[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 2.04.12-I

[Carlos Pelayo]

Occupy Omaha perseveres  Class War? What Class War? American Airlines Plans to Lose 13,500
workers and Abolish PensionsEurozon Unemployment Highest EverIn Michigan-So Long Unemployment Bennies Quisling "union"  California Teachers Assn backs Gov Brown's Planned Sales Tax (the tax the rich part won't happen and any fool knows it) Detroit Unionites Cave Under EFM Threat (hint, 35 years of history says concessions don't save jobs)  Bill Blum on the Forever Vile CPUSA and its Mouthpiece, Angela Two on CAT Closing of Locomotive Plant Keystone XL Opponents Need a Jobs Program Jobless Rate Falls to 8.3%, Altering Face of Campaign  @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
 Occupy Omaha perseveres
Toronto Strike/Lockout Could start Feb 5 The Ontario Ministry of Labour has issued what is called a 'no board' report, setting the
stage for a possible strike or lockout of municipal workers in
Toronto. 
The report means there is now a 17-day deadline for Canada's largest
city to reach an agreement with one of its unions — CUPE Local 416,
which represents about 6,000 key outside workers who collect garbage,
remove snow and do other road and park maintenance.  
 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/01/19/toronto-municipal-cupe.html

The Stella Doro Strike LossThings aren't going well in the working
class. The news says unemployment is going down, but I don't see no
sign of it. Many people I know can't find a job. Even worse is
coming-a tidal wave that will wipe out more peoples' jobs. You go
lower and lower til you're not in the system anymore. Nobody from my
job at Bimbo Bakery wanted to come down to Occupy Wall Street but for
one guy. They still got their jobs. They do not want to struggle yet.
But I think little by little, more people will understand."  
http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2012-02-06#folio=060 [3]
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Class War? What Class War? American Airlines Plans to Lose 13,500
workers and Abolish Pensions The parent of American Airlines wants to
eliminate about 13,000 jobs — 15 percent of its workforce — as the
nation’s third-biggest airline remakes itself under bankruptcy
protection. 
The company proposes to end its traditional pension plans, a move
strongly opposed by the airline’s unions and the U.S.
pension-insurance agency, and to stop paying for retiree health
benefits.  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/american-airlines-tells-employees-it-wants-to-cut-labor-costs-by-20-percent/2012/02/01/gIQAoL33hQ_story.html
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Eurozon Unemployment Highest Ever Unemployment in the 17-nation
eurozone ended 2011 at 10.4 per cent, a new record high for the single
currency since its launch at the start of 1999, official figures
showed today. 
Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said the rate in December was
unchanged, as November's was revised upwards from a previous estimate
of 10.3%. 
Unemployment has been steadily rising over the past year - in December
2010, it stood at 9.5% - largely because of Europe's debt crisis. 
The biggest increases over 2011 were recorded in Greece, Cyprus and
Spain. 
All three, to various degrees, have had to impose tough austerity
measures - such as public sector layoffs and spending cuts - in an
effort to regain investor confidence lost during the crisis. 
The agency said just under 16.5 million people were unemployed in the
eurozone, up 751,000 on the year before. 
The highest unemployment rate remains in Spain, where 22.9 % of the
working population were without work, though Greece is nearing with
19.2 % rate. The lowest rate in the eurozone is Austria's 4.1 %.    
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eurozone-unemployment-at-new-record-high-6297441.html
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In Michigan-So Long Unemployment BenniesRoughly 29,500 Michigan
workers will receive their last unemployment checks Feb. 18, according
to state officials. 
A federal program that provides 20 extra weeks of unemployment
benefits is ending in Michigan because the state's jobless numbers
have improved, state officials announced Friday. 
Michigan fell below the unemployment rate required for the Extended
Benefits program Jan. 28, according to a press release issued Friday
by the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.    
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120203/BIZ/202030431/Michigan-workers-receive-last-unemployment-checks?odyssey=tab@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Quisling "union"  California Teachers Assn backs Gov Brown's Planned
Sales Tax (the tax the rich part won't happen and any fool knows it)
- The CTA State Council of Education, comprised of nearly 800
democratically elected educators from across the state, endorsed the
governor’s tax plan at their quarterly meeting in Los Angeles today.
The following statement can be attributed to Dean E.Vogel, president
of the 325,000-member California Teachers Association: 
“Educators know that California cannot continue to cut its way out
of ongoing budget problems. We also know that not everyone in
California is paying their fair share, and that’s why we are
supporting the governor’s tax proposal, which taxes the wealthiest
Californians in order to bring additional revenue to our schools,
colleges and other essential public services. 
“The governor’s initiative is the only initiative that provides
additional revenues for our classrooms and closes the state budget
deficit, and guarantees local communities will receive funds to pay
for the realignment of local health and public safety services that
the Legislature approved last year. It’s time to put California back
on track and this initiative is the best way to do that. It’s the
right choice for our students and their families, our communities and
our state.”   The 325,000-member CTA is affiliated with the 3.2
million-member National Education Association  
http://www.cta.org/About-CTA/News-Room/Press-Releases/2012/20120129_1.aspx
[29]

