[Educationforall] spam con huevos, labor news, views and concerns, 11.28.11‏‏-I‏

Tue Nov 29 07:35:06 UTC 2011

Reader Response to "Strikes in China"‏

Tijuana 3-day workers school set to begin‏

Cutting 6 Million Workers Off at the Knees‏
Washington State Set to Slash Education and Health Care for the Poor

Family's Eviction Called Off After Occupy Rochester, Other Protesters Plan to "Occupy" Their Home

UI Clock Ticks for 6 Million Jobless‏

Class Segregation: Rich Hunker Down in Wealthy Enclaves -- Leaving the Rest of America's Neighborhoods to Deteriorate

Wage Theft at Wal-Mart Warehouses? Fourth Lawsuit in Two Years Filed on Behalf of Underpaid Workers
occupy san francisco march for immigrant rights‏

Fair Pay for Hard Work

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Comment on "Strikes in China," Nov. 25
by Carl Proper
Submitted to Portside Labor by the author
November 28, 2011

China Labor Watch's call for New Balance, Apple and
other U.S. manufacturers to assume responsibility for
oppressive conditions in their Chinese factories is
historically justified by the long experience of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) in
the United States. The ILGWU succeeded in partially
controlling sweatshop conditions in the 20th century
U.S. garment industry only because we were able to hold
the business controlling the work - the manufacturer --
responsible. Even conservative Republicans Senators
Robert Taft and Barry Goldwater acknowledged, in their
days, that sweatshops conditions in garment contractors
could only be successfully combatted by holding the
source of the work responsible.

Taft acknowledged, in 1949, that the garment "jobber"
(a manufacturer who contracts out its production) "is
in economic reality the virtual employer of the workers
in the contractors' shops.(H)e must be responsible for
their wages and labor standards, and indeed the
contractor is nothing more than the jobber's outside
agent to obtain his required production."(1) Goldwater
supported inclusion of a similar provision in the 1959
Landrum-Griffin Act.

Thus empowered, the ILGWU was able to demand that union
jobbers provide work only to union contractors, and
vice versa. The relatively wealthy jobber was then
required, under union contracts, to pay into funds to
provide health insurance, a pension and other benefits
for all of its contractors' employees - as well as
guaranteeing the workers' wages if the contractor
closed or was unable to pay. No other system, over the
course of the 20th century, effectively diminished
sweatshop competition.

Unfortunately, as a matter of law, this stipulation of
responsibility was applied in this country only to the
garment industry, and only to the unionized sector.
That said, it remains true that the business(es)
controlling / owning the work largely control the price
and conditions in their contractor facilities, no less
in today's global setting than in the more national
economy of twenty or one hundred years ago. On this
basis, the principle of "jobber" (manufacturer)
responsibility for the working conditions of ALL its
employees, direct or indirect, must stand. Without
this principle, an economy based on contracting out is
a system of organized irresponsibility, leading to the
unjust and undemocratic conditions we all experience
today.

The words of early 20th century U.S. labor historian
John Commons, would appear to describe accurately the
situation of contract employees working in China or
other countries:

"When work comes to the contractor from the
manufacturer and is offered to his employees
for a smaller price than has been previously
paid, the help will remonstrate and ask to be
paid the full price. Then the contractor tells
them, "I have nothing to do with the price.
The price is made for me by the manufacturer."
That is, he cuts himself completely loose from
any responsibility to his employees as to how
much they should get for their labor . . . .
The help do not know the manufacturer . . . .
However much the price for labor goes down
there is no one responsible."

The remedy prescribed by the Commission reporting in
1926 to New York Governor (later Presidential
candidate) Al Smith is equally valid:

"By whatever name he may call himself, the
jobber controls working conditions; he controls
employment, and that element of control imposes
upon him the responsibility that he shall so
conduct his business that proper working
standards may be upheld instead of undermined,
and that employment may be stabilized instead
of demoralized."(2)

Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, New Balance, Hewlett Packard
and their peers are practically and morally responsible
for the conditions imposed on the global contractor
employees whose labor, in turn, is responsible for
corporate executives' fabulous profits and salaries.
China Watch speaks for the 99% in the USA and the world
who - unless we make a change -- may never meet their
true employers.

Endnotes:

(1) Colloquy between Senator Taft and Senator Ives, 95
Cong. Rec. 8876 (June 30, 1949)
(2) Governor's Advisory Commission in the Cloak, Suit
and Skirt Industry of New York City, Final
Recommendations, 1926.

Carl Proper
Communications Director
New England Joint Board
UNITE HERE
(formerly - ILGWU)

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Tijuana 3-day workers’ school set to begin

Nov. 28 -- Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Young workers from the front lines of the Occupy movement in the U.S., immigrant rights activists, veterans from the major labor struggles in Mexico and more are gathering at the 3-day Workers’ School opening in Tijuana Nov. 29. In a very modest way, it is continuing the discussions held at the Cuban Workers Central Union’s Lazaro Pena school.

Topics will focus on the current political situation, economic and social developments in Mexico and the U.S., the effects on the workplace and the response of the labor movement and the workers to these developments. 

The characteristics and results achieved through the new processes of integration through the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas -- ALBA -- will be explored. The development of ESNA -- Encuentro Sindical Nuestra America -- which completed its fourth meeting in Managua, Nicaragua last summer with an action plan for 2010 will be discussed. 

A theme very much of interest is the Cuban revolution and the current process updating the Cuban economic model. The progress of this plan and  the role of the union movement in is also part of the course. 

The classes will be followed by a concluding event on Friday, Dec. 2 that will open a weekend conference. The evening of Saturday, Dec. 3 is dedicated to expanding the movement to Free the Cuban Five. The new Saul Landau film, “Will the real terrorist please stand up?” will be screened.

