NEWSFEED: US union struggles

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Walmart workers

If you miss a day of work at Walmart because you're sick, you could lose your job. That's not acceptable.

We're talking about the biggest, most profitable retailer in the world. Tell Walmart to give its workers a healthy sick leave policy.

SIGN THE PETITION


Chris,

On Friday Walmart workers will be waking up early to face masses of Black Friday shoppers.

If you work for Walmart -- one of the most profitable corporations in the world privately owned by one of the richest families in the world -- and get sick, good luck keeping your job.

Right now, if you need to miss a day of work due to illness, even if you have a doctor’s note, there’s nothing stopping a Walmart supervisor from disciplining you -- an “occurrence” in corporate Walmart speak. And you could lose your job.

Nobody deserves to lose their job because they get sick. And every worker deserves paid sick days. Walmart workers across North America are asking for six -- just six! -- paid sick days. Walmart made $132 billion in pure profit last year. I’d say it can afford it.

Tell Walmart to accept doctors’ notes and give all its workers six sick days a year.

Walmart’s sick leave has never been good -- it’s always operated on the principle that it can maximize profit for the Walton family off the backs of its massive workforce, the largest employer of Blacks and Latinos in the country. But earlier this year, it “streamlined” its sick leave policy and lumped vacation days in with days you are literally too sick to work.

Even doctors’ notes -- which can be prohibitively expensive for workers on a Walmart salary -- are too often ignored by Walmart supervisors. In 2014, a pregnant woman fell ill from the harsh chemicals she used cleaning. Her doctor ordered her to stop because repeated use of the chemicals “could harm her fetus and herself.” She was fired.

No more. Call on Walmart to introduce a sick leave policy that affords its workers basic dignity.

The funny thing is, Walmart was in free fall last year -- customers were complaining about empty shelves, filthy washrooms and endless checkout lines. And then because of endless pressure by worker-supported organizations like our allies at OUR Walmart, Walmart capitulated and raised wages. And then, suddenly, stores improved and sales went up. Imagine what could happen if Walmart had a sick leave policy that wasn’t a complete disgrace?

SumOfUs members have stood up to Walmart before. After deadly factory fires broke out in Bangladesh over 80,000 of us stood up to Walmart and other retailers to urge them to commit to taking basic steps to ensure the protection of garment workers. Now we must stand up once again. Let’s let Walmart know that every time workers fight back against its destructive business model, we’ll be standing with the workers.

Walmart: give your workers more than six sick days a year and a humane sick leave policy.

Thanks for all that you do,

Nicole, Toni, Reem, and the rest of the SumOfUs team



**********
More information:

How Did Walmart Get Cleaner Stores and Higher Sales? It Paid Its People More, NY Times, Oct 15, 2016
Walmart’s Pregnancy Policy May Make You Sick, The Nation, Dec 19, 2014
OUR Walmart's Sick Time & PTO Policy Recommendations, OUR Walmart






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[LaborTech] Amazon Worker Jumps off 12-Story Building After Being Put on Big-Brother-Like 'Performance Improvement Plan'


Amazon Worker Jumps off 12-Story Building After Being Put on Big-Brother-Like 'Performance Improvement Plan'

http://www.alternet.org/labor/amazon...YpVAw.facebook

Amazon employees live in terror of these performance plans.
By Michael Arria / AlterNetNovember 29, 2016


Photo Credit: Robert Scoble / Flickr Creative Commons

An Amazon worker was injured in a suicide attempt after jumping off a 12-story company building in Seattle, reports Bloomberg.

Authorities did not release the identity of the man, but the story indicates he wrote an email before he tried to kill himself. The email was visible to hundreds of other Amazon workers, and to company CEO Jeff Bezos. The man had recently requested a move to a different department, but was put on a deceptively harmless-sounding "performance improvement plan" or PIP.

In 2014 a former Amazon employee wrote to Gawker about these euphemistic corporate tools. "I would not want such a thing to happen even to my enemy," wrote the worker, who broke down the details of PIPs:

In Amazon, PIP is being used as a tool to fire employees. That is, once you are into a PIP you can be sure that you would be made to quit within a maximum of 3 months.

Before going into the details of PIP, I want to share the confusion I still have regarding the eligibility criteria of PIP. As by the name, PIP stands for 'Performance Improvement Program'. But all the people who were into PIP from my team are super performers. They are all brilliant and experts in their own area of work. To be precise, they are all candidates who deserve a promotion. But it was a huge shocker to all when they were told that they need to take up a PIP.

In Amazon, when an employee is asked to sign a PIP, he or she is not allowed to disclose it to any of the team mates. In case they disclose, and if the manager comes to know of it, the employee would be terminated on the basis of 'Compliance Issue' for sharing confidential information !! So employees doesn't share it to anyone. And also in most cases they feel ashamed to share it to others. Hence the concept of PIP remains a secret to most people until it happens to them....

Amazon's image suffered a serious blow last year when a New York Times story on the company revealed a cutthroat culture that pushes employees to the brink. "Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk," a former employee told the paper.

In response to the report, Jeff Bezos sent out a memo to all employees. "The article doesn’t describe the Amazon I know or the caring Amazonians I work with every day," he declared, "But if you know of any stories like those reported, I want you to escalate to HR. You can also email me directly... Even if it’s rare or isolated, our tolerance for any such lack of empathy needs to be zero."

Michael Arria is an associate editor at AlterNet and AlterNet's labor editor. Follow @MichaelArria on Twitter.
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Militant Teamster reformers come close to beating Hoffa, make historic gains



By Richard Blake

Jacksonville, FL - On Nov. 18, Teamsters in the U.S. and Canada awoke to find that Jim Hoffa had won re-election as president of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters after 17 years in office. Instead of the overwhelming electoral victory that Hoffa usually experiences, the Teamsters old guard lost in the Southern Region, the Central Region, the U.S. as a whole, and only barely squeaked by in the International vote.

Teamsters United, the reform slate running against Hoffa, won six vice president spots to split the executive board for the first time since Hoffa has taken office. Led by Louisville Local 89 President Fred Zuckerman, Teamsters United faced an uphill battle from the jump. The vast majority of local leaders around the country urged their members to vote Hoffa. This was demonstrated in the National Teamsters Convention last June where Hoffa's delegates numbered over 90%. These delegates are almost always local union officers. When the vote went to the members, however, he only won 51.5%.

On the other hand, Teamsters United had a committed group of enthusiastic activists and a union full of “pissed off Teamsters.” Members who had enough of Hoffa's concessions during his time as general president found a way to put their frustrations into action. Uniting the two opposition slates from the previous election, the reform slate entered the election with commitments to stop the wave of concessions, put a firm stop to corruption, and organize new workers in the core industries.