*In a Slow Year, 2011, CTA spent $6.5 Million of Member Money,
lobbying* Common Cause reports the California Teachers Association
topped the lobbying list last year, spending more than six-point-five
million dollars. Other top spenders included a mix of interests, like
the Service Employees International Union, the Western States
Petroleum Association and the City of Vernon-which was fighting
legislation to dissolve its local government.    
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2012/feb/02/lobbying-money-hits-new-record/
[30]

*The CTA Ballot Scam for 2012 (besides millions for Obamagogue)*
Heading into the November 6, 2012 ballot measure election in
California, the union has indicated that it will: 
Support Jerry Brown's Tax Increase Initiative. Dean Vogel, who is the
president of the union, contrasted the Brown tax increase proposal to
other tax increase proposals that may qualify for the 2012 ballot,
saying, "The governor’s initiative is the only initiative that
provides additional revenues for our classrooms and closes the state
budget deficit, and guarantees local communities will receive funds to
pay for the realignment of local health and public safety services
that the Legislature approved last year."[9] 
Oppose the "Paycheck Protection" Initiative, which has qualified for
the ballot.[2] 
Oppose a Government Spending Limit Initiative, if it qualifies for the
ballot.[2] 
In 2005, CTA imposed a $60 annual surcharge on its members to raise
$50 million to defeat the spending restraint measures supported by
Arnold Schwarzenegger. The surcharge was assessed for 3 years. In
2012, union president Vogel indicated that it is unlikely that the
union will impose a similar surcharge: "The last time in this
position, we did a special assessment to get more money, but we're not
in a position to get more money right now."  
 http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Teachers_Association
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Detroit Unionites Cave Under EFM Threat (hint, 35 years of history
says concessions don't save jobs) City officials say they have
reached a deal with a coalition of employee unions to help to stave
off the possibility of an emergency manager. 
The agreement, reached Wednesday night, includes a majority of the
city's 48 unions but not police and fire, which have been a sticking
point in bargaining. City leaders want until April 1 to continue
reaching an agreement with public safety unions. 
Mayor Dave Bing said he believes concessions, combined with layoffs
and others cuts, will generate enough savings to hold off a state
takeover of the city's finances. 
"The tentative agreement we've reached is not just about concessions.
It's about how labor and management can work together in a fair and
constructive way," Bing said in a statement. "The agreement provides
checks and balances that hold both unions and my administration
accountable." 
Earlier, via Twitter, Bing said: "This agreement is the first
meaningful step in achieving the necessary concessions and structural
changes." AFSCME leadership will present the tentative agreement to
members to review and ratify before a final agreement can be reached,
Bing said. The union coalition plans a meeting Friday to work out the
next steps of presenting the deal to membership. 
The three-year deal calls for health care, pension and wage
concessions. It calls for a 10 percent across-the-board wage cut and
ends the controversial furlough day program, which required most city
workers to take one day off a week twice a month.  
 http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120202/METRO01/202020450/Bing-Concessions-from-most-Detroit-unions-should-keep-EM-bay?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
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Bill Blum on the Forever Vile CPUSA and its Mouthpiece, Angela 
Angela Davis, star of the 1960s, like most members of the Communist
Party, was/is no more radical than the average American liberal. Here
she is recently addressing Occupy Wall Street: "When I said that we
need a third party, a radical party, I was projecting toward the
future. We cannot allow a Republican to take office. ... Don't we
remember what it was like when Bush was president?" 12 
Yes, Angela, we remember that time well. How can we forget it since
Bush, by all important standards, is still in the White House? Waging
perpetual war, relentless surveillance of the citizenry, kissing the
corporate ass, police brutality? ... What's changed? Except for the
worse. Where's our single-payer national health insurance? Nothing
even close. Where's our affordable university education? Still the
most backward in the "developed" world. Where's our legalized
marijuana — I mean really legalized? If you think that's changed,
you must be stoned. Where's our abortion on demand? What does your guy
Barack think about that? Are the indispensable labor unions being
rescued from oblivion? Ha! The ultra-important minimum wage? Inflation
adjusted, equal to the mid-1950s. 
Has the American threat to the environment and the world environmental
movement ceased? Tell that to a dedicated activist-internationalist.
Has the 50-year-old embargo against Cuba finally ended? It has not,
and I can still not go there legally. The police-state War on Terror
at home? Scarcely a month goes by without the FBI entrapping some
young "terrorists". Are more Banksters and Wall Street
Society-Screwers (except for the harmless insider-traders) being
imprisoned? Name one. The really tough regulations of the financial
area so badly needed? Keep waiting. How about executives of the BP Oil
Spill Company being arrested? Or war criminals, mass murderers, and
torturers with names like ... Oh, I don't know, let's see ... maybe
like Cheney or Bush or Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz or someone with a crazy
name like Condoleezza? All walking completely free, all celebrated.  
   http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer102.html
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Two on CAT Closing of Locomotive Plant


CAW Outraged at Closure Announcement at Electro-Motive
in London

February 3, 2012, 11:30 AM EST

http://caw.ca/en/10929.htm

Canadian Auto Workers Union

CAW President Ken Lewenza is expressing his anger and
frustration at what is he calling the "callous move" by
Caterpillar to suddenly close its London Electro-Motive
Diesel plant, announced this morning.

