[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 3.21.12‏‏‏‏‏-I‏

Thu Mar 22 07:58:56 UTC 2012

Horizontal Meets Vertical: 3 Ways Occupy, Community Groups and Unions Can Work Together to Change Society  Making $2.13 an Hour and the Boss Skims Tips? How We Can Fight Exploitation in Restaurants  What Wendy Kopp Got Wrong With Teach For America
Food Police? Mayor Bloomberg Bans Food Donations to Homeless Shelters  Police Unleash Attack Dogs, Suspend Students for "Thought Crimes" After Students Protest Conditions at School     'Right to Work' Bills Face Uncertain Future in an Election Year Transit Workers Union Targets Riders In New Campaign‏ A Colossal Mistake of Historic Proportions: The "JOBS" Bill Undocumented Immigrants Honored in California Assembly  Si Se Puede! Arysta pulls methyl iodide nationwide.‏  
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http://www.alternet.org/story/154599/horizontal_meets_vertical%3A_3_ways_occupy%2C_community_groups_and_unions_can_work_together_to_change_society?akid=8441.16102.EpgmIx&rd=1&t=18

-Horizontal Meets Vertical: 3 Ways Occupy, Community Groups and Unions Can Work Together to Change SocietyTo build this movement, Occupy needs to connect with tens of millions of people who are watching the unfolding battle but are not yet involved. READ MOREBy Stephen Lerner / The Nati
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http://www.alternet.org/story/154565/making_%242.13_an_hour_and_the_boss_skims_tips_how_we_can_fight_exploitation_in_restaurants?akid=8441.16102.EpgmIx&rd=1&t=21

-Making $2.13 an Hour and the Boss Skims Tips? How We Can Fight Exploitation in RestaurantsTipping catches workers between customer whims and employer exploitation. But some states and businesses are changing their ways. READ MOREBy Erik Loomis / AlterNet
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http://www.alternet.org/story/154610/what_wendy_kopp_got_wrong_with_teach_for_america?akid=8441.16102.EpgmIx&rd=1&t=24

-What Wendy Kopp Got Wrong With Teach For AmericaIn a recent essay, Teach for America's founder argues again that her teaching corps is good for America's schools. One long-time teacher offers his view on why that just isn't so. READ MOREBy Jay Stott / The Paper Graders
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http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/864964/food_police_mayor_bloomberg_bans_food_donations_to_homeless_shelters/#paragraph2 Food Police? Mayor Bloomberg Bans Food Donations to Homeless SheltersBy Horace Boothroyd III | Daily Kos

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http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/864958/police_unleash_attack_dogs%2C_suspend_students_for_%22thought_crimes%22_after_students_protest_conditions_at_school/#paragraph4

Police Unleash Attack Dogs, Suspend Students for "Thought Crimes" After Students Protest Conditions at SchoolBy Sarah Seltzer | AlterNet

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'Right to Work' Bills Face Uncertain Future in an Election YearBy MONICA DAVEYIn some statehouses, Republicans are facing a tugging match between conservative members who promote bills that critics see as attacks on unions, and moderates who fear political repercussions.
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Transit Workers Union Targets Riders In New Campaign
Lila Shapiro
Posted: 03/20/2012 7:05 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/transit-workers-union-campaign_n_1368294.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

A Miami-Dade county Metrorail train pulls into a station
March 12, 2012, in Miami, Fla. With gas prices on the
rise, mass transit systems around the country have seen
a 2.31 percent rise in ridership during 2011.

This election cycle, the unionized workers that run your
public transportation system are doing something a
little different. They're not only turning out the votes
of their own membership, they're pushing for the riders
to vote as well.

The Amalgamated Transit Union -- the largest labor union
representing transit and allied workers in the U.S. and
Canada -- has at least two trends working in its favor:
With gas prices rising and the economy still weak,
public transit use is near its highest point in decades.
Last year, Americans took 10.4 billion trips on mass
transit -- including buses, trains, street cars and
ferries -- a 2.3 percent increase from the previous
year, according to the American Public Transportation
Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization. And the
people who ride buses and trains -- mostly urban, poor,
or environmentally conscious -- are more likely to share
the unions' preference for Democratic candidates, say
advocates on both sides of the issue.

In an age of unlimited spending by super PACs -- where
Republican groups have outspent their Democratic
counterparts -- the Amalgamated Transit Union's strategy
is part of a critical role that labor advocates plan to
play between now and November. The unions say they
cannot compete with Republican donors' money, but that
they do have an ample supply of bodies and plan to
deploy them in broader and more creative ways than they
did in 2008.