While local union officers used their steward structures and Hoffa's top lieutenants did 20-minute photo ops, Teamster United's army of campaigners set up a strong organizations in traditional Hoffa strongholds like Chicago, New York, Florida, Ohio, Los Angeles, and countless other areas. These campaigners used vacations, personal days, break periods and weekends to inform members that they had an opportunity to elect Teamster leaders who wanted to fight the employers just as much as they did.

As the ballot count came in, it was anybody's race, with Hoffa taking an early lead by winning the Eastern Region and Teamsters United taking back the lead until the last few hours. Although Hoffa remains in power for now, this was a massive victory for militants in the Teamsters in particular as well as all who believe the labor movement needs to return to real class struggle instead of constant concessions to employers.

John Palmer, one the vice presidents elected from the Southern Region said, “Teamsters in the South sent a clear message that they want change. As a vice president, I'll make sure their demand for a stronger union is heard.”

Both Teamster employers and old guard officials are becoming terrified of an increasingly strong rank-and-file militant movement that has now split up the rubber-stamp executive board. On top of that, both Fred Zuckerman and Teamsters for a Democratic Union have made public commitments to stay united going forward into future elections and contract campaigns, especially the upcoming 2018 UPS contract. Local activists have followed suit and formed local organizations where none existed before.

Several top Hoffa vice presidents and officials are looking forward to corruption charges from the federal government. Two of the most high-profile cases involve Western Region Vice President Rome Aloise, who is accused of taking gifts from employers in exchange for contract concessions and Secretary Treasurer Ken Hall, who is accused of withholding information from the government's investigation. The future of many old-guard Teamster officials is looking more and more uncertain.

One thing's for sure, it's that the Hoffa machine is dead and Teamsters United killed it.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

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VIDEO - O’Hare Airport Workers One Day Strike


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O’Hare Airport Workers One Day Strike

O’Hare Airport workers held a one-day strike rally on Nov. 29, 2016 to underline not only the exploitation, abuse, poverty wages and retaliation at the Chicago airport that they experience. Their concern was also the alarming flaunting of health and safety standards for passengers and well as employees. One worker cleaning airplanes tells us: “I feel it’s not sanitary the way we clean...We shouldn’t be having to clean with the same rag they clean the bathroom with, for the table…We shouldn’t have to use the same solution for everything. We shouldn’t have clean the galley with this and then clean the tables with it. Clean the toilet with this, and then have the table touch it.” Scenes from 2,000 workers mass picketing at O’Hare, and comments at a Jobs with Justice community forum on Dec. 5. Length 26:26.

Video url: https://youtu.be/vnlZi2BeGAM

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Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. ​For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat is on as a cable-tv series in seven U.S. cities; check our website for more info. Chicago schedule: CAN TV 19, Thurs. 9:30 pm, Fri. 4:30 pm.
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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016.../illi-d12.html


Judge temporarily delays imposition of draconian contract on Illinois state workers

By George Gallanis

12 December 2016

Last Tuesday, an Illinois circuit court judge agreed to the request of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union to place a temporary restraining order on the implementation of a new labor agreement on state workers by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

The current labor contract for 38,000 state employees expired on June 30, 2015, six months after Rauner, a private equity investor, came to office. Since January 2016, Rauner has refused to continue negotiations with the union. In mid-November, the governor began unilaterally implementing his contract, which includes a four-year wage freeze, doubling of health insurance premiums, increased outsourcing and privatization, and other concessions.

AFSCME filed its request in court after the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) declared that negotiations between the state and union had reached an impasse—the legal trigger allowing Rauner to impose his last “offer” or for AFSCME to call a strike. Union lawyers contended that Rauner had illegally begun to implement sections of the contract before the ILRB had formally declared an impasse.

Ruling in favor of the union, the southern Illinois judge in St. Clair County who issued the temporary restraining order (TRO) found that Rauner began “implementing new terms and conditions of employment without notice to and the agreement of the union.”

The TRO is being touted as a great victory by AFSCME District 31, which has not called an Illinois state workers strike in its 45-year history. “Although temporary, this order sends a message to Governor Rauner that he is not above the law. Instead of sparking further conflict in the courts and at state worksites, Governor Rauner should return to bargaining and work with us to find common ground,” said AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch.

The judge’s decision is a highly political action. There is widespread consensus within the political establishment at every level and within both big business parties that state workers and other public employees should bear the burden of the economic crisis and decades of tax cuts and other pro-business measures that undermined state revenues. From the Obama administration down, both the Democrats and Republicans are attacking public employee pensions, health benefits and work conditions, and privatizing public services in order to funnel even more money into the hands of bankers, wealthy bondholders and for-profit companies.

There are tactical differences, however, over how this can best be accomplished, revolving around the question of whether it is more effective to carry out these anti-working class attacks with or without the assistance of the trade union apparatus.

AFSCME’s legal maneuvers have two purposes. First is to give rank-and-file workers the false impression that the organization is fighting for their interests. Second is to gain more time to persuade Rauner to work with the union to impose the bulk of his agenda.

In 2010, the anti-working class measures unilaterally imposed by Republican governor Scott Walker in nearby Wisconsin provoked mass protests, which threatened to spread to Illinois, New York and other states. The unions and state Democrats, which sabotaged and suppressed the protests, argued at the time that austerity measures could be more effectively imposed through the collaboration of the unions.

AFSCME officials hope the TRO will give them more time to appeal the declared impasse by the ILRB in order to force Rauner back to the negotiating table by legal means. AFSCME has repeatedly made clear it is willing to implement a majority of the concessions demanded by the Rauner administration.

Rauner’s latest contract proposal intensifies the attack on state workers. It includes a four-year wage freeze, which amounts to a cut in real pay because of inflation. It also proposes an increase in the workweek from 37.5 to 40 hours, with overtime pay going into effect only after 40 hours of work. Another provision would double the cost of premiums for health and dental insurance.

In September, an administrative law judge of the Illinois Labor Relations Board declared the Rauner administration and AFSCME were not at an impasse regarding the issues of wages and health care. Making it clear the union was willing to concede on wages, AFSCME Council 31 director Lynch declared, “We are pleased that today’s recommendation underlines what AFSCME has been saying all along … there is no impasse on key issues, and the parties should get back to the bargaining table to resolve them.”

She further stated, “Ever since Governor Rauner’s representatives broke off negotiations with our union back in January and walked away from the bargaining table, AFSCME has repeatedly made clear we want to reach a fair agreement and we are prepared to do the hard work of compromise to make that possible.”

