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/_PK22065.jpg
11 people overall were arrested during the days actions in
Minneapolis. Pastor Paul Slack, a speaker at the rally
today, was the first to be arrested on the 10th Street
bridge.
Additional Minneapolis photo:
http://www.seiu.org/assets_c/2011/11/_PK22037-4983.php
The protest later went back to the University, where
individuals spoke out against social and racial disparity
within their community.
HOUSTON
6:13 PM: The protest is over...twelve people have been
arrested. This photo was taken right as the police began
arrests.
Houston photo:
http://www.seiu.org/Houstoncops.jpg
5:52 PM: The Travis Street Bridge is blocked. Protestors
just sat down on Travis Street Bridge and more than 20
police officers have surrounded them.
Additional Houston photos:
http://www.seiu.org/IMG_20111117_161307.jpg
http://www.seiu.org/IMG_20111117_162636.jpg
5:30 PM: In Houston, Texas, more than 500 protestors and
Occupy supporters are rallying at Market Sq. Park, chanting
"Jobs, not cuts!" "We are the 99%," and "Tired and
broke/cant take it no more!"
MIAMI
6:45 PM: March is over. No arrests made!
5:15 PM: March has begun.
4:55 PM: Over 2,000 people gathered under the overpass at
Jose Marti Park to stand up against unfair government
policies that support the 1%.
Miami photo:
http://www.seiu.org/Miami1.jpg
4:45 PM: The Latin band Cache is pumping up the crowd.
additional Miami photo:
http://www.seiu.org/Miami2%20copy.jpg
BALTIMORE
Great turnout in Baltimore today - hundreds marched across
the Howard Street Bridge.
Video here.
http://t.co/pkBLYFjB
PITTSBURGH
Approximately 250 people peacefully marched to and across
the Greenfield Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this
afternoon.
Pittsburgh photos:
http://www.seiu.org/images/Pittsburgh1.jpg
http://www.seiu.org/images/One%2BPgh-7-1589748309-O.jpg
The Greenfield Bridge is in such bad repair that it has
catch pans under it to capture falling debris. As several
hundred protestors surged across the bridge - including
construction workers bearing tools and equipment - a large
"Good Jobs Now" banner was displayed for drivers on
Interstate 376.
KALAMAZOO
Near dusk, nearly 100 showed up to march across the Michigan
Avenue Bridge in Kalamazoo, Michigan. People shouted chants
like "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!"
Kalamazoo photos:
http://www.seiu.org/Kalamazoo2.jpg
http://www.seiu.org/Kalamazoo1.jpg
AUGUSTA
Over 100 Mainers gathered at the crumbling Rines Hill Bridge
in downtown Augusta to urge Congress to create jobs and an
economy that works for the 99 percent of Americans.
Augusta photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/AugustME1.jpg
"By repairing bridges, roads, parks and schools, we could
create millions of jobs. Instead of putting Americans back
to work by repairing bridges like this crumbling Rines Hill
Bridge, Congress has failed to pass a single jobs bill and
the Supercommittee is considering job-killing budget cuts,"
said Jon Upham, an electrician from Bath.
HARTFORD
In Connecticut, more than 200 people blocked the entrance
ramp to 1-84 in downtown Hartford this afternoon. Ten
protestors were arrested.
SAGINAW, MI
Dozens of protestors in Saginaw, MI stood alongside M-46 to
fight for jobs for unemployed Americans.
"I want our voices heard, the unemployed in Michigan," said
Mary S. Barker of Mount Pleasant. The Saginaw News claims
Ms. Barker has been unemployed for 27 months after being
laid off from her job as a librarian at a private school.
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/11/protesters_in_thomas_township.html
DETROIT
Protestors in Detroit, Michigan gathered together today to
take over the Second Ave. bridge over I-94. Their march took
them from the Second Ave. bridge to Wayne State University,
then back to the bridge.
Obie Griffin with Good Jobs Now spoke to reporters, saying
"I will do whatever it takes to draw the attention of
those that don't represent me. This is the 99-percent.