The ATU, like other unions, also says that it plans to
use this election as an opportunity to build public
support for big labor after several years of crushing
blows: attacks from conservative politicians across the
Midwest, budget cuts that further diminished public
sector union membership, and declining public support.

"We understand that we have a knife to our throat," said
Larry Hanley, who was elected president of the ATU in
2010. "We're even thinking about selling the office
furniture," he joked, and then quickly grew serious. "In
past elections, on our best day, we never went beyond
organizing our own members, but that's not enough now."

"What we understand completely is that the people who
ride the bus have the same interests as the people who
drive them," Hanley continued. "America has lost its
mobility."

As gas prices rise, public transit systems across the
nation have faced dwindling budgets and fewer routes. In
2010, nearly 80 percent of public transit systems were
forced to raise fares or cut service due to flat or
decreased funding from state and local governments,
according to the American Public Transportation
Association. And while the majority of bus riders may
not be seen as swing voters, they are more likely to be
citizens without driver's licenses, and thus more
vulnerable to voter suppression in states like Florida
that require a government-approved photo ID, said
Hanley, adding that the ATU will focus on that issue as
well. They may also be in need of a ride to the polls on
voting day.

Exact funding or staffing has not yet been determined,
but the ATU says it is hoping to mobilize bus riders and
sympathetic progressive groups to provide additional
bodies to work the bus stops and buses. These groups
have already begun to form in some key states, like
Florida, and have engaged in heated debates over public
transit issues since early 2010.

Ellison Bennett, a long time civil-rights activist based
in Pensacola, Fla., and an avid bus rider -- roughly 120
miles, back and forth to work per week, he estimated --
said he plans to join the ATU in its mission in the
coming months. Bennett has long viewed public transit as
fertile ground for registering voters and distributing
information.

"On the bus, you're getting a segment of voters who have
not been reached out to," Bennet said. "So that is my
mission this election year."

Bennett recalls a conversation he had on a bus ride on a
Saturday morning in 2004, when he was going to visit his
sister. He struck up a conversation with an 82-year-old
woman sitting next to him, and, before long, asked her
whether she was a registered voter. She said she used to
be, but hadn't been for a long time, and besides, she
had no car and the bus didn't go to her precinct's
voting location.

"I have never had anyone tell me, 'I don't want to talk
to you right now.'" But sometimes, if people are
hesitant about registering, Bennett turns to his civil
rights history. "I say, 'Picture South Africa when
Nelson Mandela ran for president. People walked for
miles, for days, to exercise their right to vote. We
should never take that right for granted."

Conservative operatives, meanwhile, seem resigned to the
loss of the transit riders' vote.

"If you're taking the bus to work, you likely live in an
urban environment, are on the lower half of the
socioeconomic scale or you have an ideological aversion
to cars -- all demographics that are far more kind to
Democrats," said Jonathan Collegio, the director of
communications for American Crossroads, one of the
leading Republican super PACs. "In the end, these are
voters who are unlikely to jump from the Democratic
ship."

____________________________________________

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

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http://truth-out.org/news/item/8018-a-colossal-mistake-of-historic-proportions-the-jobs-bill

A Colossal Mistake of Historic Proportions: The "JOBS" BillSimon Johnson, The Baseline Scenario: "From the 1970s until recently, Congress allowed and encouraged a great deal of financial market deregulation - allowing big banks to become larger, to expand their scope, and to take on more risks.... With the so-called JOBS bill, on which the Senate is due to vote Tuesday, Congress is about to make the same kind of mistake again - this time abandoning much of the 1930s-era securities legislation that both served investors well and helped make the US one of the best places in the world to raise capital." Read the Article 

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http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/03/20/2767700/the-buzz-undocumented-immigrants.html

Undocumented Immigrants Honored in California Assembly
Read the Article at The Fresno Bee

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Si Se Puede! Arysta pulls methyl iodide nationwide. 

We did it! We are proud to share a huge victory with you. We've just gotten word that Arysta LifeScience has pulled cancer-causing methyl iodide off the U.S. market. This announcement  means the end of  the use in the U.S., of what scientists have called "one of the most toxic chemicals on earth".

Thanks to consumers like yourself, through public pressure and supporting litigation when federal and state agencies failed to protect the public, the use of this dangerous poison has been limited.