The ILRB judge ruled that an impasse on subcontracting did exist. The latest contract insists that the state has the right to contract out “any work it deems necessary.” AFSCME proposed to develop a “labor-management team” to see if state employees can underbid private contractors. In other words, AFSCME is arguing that outsourcing is not necessary because it can impose on its members whatever cost-cutting measures are necessary to meet the asking price of the state.

Workers face an escalating attack whether AFSCME succeeds and negotiations resume, or whether the impasse declared by Rauner’s handpicked ILRB holds. In the unlikely scenario that AFSCME calls its first-ever strike, the union bureaucracy would do everything to isolate and suffocate it.

No trust can be placed in AFSCME, which is tied by a million threads to the Democratic Party establishment that is imposing austerity on workers. If a real fight is to be waged workers must take the conduct of this struggle in their own hands by forming independent rank-and-file committees, detached from and in opposition to AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, the Republican and Democratic parties and the capitalist system they all defend. State workers should appeal for the broadest mobilization of the working class to oppose the bipartisan austerity plan and defend and fight for the social rights of all public and private sector workers.

The author also recommends:

Illinois officials prepare all-out assault on state workers

[12 August 2016]

Copyright © 1998-2016 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

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VIDEO - We Move Chicago: Transit Workers Activate


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We Move Chicago: Transit Workers Activate

December 21, 2016. Emphasizing to union membership and to Chicago Transit Authority management that class relationships are moving into a new phase, Locals 241 and 308 of the Amalgamated Transit Union held a day of coordinated actions in 3 locations throughout the city. Although the two locals (241 for buses and 308 for trains) had largely functioned separately in their dealings with management for some 40 years, the two locals have decided to join forces and coordinate strategy, the result of a year of stagnant contract negotiations. This day of action has awoken untapped, potential union power in Chicago. It points toward mobilizations similar, in the words of ATU 308’s President Kenneth Franklin (photo), to the teachers union April 1 one-day strike last spring. Their chant “We Move Chicago” is no fantasy, as transit workers indeed move all the city; it also raises the point that transit workers might also vote NOT to move Chicago. Scenes and interviews. Length 14:34.

Video url:
https://youtu.be/bvrkQ-XhAHE

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Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat.

For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". Labor Beat is on as a cable-tv series in six U.S. cities; check our website for more info. Chicago schedule: CAN TV 19, Thurs. 9:30 pm, Fri. 4:30 pm.
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Southern Workers on the Move! Winter 2016 Newsletter




Southern Workers On The Move! | Winter 2016 Newsletter of the Southern Workers Assembly

Workers in the South across various sectors are building a movement organize labor in the South, build power in our workplaces and communities, and fightback.

Below are reports and analysis on some of the key struggles throughout the region as part of our Winter 2016 newsletter, which was first distributed at the Southern Human Rights Organizing Conference in Jackson, MS on December 9 - 11. Check out the articles below, and be sure to download the newsletter in its entirety and distribute to your coworkers!




Virginia Workers Push Back Right-To-Work (for less) at Voting Booth

On November 8, a ballot initiative that would have put the state’s right-to-work (for less) status in the state constitution was defeated in Virginia thus securing an important victory for poor and working people everywhere.

Continue reading...




Tennessee is Not for Sale! #TNisNotForSale University Workers Fight Privatization!

n August 2015, United Campus Workers (a Communication Workers of America local union) learned of a secret plan being pushed by Tennessee’s Governor Bill Haslam to privatize the building management, maintenance, and security at every single piece of Tennessee state-owned property – every campus, office building, park, hospital, prison, even the national guard armories – costing the jobs of 1 in 5 state workers! This a threat for all their states if it were to be implemented in Tennessee.

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Uniting Workers at the Point of Production and Service Against the Racist Police Killings

Since the September 11 World Trade Center attack, the presidential administrations, campaigns and the current 2016 presidential election, have intensify the levels of government repression against working-class Blacks and people of color, and Muslim’s, contributing to widening the divisions within the general US working-class.

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Fight for $15 stages national strike, civil disobedience across US and South

On November 29, fast food and low wage workers in over 300 cities across the US and the South went on strike demanding at least $15/hour and the right to form a union at McDonalds and other fast food restaurants. They were joined in these cities by home healthcare, childcare, airport, and other low wage workers and community members who have joined the Fight for 15 and, in many cases, have begun their own organizing initiatives to demand justice, higher wages, and unions in their workplaces.

Continue reading...




During Election rush, Workers School lifts up Southern organizing

Workers from 12 Southern cities, several workplaces and a number of unions gathered here for the Southern Workers School over the Aug. 5-7 weekend to continue their study of the political economy of the Southern region of the U.S. and develop organizing skills. Attendees also participated in a strategy session about “How might the 2016 elections open opportunities for organizing Southern workers?”.

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With FLOC’s help, Sweet Potato Farmworkers Win a Union Contract

In 2014, four members of FLOC courageously spoke out against issues at Burch Farms in Faison North Carolina, exposing violations that many of their coworkers were too afraid to speak about. They filed a lawsuit for multiple types of wage theft and other labor violations. Last month, the FLOC members and their lawyer negotiated a settlement that included a payment of $7,125 for each plaintiff as well as $40 for each worker for each season that they had worked for Burch from 2012 to 2014. In total, the grower agreed to pay over $200,000

Continue reading...




Nissan manufacturing workers continue 13 year battle to build a union in Mississippi

A growing number of workers at the Nissan car manufacturing plant in Canton, Mississippi desire union representation due to poor working conditions, low wages, and widespread safety issues that have lead to the death of two workers in recent years. By some estimates, as many as 40 percent of the 5,000 workers at the Mississippi plant have been hired as temporary employees who work for years earning significantly lower wages and benefits than regular employees. An overwhelming majority of temporary employees are African-American.

Continue reading...


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BREAKING NEWS - WAGE THIEVES ON NOTICE





Dear Good Jobs Defenders:

Thank you.

We just put corporate wage thieves on notice.

According to CNN, the US Department of Labor just debarred a major federal contractor for stealing wages.

The move comes after Good Jobs Nation filed multiple wage theft complaints on behalf of low-wage contract workers at the US Senate and Capitol, recovering over $1 million in back-pay and damages.

We sent a message: If you want to do business with the US Government, you can’t cheat your workers.

THANK YOU to all the Good Jobs Defenders who signed petitions and made lobbying calls; thank you to all the Senate staffers for sponsoring brown bag boycotts; thank you to Senators Warren, Booker, Hirono, Durbin and all the other Senators who joined us in solidarity; thank you to all the faith leaders who prayed with us; and thank you to Senator Bernie Sanders, Rep. Keith Ellison and members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for joining us on the picket lines.

We’ve won, but we’re not done. According to Demos, federal contractors steal $2.5 billion every year from the pockets of low-wage workers.