The one-percent is not representing me, yet here it is
they are the ones."
See more coverage at myFOX Detroit and the the Detroit News.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/protesters-shut-down-detroit-bridge-20111117-ms
and
http://www.detnews.com/article/20111117/METRO/111170489/1020/Local-union-workers--Occupy-Detroit-protest-city-cuts
4:15PM: Over 1,000 people have shut down the Second Ave.
bridge over 1-94 in Detroit, Michigan.
CLEVELAND
SEIU Local 1 joined Occupy Cleveland in Ohio to express
solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement today. More
photos on Facebook here.
Cleveland photo:
http://www.seiu.org/ClevelandLocal1_1.jpg
WASHINGTON, DC
Great shot from Key Bridge:
http://www.seiu.org/20111117ds_OccupyDCBridgeAction_55.jpg
4:05 PM: Marchers from DC and VA have just met in the middle
of the bridge.
Video of protesters on the Key Bridge in DC:
http://twitpic.com/7fhr2r
Video here.
http://www.seiu.org/2011/11/twitpic.com/7fhr2r
Follow @SEIU and @OurDC on Twitter for updates.
More DC pics:
http://www.seiu.org/OurDC2.jpg
http://www.seiu.org/OurDC1.jpg
RICHMOND
Over 70 Virginians came out in the cold pouring rain in
Richmond today to declare an economic emergency for the 99%.
Richmond photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/VAorg2.jpg
Residents rallied in front of the Hamilton Street Bridge/195
overpass which cuts through Rep. Cantor's district. Rep.
Cantor's unemployed constituents called on him to stop
obstruction the American Jobs Act by dropping a banner
declaring, "Rep. Cantor: This bridge needs work, and so do
we!"
Additional Richmond photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/VAorg1.jpg
Rallygoers adorned the support structure of the bridge with
signs that said, "Caution: Cantor Obstruction Zone"
"Caution: Cuts Approaching" and "Caution: Falling Middle
Class." More pics from Virginia Organizing on Flickr here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/virginiaorganizingproject/sets/72157628027677141/
LOS ANGELES
10:35am -- Here are some pictures of a rally in LA:
http://pic.twitter.com/Jeu1gQqS and
http://instagr.am/p/UiL_Z/
11:30am -- Coming down grand on 5th flooding streets
http://twitpic.com/7feljo
11:55am -- Police arresting protesters in LA.
12:13pm -- Live video from L.A.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/brothersport86
12:25pm -- Here's an overhead view of a part of the L.A.
action:
http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/Truth_Tracker/status/137218774280581120/photo/1
LA photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/LA991.jpg
12:56pm -- 16 peaceful arrests in L.A.
PORTLAND
11:04am -- Police have shut down the Steel Bridge.
11:09am -- Livestream of the Portland event:
http://www.livestream.com/occupyptown. Here's a picture of
the closed bridge: http://twitpic.com/7fefyx
11:35am -- Peaceful arrests have begun in Portland on the
Steel Bridge: http://twitpic.com/7ferzm
Portland photo:
http://www.seiu.org/images/Portland1.jpg
11:57am -- More images out of Portland on the Steel Bridge
http://twitpic.com/7feyff
12:36pm -- Here's another picture of Portland's Steel
Bridge: http://twitpic.com/7fffkj
12:45pm -- Portland Police spokesman: "The group has been
utterly peaceful" http://bit.ly/sGMKeA
IOWA CITY
Citizens in Iowa City, IA took to Park City bridge. The
bridge was damaged in a flood in 2008 and has yet to be
repaired. Members from SEIU Local 199 were joined by Occupy,
Citizen Action and graduate students from University of
Iowa.