UFW President Arturo Rodriguez  said, "Today farm workers can breathe a little bit easier knowing that the  risk of being exposed to methyl iodide will be  gone, thanks to the support of thousands of people throughout the country, PANNA and the brave workers who risked their jobs to speak out and say  "enough".

The UFW will stay vigilant to ensure Arysta does not bring the toxic back.

Thank you  for all you have done to help. For more information, please review the news articles below.
 San Jose Mercury News:
Maker of methyl iodide scraps
controversial pesticideThe manufacturer of methyl iodide is pulling the controversial pesticide from California.Late Tuesday, representatives of Tokyo-based Arysta LifeScience confirmed the "immediate suspension of product sales for all formulations of the fumigant MIDAS in the United States." The company said its decision was based on "an internal review of the fumigant and based on its economic viability in the U.S. marketplace," according to Amy Yoder, head of Arysta LifeScience North American business unit.Before Arysta's confirmation, Assemblyman Luis Alejo said Arysta "absolutely" does plan to end sales of the fumigant, marketed under the name Midas, not only in this state but across the nation. That, he said, could send "shock waves" across the state's agricultural fields and particularly through the strawberry industry, which is losing its primary fumigant, methyl bromide, under an international treaty.Alejo is urging Gov. Jerry Brown to immediately establish a working group to develop alternatives that will give farmers the tools they need to protect crops while ensuring the health of rural communities and farmworkers....MORESalinas Californian:
Alejo: Maker of methyl iodide to withdraw fumigant from California and U.S.Arysta LifeScience, the controversial fumigant methyl iodide, announced late Tuesday that it would withdraw the chemical which prompted state Assemblyman Luis Alejo to call on Gov. Jerry Brown to create a strawberry producer working group to find an acceptable replacement fumigant as methyl bromide is phased out of use.Alejo, D-Watsonville, is calling on the governor to form the group to find safe and feasible alternative crop protection solutions for the agriculture industry.“Together we need to find a safe and viable alternative to ensure maximum crop production in our state,” Alejo continues. “Today, I am asking Governor Brown to create a strawberry producer working group that will take a fresh look at protecting our agricultural economy and our workforce”...MOREMonterey County Weekly:
BREAKING: Arysta to Pull
Methyl Iodide from U.S.After more than a year of litigation and unrelenting activist opposition to the fumigant methyl iodide, manufacturer Arysta LifeScience late Tuesday announced its intention to suspend sales of the product in the United States.Methyl iodide patent holder Jim Sims, the retired UC Riverside professor who developed the chemical for commercial use, confirmed the company’s plans to suspend sales of the fumigant prior to Arysta's announcement. "It’s a surprise, but it’s a business decision," Sims says. A company representative called him Tuesday morning to tell him the news."The decision was made as part of an internal review of the fumigant and based on its economic viability in the U.S. marketplace," Arysta's press release states.“It’s having trouble making money. That’s the way it goes,” Sims says. “It’s like seeing one of your kids fail, is what the feeling is."But some suspect there was more driving the decision than Arysta’s cash flow. A lawsuit filed by anti-pesticide organizations in December of 2010 calls into question the state’s process for approving all chemicals, not just methyl iodide. If Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch rules against defendants Arysta and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, proving a pesticide has been adequately examined could become much more onerous and costly....MOREThe Grower:
UPDATED: Arysta suspends
sales of Midas soil fumigantArysta LifeScience Corp., Cary, N.C., has suspended sales of all formulations of its soil fumigant, Midas, in the United States, effective immediately.Existing supplies and tanks should be returned to Arysta, said an Arysta spokeswoman, who didn't want to be identified.If a field has been already treated with Midas, Arysta will continue to steward the product....MORE
Check out our website at: www.ufw.org and keep up with the latest news.Check out the UFW's Social Networking pages. Click to visit our Facebook Fan Page, Facebook Cause,YouTube, Flickr, MySpace,and Care2 pages. Please link to us and become our "Friend" and follow us on Twittertoo!If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for the UFW List Serve.If you want to change your mailing address and/or phone number click hereIf you want to receive our alerts at a different e-mail address, send an e-mail to ufwofamer at aol.comPlease add us to your safelist: Please add ufwofamer at aol.com to your address book so that our messages don’t get trapped in your spam filter. If you have questions about how to do this, drop us an e-mail.Privacy PolicyTo unsubscribe, go to: http://action.ufw.org/unsubscribeThis email was sent to cgpelayo at hotmail.com.United Farm Workers,  P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531, http://www.ufw.org

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