Join us in 2017 as we hold President-elect Donald Trump accountable to his promise to deliver “more jobs and better wages” by making sure the US Government only does business with model employers that create good jobs in America – not corporations that cheat workers and ship jobs overseas.

If we stand together, we can make sure our government sides with the working class, not the billionaires!

Thanks again,

Good Jobs Nation









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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017.../mome-j03.html


As strike enters third month

Momentive workers fight Trump’s billionaire appointee Schwarzman

By Philip Guelpa

3 January 2017

With the strike of 700 workers against Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford, New York, north of Albany, entering its third month and the plant manned with scab labor, it is clear the company is determined to break the workers’ resistance to sweeping concessions. At the same time, the International Union of Electrical Workers/Communications Workers of America (IUE/CWA), Locals 81359 and 81380, have collaborated in the slow strangulation of the strike.

The company is seeking major cuts in health care, pensions and other benefits. This follows two previous concessions-laden contracts within less than a decade, following a leveraged buyout that left the company with a huge debt burden, leading to bankruptcy.

Developments over the past month highlight the forces arrayed against the Momentive strikers.

It was recently revealed that a key advisor to president-elect Donald Trump, Blackstone Group founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, owns a stake in Momentive. The group that bought Momentive from General Electric (GE) a decade ago, Apollo Global Management, includes six billionaires, among them Schwarzman, who are listed by Forbes magazine among the 400 richest people in the US. Schwarzman alone has an estimated net worth of $11 billion, and is ranked number 45 on the Forbes list. Blackstone is the largest hedge fund in the world, currently holding assets valued at about $361 billion.

Schwarzman, a long-time friend of the president-elect, has been named to head the Strategic and Policy Forum, which will advise Trump on economic and tax policy. This group, hand-picked by Schwarzman, will consist of more than a dozen corporate leaders, including former GE CEO Jack Welch. In a recent presentation to Goldman Sachs, Schwarzman predicted that the Trump administration would enact widespread government deregulation and corporate tax cuts.

The utter bankruptcy of the unions was epitomized by Local 81359 President Dominick Patrignani, who appealed to Trump and Schwarzman for “compassion.” He told the Albany Times Union, “I would pray to God that Donald Trump would reconsider what he is doing and have a talk with some of these people, especially Mr. Schwarzman, about what is going on here in Waterford. We are extremely concerned with the loss of jobs, and this guy is supposed to be the new czar of job creation and growth.”

Promoting the lie that Trump is a savior of the working class, Patrignani alluded to the sham ‘saving’ of less than half of the Carrier workforce in Indiana, based on tax cuts and other giveaways to Carrier’s parent company United Technologies. Patrignani said, “It is a new administration, and we have to have faith in the system and hope that he can help, in some way, shape or form.”

On the other side of the political establishment, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, issued a statement on the Momentive strike saying, “I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the 700 members of IUE and CWA Locals 81359 and 81380 in your fight against corporate greed and for the economic security of your families.”

Sanders’ toothless statement is without substance. It comes from the candidate who, after winning 13 million votes in the primaries based on the illusory promise that he represented a progressive, even socialist alternative to the parties controlled by the super-rich, threw his support to Hillary Clinton, their bought-and-paid-for representative, who made no pretense of concern for the working class. This enabled Trump to present himself as the only “anti-establishment” candidate in the race.

Mother Jones reported last summer that Bill Clinton received a quarter-million-dollar speaking fee for a presentation to the “vulture fund” Apollo Global Management, which owns Momentive, while his wife was running for president. The contents of the speech were not revealed. In 2013, Hillary Clinton also spoke to Apollo, receiving the slightly smaller payout of $225,000.

Apollo Global Management was created following the 1990 collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert, a major investment bank that dealt in junk bonds. Apollo has become highly successful at leveraged buyouts of corporations, which are burdened with substantial debts that are then serviced by asset stripping and attacks on the workforce. While the company is seeking to impose its third successive concessions contract on the workers, Momentive’s current CEO, Jack Boss, received $5.4 million in compensation in 2015.

Patrignani praised Sanders’ statement, telling the Daily Gazette, “We are absolutely thrilled that Senator Sanders has taken the time to read up, study the facts and show his support to 700 chemical workers trying to get a fair contract with a corporate bully.”

In the meantime, strikers have been left to man the picket lines under increasingly bitter winter conditions. The company has fired at least three strikers for alleged actions on the picket line. On Friday the driver of an 18-wheel truck who had just made a delivery to the scab operation inside the Waterford plant drove dangerously at the picket line and nearly hit one of the striking workers. The driver was arrested by police, but only received a token misdemeanor charge before being released.

Local news reports indicate that the company is paying Saratoga County $7,560 per day in overtime costs for the sheriff’s detail guarding the Waterford plant. A contingent of six deputies and one sergeant is stationed at the Momentive picket line, along with the sheriff department’s Mobile Command Center. The large police presence is clearly intended to intimidate the workers and to ensure unimpeded access to the plant by the scab workforce.

The Momentive workers must face the truth--they can expect nothing but lies and betrayal from the union and the Democratic Party, let alone the Republicans. The sellout by the Communications Workers of America of the Verizon strike last spring should be carefully studied.

The union has already forced concession contracts on the Momentive workers, in 2010 and 2013, and the company is seeking even more cuts this time. The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency will ensure that Schwarzman and his billionaire associates will be given free rein in their assault on the Momentive workforce.

If they are not to be starved into submission, the workers must form an independent strike committee that will reach out for real support from other workers throughout the Albany region and beyond and mobilize the full strength of the working class against the strike-breaking operation. Above all, they must realize that this is a political struggle, not only against Momentive’s billionaire hedge-fund owners but against the Democratic and Republican parties that defend them.

Copyright © 1998-2017 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

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Privatize air traffic control: what could go wrong?


What could go wrong? Let's not find out.





GRAPHIC: Sign here button


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When Ronald Reagan became president, he began by smashing the air traffic controllers' union. Let's not allow Donald Trump to begin by privatizing their operations.

Sign the petition: Don't privatize our air traffic control.

There is currently a dangerous effort underway to hand our nation’s Air Traffic Control system to the airline industry. If we give up control of this vital public good, we leave hardworking Americans, travelers and our airspace vulnerable to the whims of a private corporation controlled by corporate airlines.

This is not a solution: it’s a fox guarding the henhouse. Our Air Traffic Control system is too important to risk, and the stakes are too high.

Add your name: Tell Congress to oppose privatizing air traffic control.