Sadly, the closure doesn't come as a total surprise to
the union.

"Caterpillar had no intention of keeping this plant
open," said Lewenza. "From day one, we believed that
Caterpillar was trying to provoke a crisis, by forcing
deep cuts that were not possible," said Lewenza. "Our
members would have happily continued working under the
previous conditions, but that wasn't enough for this
incredibly profitable company."

Caterpillar locked out approximately 465 workers on
January 1, after tabling a final offer that would cut
wages and benefits in half. Last week, Caterpillar
announced $4.9 billion in annual profits, the highest
in its 86 year history.

Lewenza also pointed the finger at government inaction
in allowing the closure. He said that 465 workers and
another 1,700 workers employed in spin-off jobs are now
the casualties of an outdated and dysfunctional
Investment Canada Act, that attaches no commitment to
Canadian jobs to corporate take-overs.

"The Stephen Harper government is entirely in the
pocket of the corporate elite and has shown absolute
disregard for Canadian workers and their families,"
said Lewenza. "I am disgusted at this government and
its indifference towards the suffering of workers and
the unemployed. The Harper government was elected by
Canadians, but only seems able to represent
multi-national corporations."

"Even though we predicted that the plant could close,
it's devastating when it actually happens," said CAW
Local 27 President Tim Carrie. "This is truly rotten
behaviour. Now we're going to do everything that we
can for our members."

CAW Electro-Motive chairperson Bob Scott said that
members learned this morning that the plant would close
- the company gave the union absolutely no advance
notice. "Imagine the shock that our members felt at
hearing about losing their job, on the radio," said
Scott. "It's unbelievable that Caterpillar would string
our members along and lock them out in the cold for six
weeks, when it had no intention of reopening the
plant," said Scott. "This is absolutely sickening
behaviour on the part of this corporation."




Progress Rail closing London plant

By Hank Daniszewski and John Miner, 

The London Free Press

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/emd/2012/02/03/19333691.html

Londoners had a couple of hours on Friday to bask in
the news that city's unemployment rate had dropped last
month.

Then the bad news slammed in like a locomotive.

Electro-Motive Canada announced it was shutting down
its plant, wiping out the jobs of 475 locked out
workers as well as 200 non-union staff.

Sixty-two years after it started making locomotives in
the city and two years after it was purchased by a
subsidiary of heavy equipment giant Caterpillar Inc.
the plant was history.

Company president Billy Ainsworth laid out the reasons
in a statement issued to EMD employees in Illinois.

"All facilities within EMC, Electro-Motive Diesel and
Progress Rail Services must achieve and maintain
competitive costs, quality and operating flexibility to
win in the global marketplace. The London plant,
primarily because of an antiquated labor contract,
faced serious competitive disadvantages."

It's the biggest plant closure the city since 1994 when
the Northern Telecom plant employing 2,200 shut down.

It will likely cause another spike in the London-St.
Thomas unemployment rate which dropped to 9% last
month, but is still the second highest of any major
city in Canada.

The lockout of the London workers had been a lightning
rod for protests with the company asking employees to
take as much as a 50% wage cut. A rally on Jan. 21 drew
more than 5,000 people.

Outrage over the closure started flowing immediately.

Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza said
Caterpillar always intended to close the plant and
defended the union's refusal to give into concessions.

Ken Georgetti, head of the Canadian Labour Congress
called for a seizure of Caterpillar assets in Canada.

Local politicians flocked to the picket lines to show
their support for the workers.

Mayor Joe Fontana said the shutdown was "shameful."

"It's despicable as to how Caterpillar has treated
these employees."

Fontana blasted Prime Minister Stephen Harper for not
intervening but a Harper spokesperson shifted the
blame, saying the federal government was disappointed
"that the Ontario government was unable to mediate a
solution to the dispute."

But after the furor and finger-pointing subsides, EMD
workers will still be out looking for a new job - one
that is unlikely to pay $32 an hour.

Two weeks ago Clint Howard started looking for a
"survival" job to get him through the lockout so he
could make his mortgage and car payments and provide
for his wife and infant daughter.

Now the 34-year old welder said a survival job may be
the best he can do.

"I'll have to take anything I can get basically . . . I
have to put food on the table for my family.'

But he may be better off than Bob Pharand, a 55-year
old EMD veteran who stood grim-faced on the picket line
while his wife wept beside him. He said finding another
job will be tough at his age and closure was a scenario
he tried not to think about.

"You see it, but you don't want to see it," he said.

- with files from Scott Taylor, Ian Gillespie, Norman
De Bono

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-Keystone XL Opponents Need a Jobs ProgramThe Keystone campaign was a great success, but environmental advocates must still convince the public that they care about jobs. READ MOREBy Brendan Smith, Jeremy Brecher / AlterNet
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Jobless Rate Falls to 8.3%, Altering Face of CampaignBy MICHAEL D. SHEARTwo dueling realities - an improving economy that remains very weak - create serious political risks for top advisers to President Obama and Mitt Romney.
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