For more information or to join the discussion or the conference, call 313 675 4026, email: laborexchange at aol.com or laborexchange at gmail.com 
More information is available at LaborExchange.blogspot.com

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Two million people will lose emergency long-term unemployment in January unless Congress acts by Dec. 31. And without action in 2012, that number will rise to at least 6 million.1

Sign our emergency petition: Demand Congress extend emergency unemployment insurance now.

Urgent: If Congress fails to act, 2 million people who can’t find work and are relying on emergency unemployment benefits will lose their lifeline in January. And if action isn’t taken at all, the total will rise to at least 6 million over the course of 2012.1

But shockingly, it looks like Speaker John Boehner—who has nearly absolute control over what comes up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives—may be willing to ignore this dire crisis and cut 6 million of America’s workers off at the knees. While he and his fellow obstructionists pursue a polarizing anti-worker agenda, time may run out for America’s jobless.

Sign our emergency petition: Tell Congress it’s time to put partisanship aside and take urgent action to renew emergency unemployment now.

Congress has never cut back on federally funded unemployment insurance when unemployment was anywhere near this high for this long. 

But this time, it looks like it really might happen. Speaker Boehner is using the limited time left in this year’s legislative calendar not to extend unemployment, but to hold votes on legislation designed to benefit corporate CEOs and the richest 1% of Americans. 

Hurry: Sign our petition by 9 a.m. Wednesday and we’ll be sure your name is included in our delivery to Speaker Boehner and key members of Congress Wednesday afternoon.

The legislative package Speaker Boehner’s moving this week—his misleadingly named “Jobs Agenda”—would do nothing to create jobs if it ever became law. Instead, it would weaken unions and workers’ collective bargaining rights, gut workplace safety and health rules, end environmental and consumer protections and stop health care regulations and financial safeguards designed to prevent another Great Depression.

Ignoring America’s massive crisis of joblessness while pushing attacks on workers is the same kind of overreach that Ohio voters rejected earlier this month. Working families rightfully demand bold action to extend unemployment benefits, address our immediate unemployment crisis and create jobs—now.

Sign now: Urge Congress to stand with unemployed workers and the 99%—not corporate CEOs and the 1%.

Time’s running out. Speaker Boehner and other obstructionists in Congress need to address this crisis now. He already failed millions of job-hunters by refusing to take up the American Jobs Act or any serious proposal to create jobs. Let’s make sure America’s long-term job-hunters aren’t left without both jobs and a lifeline in 2012.

Thanks for all the work you do.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

(1) http://www.nelp.org/page/-/UI/2011/NELP_UI_Extension_Report_2011.pdf?nocdn=1

To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.

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Washington State Set to Slash Education and Health Care for the Poor
Jesse Hagopian, Truthout: "Beyond breaking the state Constitution and Judge Erlick's recent ruling, these budget cuts are literally a matter of life and death. Should the cuts be ratified, it would result in the elimination of the state's basic health plan, ending a program that subsidizes health care for some 35,000 people living in poverty. Denying health care to the state's most vulnerable populations will undoubtedly lead to increased morbidity." 
Read the Article 

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Family's Eviction Called Off After Occupy Rochester, Other Protesters Plan to "Occupy" Their Home
By Lauren Kelley | AlterNet

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Nov. 28, 2011

Seattle Ironworkers have been lifting the spirits of some very sick children while lifting the I-beams for a new wing at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
If Congress does not act before it adjourns for the year, unemployment insurance (UI) will expire and 6 million jobless workers will lose their UI lifeline. Laid-off telecommunications worker Terry Maile is one of hundreds of jobless workers who are traveling to Washington, D.C., in coming weeks to demand a fair shake for the unemployed.

Got comments? Post them at blog.aflcio.org.

 Children Beam with Smiles, Thanks to Seattle Ironworkers
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 UNITEHERE! Local 6—a Dynamic Force in N.Y. City
 Indiana Working Families Occupy State Capitol
 Insurance Commissioners Bow to Insurers, Consumers Face $1.2 Billion Bill
 Michigan Politicians Target Workers’ Comp
 NATCA: Why Air Travel Is Safer
 Teaching Children About Child Labor
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Read more important news of the day on the issues working families care about. 

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Class Segregation: Rich Hunker Down in Wealthy Enclaves -- Leaving the Rest of America's Neighborhoods to Deteriorate
America's rich haven't just become richer, according to a new study. They've become far more likely to live among their own kind. READ MORE 
By Sam Pizzigati / Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality 

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Wage Theft at Wal-Mart Warehouses? Fourth Lawsuit in Two Years Filed on Behalf of Underpaid Workers
Warehouse workers at a subcontractor for the country's largest retailer were paid less than minimum wage in some cases for their labor. READ MORE 
By Kari Lydersen / In These Times 

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Occupy San Francisco March for Immigrant Rights
Photos by David Bacon

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - 26NOVEMBER11 - Participants in Occupy San Francisco live in tents in an encampment in Justin Herman Plaza.  The camp protests the exploitation of 99% of the population by the wealthiest 1%, as well as police repression and removal of occupy encampments around the country, including the original New York City demonstration, Occupy Wall Street.  Camp residents, together with supporters in immigrant rights organizations and unions, marched up Market Street.  Marchers carried signs and banners declaring that immigrants are part of the 99%.  Prior to the march, they hold a General Assembly to discuss possible actions if the city moves to evict the encampment from Justin Herman Plaza.  During the meeting, people wave their fingers in the air to express agreement with the speaker.  Other camp residents look through the books in the Occupy Library, or sit reading by their tents. 

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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Fair Pay for Hard Work

Giving home care aides federal labor protections not only gives the workers better wages and hours, it makes good economic sense for the industry.

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