Currently, some Republicans in Congress are promoting a plan to give away our Air Traffic Control system to the airline industry, setting the precedent for a concerted effort to slowly hand off every American asset to big business including our roads, bridges and public lands. Congress should instead protect public goods by keeping them in the hands of the public and those elected to represent us, not giving them away to an unaccountable private corporation without any benefit to millions of hardworking Americans.

Add your name and tell Congress you will not stand for privatizing our skies.

Over 100 million Americans have traveled this holiday season, each relying on safe, accessible and reliable access to aviation, but that system is currently in jeopardy. Led by Congressman Bill Shuster, who claims President-elect Donald Trump also favors privatization of Air Traffic Control, some congressional Republicans want to hand our nation's skies to the airline industry.

We already know the negative impacts of privatizing the Air Traffic Control system — record profits for corporations on the backs of American consumers, layoffs for workers and a loss of access for rural communities. The U.S. Senate already voted overwhelmingly to pass a bipartisan bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration that shut the door on privatization. Yet despite widespread bipartisan opposition from aviation groups, progressive leaders, a number of unions, rural advocates and legislators from appropriators to tax writers, Congressman Shuster continues to put corporate airline interests ahead of the public interest.

We must come together and tell Congress that we will not back down.

Our Message to Congress :

I support protecting our Air Traffic Control system from privatization, and urge Congress to protect the public interest over corporate airline interests.

After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.

This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $3 now.

-- The RootsAction.org Team

Partners on this petition: RootsAction.org, Daily Kos, People Demanding Action, and In the Public Interest.

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http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017.../nyct-j06.html


New York City transit workers must fight to defend living standards and basic rights!

6 January 2017

The following statement is being distributed to New York City transit workers who are holding a mass meeting Saturday, ahead of the January 15 contract deadline for 30,000 bus drivers, subway workers and other transit authority workers.

The mass meeting of transit workers today, just one week before the January 15 contract deadline, takes place after workers have suffered years of stagnant or falling wages while the super-rich in New York City have accumulated grotesque levels of personal wealth. Now one of New York’s ruling elite, the billionaire real estate mogul and con man Donald Trump, is about to enter the White House and unleash an assault on every gain won by the working class over a century of struggle.

Transit workers, like workers throughout the city, are struggling to keep up with rising costs in the most expensive city in the US. They rightly want to roll back the attacks of recent decades and make up for past sacrifices. Once again, however, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), state and local politicians and the media insist there is no money to provide adequate wages, benefits and work conditions to the 30,000 workers who make New York City move.

While the MTA has not issued all of its concession demands, those that have been publicized add up, along with an insulting pay increase, to a further decline in living standards along with increased productivity, which can only make the job even more onerous, difficult and hazardous. Management also wants to increase the number of part-timers, and reduce payments for reporting, travel and wash-up time. MTA officials also want to expand broadbanding (combining various job titles) and reduce the number of times workers can pick for better jobs.

According to union statistics, at least 235 New York City transit employees have been killed on the job since 1946. The latest fatality took place on November 3, when two construction flaggers tried to jump into an alcove to avoid an oncoming train. Louis Gray, 53, was killed and his partner was seriously hurt. A third victim was the train operator, who could not see them around a curve until it was too late, and had to be taken to a hospital for shock and trauma.

In terms of wages, TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen said at a rally in mid-November he would not accept a wage offer of only 2 percent. The MTA, however, has only budgeted for 2 percent annual increases in the new contract. Even if the union agreed to pay hikes modestly above that figure, this would represent a cut in real pay over the life of the agreement. The official inflation rate notoriously underestimates the costs of health care, education, utilities and other basic needs.

In the last deal negotiated by Samuelsen, workers got an insulting 8 percent increase over five years. In addition, employee contributions for health benefits were increased from 1.5 to 2 percent, and the time it took for new employees to reach top pay scale jumped to five years compared to the previous three-year period.

Pensions have been another means by which the MTA has chipped away at transit workers’ benefits while pitting newer against older workers. According to the state constitution there can be no reduction in benefits of current employees. However, they can be lowered for newly hired workers and the TWU has gone along with that. As a result, there are now six levels (tiers) of pension plans for state employees, with only a very small number of high-seniority workers still receiving the pension benefits that were won in past struggles.

The struggle facing transit workers, like that of every other section of the working class, is a political one. Transit management says it cannot offer anything more because of a growing financial crisis. According to a recent report issued by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the MTA will have a debt of $41 billion by 2020, 43 percent higher than 10 years earlier. The fare has been increased by 45 percent over this period, three times faster than the rate of inflation and six times faster than the increase of average salaries. And the MTA has already held public hearings to impose another 4 percent hike in March 2017, with plans for yet another increase in 2019. An anti-poverty advocacy group found that one-fourth of poor New Yorkers could not afford the present fare.

As usual the MTA officials, politicians and media are seeking to pit transit workers against the riding public, saying any improvements in the living standards of workers would be paid for by future fare hikes. But neither transit workers, nor working people as a whole, are to blame for the financial crisis. It is the direct result of the deepening crisis of the capitalist system and the draining of public resources to finance the Wall Street bailout, tax cuts for big business and servicing the debts owed to the very same banks and financial institutions that crashed the economy in 2008.

New York is the tale of two cities. One is dominated by the super-wealthy speculators and financial parasites that have driven up housing costs and dominate every aspect of economic, political and cultural life. The other is inhabited by the great mass of working people who operate the subways, buses, schools, hospitals, power plants, construction sites, offices and retail shops every day. Although the working class produces the real wealth of society, workers have absolutely no say-so over the distribution of that wealth.

The main problem is that workers have no organizations to defend their interests. The Transport Workers Union functions as a tool of MTA management, Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill deBlasio. They all agree that the jobs, living standards and working conditions of transit workers must be subordinated to the insatiable demand of the banks and big business for even more profit.

Workers are increasingly determined to defend previous gains, but the unions have worked to keep struggles isolated and suppressed. The powerful six-day Philadelphia transit strike by nearly 5,000 workers that took place in early November was shut down by TWU Local 234, Local 100’s sister local, right before Election Day, in a failed attempt to help Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the state of Pennsylvania.

Local 100, also in bed with the Democrats, supported Bernie Sanders in his campaign, which he obediently dropped in favor of the candidacy of Hillary Clinton, the preferred candidate of Wall Street.

At the Local 100 contract rally in mid-November, TWU national President Harry Lombardo said that the management in Philadelphia wanted health care concessions and “they got none of that.” This is a blatant lie. In reality workers will see their health care contributions rise from 1 percent to 2.5 percent of their pay by December 2019, for the same coverage. For the average worker this means a rise from $46 to $115 per month, and there will also be an increase in co-pays for doctor and hospital visits, as well as prescription medications.