Iowa City photo:
http://www.seiu.org/Iowa1.jpg
From the Press-Citizen in Iowa City:
The signs of aging on the nearly 50-year-old bridge that
spans the Iowa River are obvious: chipping paint, bent
side rails and chunks of concrete missing. A sign draped
over the side of the bridge read, "This bridge needs
work. So do we." http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20111117/NEWS01/111117005/Protesters-use-aging-bridge-to-illustrate-country-s-economic-peril
- - - - - - -
The November 17th National Day of Action is the most
prominent example to date of Occupy protesters joining
forces with progressive organizations, labor unions and the
American Dream movement, which is a partnership between
MoveOn.org, Rebuild The Dream, SEIU, Center for Community
Change, and many other groups.
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COUNTERPUNCH, NOVEMBER 15, 2011
Good-Bye To the "Middle-Class"?
A Lesson for Labor From Occupy Wall Street
by STEVE EARLY
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 (Cornell ILR Press, 2000), labor's never ending mantra about the "middle class" leaves class relations-and the actual class position of most of the population-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 societyŠ.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.
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. An earlier version of this article appeared in Logos. See www.logosjournal.com
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Dear SEIU-UHW supporter,
What are you thankful for this holiday season? For many of us, the list includes our health or our family's health. I know it does for me and my coworkers. In part that’s why we take our roles as healthcare leaders so seriously, and why SEIU-UHW members launched “Let’s Get Healthy California!” last week.
Improving health and healthcare in California is our goal and now we’ve introduced two bold voter initiatives to reign in healthcare costs and ensure charity care for the neediest.
I could hardly believe it when I learned that three quarters of the hospital industry pays no taxes. They are required to provide charitable care, but there just aren’t many rules around what that means, making it easy to exploit. That’s why we introduced The Charity Care Act of 2012 to set minimum levels of charity care based on a hospital’s revenue.
Equally surprising was the news that California hospitals, on average, charge patients 450 percent—and up to 1,000 percent—more than the actual cost of providing care. To help lower the costs of healthcare for everyone, we introduced The Fair Healthcare Pricing Act of 2012.
As healthcare workers we want to make a difference. These initiatives give consumers transparency and increase care for the needy. It is exactly what we should demand and expect from healthcare companies we exempt from taxes because they have a charitable mission.
Get the details at our website.
Congress Hears Us, Stops a Bad Deal
In related work, Joycelyn Witts from St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles was one of more than 4,000 SEIU-UHW members who made calls to congress to prevent a bad deal by the super-committee that would have cut-off millions of Americans from healthcare–and it worked! We made sure congress knows that the fairest way to bring down the deficit is to end tax breaks for the wealthy and require the 1 percent–millionaires and billionaires–to pay their fair share. Read Joycelyn’s blog.
In Unity,
Nisa Walker
SEIU-UHW member and healthcare worker
Sacramento
P.S. Don’t forget to like us on Facebook.
SEIU United Healthcare Workers - West
560 Thomas L. Berkley Way, Oakland, CA 94612
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Union Supporters Still Fired With Impunity
by: David Bacon, Truthout 11/21/11
http://www.truth-out.org/print/9203
Los Angeles, California - When a private employer, like the Los Angeles Film School (LAFS), decides to fight the efforts of its workers to form a union, there is very little holding it back, despite the rights written into US labor law almost three quarters of a century ago.
The National Labor Relations Act says workers not only have the right to form unions, but that the government encourages them to do so, to level the power imbalance with their employers. The law sets up an election process, in which workers supposedly can freely choose a union. And it says that it's illegal for an employer to fire or punish any worker who uses these rights.
Then there's the reality, as practiced by the LAFS.
That company, set up in 1999 by the former lawyer for Occidental Petroleum, was bought by Florida-based Full Sail Film School in 2003. The film and recording business in Los Angeles has strong, well-respected unions. The studios that are the hoped-for employers for film school graduates negotiate with unions all the time. But the LAFS and Full Sail are not ordinary film schools. They are diploma mills that feed off federal loans taken out by students.
A lawsuit filed last year against LAFS says that students, who pay $18,000 to $23,000 per year tuition for a two-year AS degree, receive much less than promised. The school hands out gift cards to Target and Best Buy, the suit says, to students who list jobs at Apple and Guitar Center stores as "creative positions" on forms submitted to get the college accreditation. That allows the schools to enroll its students in federal loan programs.