The TWU will not defend workers. It is up to workers to take the initiative. The Socialist Equality Party urges transit workers to elect rank-and-file committees to plan and lead the struggle for a decent contract. A list of demands should be drawn up, which includes a 30 percent increase in wages, the restoration of health and pension benefits and the abolishing of the hated two-tier wage system. Other demands should be elaborated to ensure sufficient rest and break time, adequate staffing levels and workers’ control of health and safety conditions.

A fight by transit workers would inspire millions of workers around the city to take up their own demands for good-paying and secure jobs, affordable housing and health care and high-quality public and higher education. Transit workers should reach out to workers throughout the city and organize rallies, demonstrations and other joint actions to the defend the social rights of the working class.

The electoral victory of Trump, with all of the dangers it poses to every section of workers, is the culmination of decades of reactionary policies, aided and increasingly presided over by Democrats as well as Republicans. Democratic politicians like Cuomo and de Blasio are responsible for policies that allowed Trump to posture as the “anti-candidate” and opponent of the status quo. While saying as little as possible about the right-wing government he is assembling of billionaires, ex-generals and ultra reactionaries that want to destroy Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the Democrats criticize Trump for not being aggressive enough against Russia as they beat the drums for a new world war.

Democrats like Senator Charles Schumer and top union executives have expressed their support for Trump’s program of economic nationalism, seeking to pit American workers against their brothers and sisters around the world. But transit workers are made up of virtually every nationality on the globe and they know that it is possible to defend their interests only by uniting all workers, regardless of race or nationality.

Transit workers are in a fight against the entire economic and political order, which serves the rich at the expense of the working class. But they have powerful allies in the masses of struggling workers and young people who face the same fight. The battle by transit workers to defend their social rights must be combined with the struggle to build a mass political movement of the working class, independent of the two capitalist parties, and committed to the fight for socialism and real equality.

The Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site will provide transit workers with as much assistance as possible in this struggle. We urge you to contact the SEP today.

Copyright © 1998-2017 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

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WE WON! The Postal Service’s Shady Deal with Staples is OVER!


Dear Chris Kaihatsu,

The Staples boycott is over!

Postal management informed the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) in writing that the “Approved Shipper” program in Staples stores will be shut down by the end of next month, concluding our three-year struggle.

I salute and commend you along with every other member and supporter who made this victory possible. I never doubted that if we stayed the course, stuck together and kept the activist pressure on, we would win this fight.

This is a victory for all the people of this country who have the right to good quality, secure, and public postal services. It also helps stop the transfer of good living-wage union jobs to low-wage jobs and thwarts postal privatization efforts.

I also applaud the many local and state organizations that joined in the fight; allies who honored the Staples boycott; our retiree and auxiliary chapters who stepped up with enthusiasm; APWU National officers and staff who stayed the course; and especially the many Stop Staples activists, active and retired, career and non-career, who worked day-in and day-out to see this struggle through and were the heart and soul of the campaign.

A job well-done!

In Solidarity,

Mark Dimondstein, APWU President


1300 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 | www.apwu.org

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We're On Strike to Stop Wall Street from Destroying Our Jobs


CWA
ACTIVIST ALERT

Chris,
We've been on strike at Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford, NY for over two months to save good jobs and stop Wall Street greed from destroying our community.

Every day, Wall Street speculators, hedge fund managers and private equity firms sacrifice communities all across the country for the benefit of their bottom line, but we're standing strong in Waterford to stop them.
Will you stand with us and our coworkers? Sign the petition.

SIGN THE PETITION ►

Our jobs have been good jobs for decades, but hedge fund billionaires are trying to destroy them to line their own pockets, hurting working families and putting upstate New York at risk of a huge environmental catastrophe all at the same time. *

One of the billionaires driving down our standard of living is Stephen Schwarzman. He's the CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone Group which owns a large chunk of Momentive.

And Schwarzman isn't just any Wall Street billionaire - he chairs President-Elect Donald Trump's new “Strategic and Policy Forum," which is supposed to help create good jobs.
Surely if Schwarzman really cares about preserving and creating good jobs in places like Waterford he should stand with us to stop the pay and benefit cuts, support good jobs and put working people before Wall Street greed.

We've seen the changes at the company first hand. Since private equity took over the company from GE in 2006, some of our wages have been slashed up to 50%, our pensions have been frozen, and more of our jobs have been outsourced.

The company is trying to slash not only our healthcare, but eliminate completely the healthcare of our retirees. Some of these folks are dealing with illnesses directly related to their exposure to deadly chemicals at the plant. That's disgustingly greedy.

The wealthy and powerful in charge of the plant are making huge amounts of money while we are being nickel-and-dimed. We have to stop them.

Please sign the petition to stand with us.

Thank you,

Donna Taylor and Frank Coreno

* Learn more about environmental disaster waiting to happen at Momentive by clicking here.



CWA
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
cwa-union.org
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Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC.

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Scandal at T-Mobile

Jobs With Justice

Sign our petition: END abusive sales practices harming T-Mobile customers and service reps.

TAKE ACTION NOW!


Dear Chris,

Did you think the Wells Fargo scandal marked the end of corporations using predatory sales tactics? Not by a long shot.

The people who work for T-Mobile say they’re under tremendous pressure from management to meet unrealistic performance goals, forcing them to make sales by any means necessary—or risk retaliation in the form of reduced hours, pay cuts, or job loss. An expose found that this pressure led T-Mobile representatives to fraudulently add unneeded services, equipment, and extra phone lines to customers’ accounts.1

Enough is enough: Tell T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere to drop the high-pressure sales goals.

According to a new report, the phony charges stemmed from sales and customer service representatives who were under tremendous pressure to sell not just phones, but unwanted accessories and insurance plans.2 Current and former T-Mobile employees said sales managers also used constantly shifting criteria to judge their performance. And here’s the rub: the salespeople at T-Mobile said that after just one bad month, they could have their hours cut and end up in nearly inescapable sales goal ‘debt’ that gradually decreases their pay.

This isn’t the first time the telecommunications giant has been under fire for something like this. Less than three years ago, they saddled millions of customers with unwanted charges resulting in a $90 million settlement with the government.3 Don’t you think it’s time they learned their lesson?

We’re calling on T-Mobile to do right by its customers, as well as meet with the working men and women of T-Mobile to create fairer performance measures. Can you please take 30 seconds to join us?

By uniting with the working people of T-Mobile, we know we can win this fight. Remember, after our loud cries, Wells Fargo buckled to consumer and political pressure. The CEO stepped down, and the bank swiftly ended its despicable sales techniques. We have to make our voices heard again so that T-Mobile, and other profitable corporations, can no longer get away with over-the-top, unnattainable sales targets that harm customers and working people alike..



Thanks for all that you do,
Liz Cattaneo
Jobs With Justice


1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...group-alleges/
2. http://callingouttmobile.com/wp-cont...re_Dec2016.pdf
3. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pres...nsumer-refunds

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Add your name: Stand with these workers against corporate greed


AFL-CIO


Sign the Petition Immediately to Support Working People on Strike at Momentive


The petition to Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group—which owns a major stake in Momentive— says the following:

Stop the pay and benefit cuts, support good jobs and put working people before Wall Street greed.

Sign the Petition Immediately ›


Chris,

Working people at Momentive Performance Materials in New York have been on strike for more than two months. They’re fighting to save their retirement and other benefits, but this is bigger than that. It’s about workers saying “enough” and standing up to corporate greed.

Since a Wall Street private equity firm took over the materials manufacturing company 10 years ago, wages have been cut by up to 50% and lots of jobs have been outsourced. And now, the company is eliminating health care and life insurance for retirees—some of whom are dealing with long-term illness associated with their jobs at Momentive.1 Enough is enough.

Sign the petition immediately to call for a fair contract, and support working people at Momentive standing up to corporate greed.

The petition to Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group—which owns a major stake in Momentive— says the following:

Stop the pay and benefit cuts, support good jobs and put working people before Wall Street greed.

Greedy CEOs and multinational corporations have made it corporate status quo to attack workers’ wages and benefits just to increase profit. Momentive is following the bad trend of other Wall Street private equity firms and hedge fund managers that routinely increase their revenue at the expense of our communities.

Striking is not easy. Every person who goes on strike wants one thing: to get back to work, but not at the expense of families and communities. The workers at Momentive know that we are, and always will be, strongest together. That’s why they’re not letting up until Momentive offers a fair contract with workers.

I’m asking you now to stand with working people at Momentive and push back against the wealthy few taking from our communities to line their own pockets.

Sign the petition immediately to urge Momentive to settle a fair contract with workers so they can get back to their jobs.

In Solidarity,

Elizabeth
-----------------
Elizabeth Bunn
Organizing Director, AFL-CIO

1- Nearing, Brian. “State Comptroller urges settlement in Momentive chemical strike.” Times Union, http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-bus...e-10849231.php.


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Transit Workers Activate - next Labor Beat on CAN TV 19. Starts Jan. 19


A Two-Segment Show:

Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19
Thursday, Jan. 19, 9:30 pm
Friday, Jan. 20, 4:30 pm
Thursday, Jan. 26, 9:30 pm
Friday, Jan. 27, 4:30 pm

We Move Chicago: Transit Workers Activate

December 21, 2016. Emphasizing to union membership and to Chicago Transit Authority management that class relationships are moving into a new phase, Locals 241 and 308 of the Amalgamated Transit Union held a day of coordinated actions in 3 locations throughout the city. Although the two locals (241 for buses and 308 for trains) had largely functioned separately in their dealings with management for some 40 years, the two locals have decided to join forces and coordinate strategy, the result of a year of stagnant contract negotiations. This day of action has awoken untapped, potential union power in Chicago. It points toward mobilizations similar, in the words of ATU 308’s President Kenneth Franklin , to the teachers union April 1 one-day strike last spring. Their chant “We Move Chicago” is no fantasy, as transit workers indeed move all the city; it also raises the point that transit workers might also vote NOT to move Chicago. Scenes and interviews. Can also be viewed at: https://youtu.be/bvrkQ-XhAHE

+ YouTube Video

Transit Workers march and chant at the busy 95th Street Transit Hub. Photo: Labor Beat


Second Segment:

April 1 Chicago One Day Strike Rally

Video Highlights excerpts from speeches at last Springs's April 1, 2016 giant rally at the Thompson Center (State of Illinois Building) in Chicago's Loop. This event capped the day-long teachers strike and coordinated city-wide actions from Fight For 15, transit workers, Nabisco workers, BYP 100, faculty and staff from Chicago State University, Northeaster Illinois University, City Colleges of Chicago, to name a few.. Can also be viewed at: https://youtu.be/ThTKOcR652E

+ YouTube Video

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. Labor Beat, 37 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60607. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat is a regular cable-tv series in Chicago, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; Cambridge, MA.

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Northeastern University workers announce Inauguration Day strike

By staff

Boston, MA - Food service workers at Northeastern University announced that they will be walking off of the job at 12:00 noon on Jan. 20, in protest of President-elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-worker policy proposals. The one-day, mid-contract work stoppage will continue through the rest of Inauguration Day. The workers are members of UNITE HERE Local 26, the same union which led a 22-day strike of food service workers at Harvard University last October.

The Northeastern workers will be joined by students who are walking out of classes and marching to the Boston Common, which will be the site of mass demonstrations throughout the afternoon and evening.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

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Trump’s election sets up potential new attacks on unions



By David Hoskins

Washington, D.C. - Labor officials in Washington D.C. are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best as Donald Trump assumes the office of president of the United States after losing the popular vote by 2.9 million votes but winning enough electoral votes from the states to assume the presidency. Trump secured his Electoral College win by squeaking ahead just slightly of corporate Democrat Hillary Clinton in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The election of Donald Trump has increased anxiety for a labor movement that has already been under sustained attack since 2011 when Tea Party governors began to roll out attacks on collective bargaining rights in states like Wisconsin and Michigan. The attack most recently culminated in Harris v. Quinn when a narrow right-wing majority on the Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that unions could no longer collect fair share fees to cover the cost of representation from certain groups of public employees who opted not to pay their membership fees to the union.

Labor officials fear an intensified assault on workers’ rights in three primary areas. Rank-and-file workers are right to be anxious too about the dangerous possibilities a Trump administration presents. Effectively resisting an anti-labor agenda will require both a sober analysis of the situation and rank-and-file militancy in fighting back in the workplace and in the streets.

Trump Supreme Court pick will likely renew Friedrichs attack

Workers dodged a bullet when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, depriving the Court of its extreme anti-union majority. Prior to Scalia’s death it looked as if the Supreme Court would undo fair share fees for all public-sector employees in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, negatively impacting thousands of labor contracts covering millions of public workers in the process. The death of Scalia gave labor a temporary reprieve as a lower court ruling in favor of fair share fees has been upheld until the Court’s vacancy is filled.

The success of Senate Republicans in blocking Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, means that a President Trump will get to nominate Scalia’s replacement; a Republican Senate will be responsible for confirming the nominee.

In September 2016, Trump completed a list of 21 potential nominees to the Supreme Court. According to a USA Today analysis, Trump promised upon releasing his list to appoint justices like Justice Scalia. Ten of the potential nominees are federal judges put on the bench by President George W. Bush; one is a federal judge nominated by the first President Bush. Nine others were placed on state supreme courts by a Republican governor, and four of them clerked for Clarence Thomas, who is often viewed as the Supreme Court’s most conservative justice.