Brandii Grace, a digital game designer, moved from Seattle in 2009 when she was offered a contract to teach her skill at LAFS. She took a $2,000 per year cut from her previous job, and was promised $70,000 per year. Her fiancée had to stay behind, but still in their 20s, they decided the prospect of making a life together in the heart of the entertainment world made the sacrifice worth it.
No sooner had she started to teach, however, than the school began making radical changes in the conditions for all its teachers. It cut classes, created new online components, and reassigned teachers to classes where they had no experience. "At first, they promised extra compensation," she remembers. "Then they said we were being changed from salaried employees to hourly, but that we'd get overtime for the additional work."
Then, the school announced teachers would only be paid the hours spent in class, cutting most to 8-16 a week. "They weren't going to pay anything for the three hours grading, advising and planning curriculum for every hour we spend in class," she says. With their income about to plunge, the faculty rebelled. Grace started trying to help people understand what was happening, at first just by distributing the school's own memos. Finally, the school demanded that teachers sign agreements to the new arrangements. In a meeting of instructors, she not only urged them not to do it, but also said they should look for a union.
That was a big step for her. She'd grown up suspicious of unions because of earlier family experiences, but every government agency she contacted told her there was no legal way to stop the new rules if the teachers had no union contract. "We found Peter Nguyen and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), and he was ready to help us move right away," Grace recalls. Over the next month they collected union cards, and filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with 70 percent of the faculty signed up. Grace was chosen head of the union steering committee.
That was when hell broke loose. The film school hired IRI Consultants, a union-busting firm from Michigan. With their advice, school managers set Grace up to be fired, and prepared a classic campaign of psychological warfare against its own faculty.
"We were immediately told we were all supervisors, and that our salaried status would be restored," she recalls. Her boss called her in, told her they knew she was the union leader, and threatened her. Suddenly they accused her of not turning in work, of insubordination and even of becoming violent. "They handed me a memo full of lies that were dramatic and extreme," Grace charges.
She was suspended for three days, and when she came back, she was fired. It was her 30th birthday, and her apartment lease had just expired.
She didn't give up, though. Other workers would call her at night, telling her how scared they were. The company was holding mandatory meetings to make its union hatred clear, and each teacher was called in for a private chat with her or his supervisor. "Managers would run down the hall screaming at someone, 'you signed the card!'" Grace says she was told.
The union filed charges in March, right after she was fired, and held a protest rally. But six months later, the NLRB still hadn't finished its investigation. The union withdrew its petition for the election because the level of fear was so intense that the right to vote freely had become a joke. The NLRB regional office issued a complaint shortly afterward, charging the school with firing Grace illegally, but it was too late. A hearing was held in January, and in April the hearing officer ruled that the LAFS had violated the law. He ordered Grace reinstated with back pay. The school, however, is appealing the decision to the labor board in Washington, DC, a process that will probably last at least a year. If they have the money and the will, they can then appeal into the court system.
Grace's ordeal is a direct product of this country's weak labor laws, a problem the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was written to correct. That's why large employers, Republicans, and even conservative Democrats have fought the bill in Congress. EFCA would go a long way toward solving the problems Grace experienced.
If the bill had been passed when Democrats had the presidency and a majority in both houses between 2008 and 2010, it would have been in effect while those meetings were going on in the film school. Grace and the other union committee members could have presented their signed cards to the NLRB, and the school would then have been obligated to recognize the union.
Fear of firing is probably the single biggest reason workers don't organize unions. According to a recent report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, "Dropping the Ax: Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns, 1951-2007," by John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer, workers were fired for union activity in 30 percent of all union campaigns, so fear isn't unreasonable. "Aggressive actions by employers - often including illegal firings - have significantly undermined the ability of US workers to unionize their workplaces," according to report co-author Schmitt. "The financial penalties for illegal actions, including firing pro-union workers, are minimal, so it makes perfect sense for employers to break the law to derail union-organizing efforts." That percentage has gone up from 16 percent in the last 1990s, to 26 percent in the early 2000s, to 30 percent in 2007.
If EFCA had been in effect during the film school campaign, the company would have had to pay triple back wages for its illegal firings. But with no fines and no card-check recognition process, every supporter recruited to the union cause had to weigh the possibility that he or she might lose his or her job. Union supporters say it felt like working in a war zone.
But EFCA didn't pass. In fact, it was never even brought up for a vote.
So for Grace,, even if the school is found guilty, there's no fine or actual punishment. The school will have to pay back pay for her time out of work, but can deduct any income from another job, or even any unemployment benefits she collects. "My benefits just ran out, though," she laughs.
Being out of work while continuing to support the union has been an ordeal. After their money ran out, Grace moved in with her mom, and her fiancée had to go live with his family for months in Texas. In addition, Grace had brought her grandmother from Seattle to live with her. "She took care of me growing up, so I take care of her now," she explains. But she had to put her in a senior home, and then, when she couldn't sleep on her mom's couch anymore, she even slept in her grandmother's room.
Finally, her fiancée came back to Los Angeles, found a job and they got another apartment. "But we almost didn't make it," Grace says.
So, why should she have to go through this ordeal because a film school, widely called a scam on the Internet, decides to bust a union? "Because the Federal law is broken" Grace concludes. "There's no effective deterrent, no balance sheet they have to worry about. It's no surprise why people are reluctant to do this."
Maybe she'll get the back pay someday. "But you know, the money's not important to me, really," she says. "This is about justice. That's what I'm fighting for."
For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org
See also Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002
See also the photodocumentary on indigenous migration to the US
Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
See also The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html --
__________________________________
David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org
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Students in Debt: "Can't Pay, Won't Pay, Don't Pay"
Rachel Signer, The Nation: "It seems like the right moment to initiate a nationwide campaign against the student lending industry. In a short time, Occupy Wall Street had reinvigorated the left and called the media's attention back to the financial crisis of 2008. Young people everywhere are underemployed and struggling to repay debt, and many of these same people are now becoming inspired by the radicalism of Occupy."
Read the Article
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LLTV on YouTube Sisters & Brothers,
Gene Chavira has shot, edited and produced the last few programs of
Labor Link TV and is working on Occupy San Diego. Because of the
time limit with YouTube, he has broken the program in thirds.
http://www.youtube.com/user/laborlinkTV
I you are interested in helping produce LLTV or with other things
like publicity or building a local library of labor programming, get
in touch.
Fred Lonidier
Gene Chavira
LABOR LINK TV
Cablecasting for, by and about the Labor Movement in San Diego County
c/o UC/AFT Local 2034, P.O. Box 12005, La Jolla CA 92039
Monthly schedule*
Cox Cable S.
Channel 23
Saturdays 11:00 am
Time Warner Cable
Channel 19
Mondays 11:00 pm
Cox Cable N.
Channel 18
Saturdays 11:00 am
Del Mar TV 66
Channel 66
Tuesdays 6:30 pm
* One program repeated each month except for TW with a different one
each Monday night.
Occasionally, LLTV may be bumped!
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Nov. 23, 2011
Tell Newt Gingrich his plan to "get rid of unionized janitors" and hire poor kids to clean the schools in low-income neighborhoods is nuts.
All of us at AFL-CIO Now want to wish you, your family and friends a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be back with our daily e-mail Monday.
Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org.
Tell Newt His Plan to Fire Unionized Janitors and Hire Poor Kids is Nuts
DC Union Members Join OWS Marchers from NYC
Vote for the Worst of the Worst of the 1%
America the Vulnerable
OPEIU Backs Allstate Agents in Suit Challenging Terminations
Check Out Video Clip of Ironworkers, IUPAT Rallying for Bridges, Jobs
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.
Click here to unsubscribe
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Star Tribune to Target Employee Forced to Work on Thanksgiving: "Buck up, Take This Job and Be Grateful"
By Kristen Gwynne | AlterNet
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Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107..
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
Listen to Native Voice One http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/nv1/ppr/index.shtml
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