A Trump presidency very likely means a right-wing majority on the Court will take back up the Friedrichs case, or one similar to it, and rule against public sector workers by undermining fair share arrangements and thus starving their union of resources. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU); American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; National Education Association; and American Federation of Teachers are just a handful of the public-sector unions that will be greatly impacted by a negative ruling on Friedrichs. Many of the labor officials associated with these unions believe it is not a matter of if, but when, the Supreme Court undoes public sector fair share.

A potential Trump NLRB threatens to undo union rights for graduate students and others

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in August 2016 that graduate research and teaching assistants have the right under the National Labor Relations Act to form a union and collectively bargain with their private university employer. The decision reversed a 2004 NLRB ruling, which had found that graduate assistants at private universities were not employees and had no right to collectively bargain under federal law.

In the months since the August decision, graduate assistant employees at Columbia University have voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW). Graduate workers at other universities have since filed for their union election as well. Private university graduate workers and union organizers fear that a Trump-appointed NLRB will reverse the 2016 decision and undo recognition of their right to collectively bargain.

In December 2014, the NLRB issued several rules that updated procedures for resolving representation disputes. The rules helped speed up the timeline for elections, which generally benefits workers and the union by limiting the amount of time the boss has to use union-busting tactics to scare and divide workers, allow for the electronic filing of union petitions, and require that employers provide additional available contact information such as personal telephone numbers and email addresses to the union when it provides voter lists.

These rules are minor reforms in the larger landscape of U.S. labor law, but they have helped streamline election procedures on a more level playing field for workers and unions.

According to CNN, Trump will soon appoint three of the NLRB’s five members. He will have the opportunity to fill two of the vacancies immediately upon assuming the presidency. The third spot will open in December 2017. With the terms of the two Democratic members of the Board expiring in 2018 and 2019, Trump may actually end up filling all five spots on the Board. This would dramatically remake a Board that in recent years had taken some concrete steps to make it easier for more workers to join a union and negotiate a first contract. A Trumpian NLRB threatens to undo progressive Obama-era NLRB rulings on graduate worker organizing and union election procedures.

Anti-union legislation looming as Republicans assume power at every level of government

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote decisively, but the former Secretary of State and corporate Democrat who once served as a member of the board of directors at low-wage employer Wal-Mart led her party to a landslide loss in terms of branches and levels of government. Republicans are now in control the White House, and the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate giving them a lock on the national elected government.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Republican Party was also elected to control of both legislative chambers in 32 states, a record high. Republicans control 33 of the country’s governorships, and Republicans control both legislatures and the governorship in 24 states, giving them complete control in those states.

Total Republican control of the executive and legislative branches of government at the national level and in 24 states has created concern about both national and state ‘right to work’ legislation. ‘Right to work’ is a misnamed law that prohibits private sector unions from negotiating contracts that require all workers covered by a union to pay dues for the cost of negotiating contracts and representing workers. It essentially creates a class of freeloaders who get all the benefits of a union with none of the responsibility that full members share in terms of financial support.

An analysis by the AFL-CIO, the country’s main and largest labor federation, found that ‘right to work’ laws hurt workers in several different ways. States with ‘right to work’ laws have lower wages and incomes, lower rates of health insurance coverage, higher workplace fatality rates, and higher poverty and infant mortality rates. ‘Right to work’ laws do not guarantee anyone in the states that adopt them the right to any sort of job, despite what the name implies.

Labor’s concern about state ‘right to work’ legislation is not unfounded. Kentucky became the 27th state to implement ‘right to work’ legislation on January 7, 2017. Missouri and New Hampshire are considered top targets for additional ‘right to work’ laws that would further undermine worker rights and starve labor unions of much needed resources.

The worst-case scenario is one where the U.S. Congress passes national ‘right to work’ legislation that Trump then signs into law. The likelihood of national legislation is more difficult to predict. Most Republicans, and the section of the U.S. corporate interests who back them, would certainly like to see national ‘right to work’ legislation.

However, Republicans already have their plate full attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to as Obamacare) and pass massive corporate tax cuts. It is an open question how long it will take them to implement those parts of their agenda, assuming they are even successful, and if they’ll have the political capital to pass national ‘right to work’ legislation after doing so.

Regardless of what attacks come their way, rank-and-file militancy is required to push many union leaders out of the dead-end strategy of campaign contributions to Democrats and lobbying behind closed doors in between elections. Direct action - especially direct strike actions and mass protest in the streets - is the strongest tool workers have in their arsenal to fight back against the attacks on worker rights.

David Hoskins is a senior research analyst on staff for a major labor union headquartered in Washington, DC. The thoughts and positions in this article are his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the labor union by which he is employed.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

Stand with Strikers Against Hedge Fund Billionaires


CWA


TAKE ON WALL STREET

On November 2, working people at Momentive Performance Materials in Waterford, NY put their jobs on the line by going on strike. They're standing up against Wall Street greed for each other, the community, and all working people who want to earn a good living in this country.

This strike is bigger than Waterford. Every single day, Wall Street speculators, hedge fund managers and private equity firms sacrifice our communities for the benefit of the wealthy few. Momentive workers are standing strong to stop them.

Will you stand with these brave workers by signing our petition? We're asking Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of the investment group that owns a large chunk of Momentive, to put working people before Wall Street greed. Click here to add your name.

Since private equity took over Momentive from GE in 2006, wages have been slashed up to 50%, pensions have been frozen, and jobs have been outsourced. Now, Momentive wants to slash healthcare for active employees, and eliminate completely healthcare and life insurance for retirees - many of whom are dealing with illnesses related to their exposure to deadly chemicals at the plant.

Steve Schwarzman's Blackstone Group has driven down workers’ standard of living over the past decade. And Schwarzman isn't just any Wall Street billionaire - he chairs President-Elect Donald Trump's new “Strategic and Policy Forum," which is intended to help improve economic growth and create good jobs.

A delegation of Momentive workers will be delivering the petition signatures to Schwarzman. Tell Steve Schwarzman if he really cares about preserving and creating good jobs in places like Waterford, NY he should stop trying to make a buck at the expense of good jobs and the future of our communities. Add your name at http://actionnetwork.org/petitions/i...kers-on-strike.

In Unity,

Beth

-----

Beth Allen
Digital Communications Director

Take on Wall Street
A project of Communications Workers of America
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
www.cwa-union.org

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CTA Workers Contract Rally MLK Day 2017 - Labor Beat video


CTA Workers Contract Rally MLK Day 2017
View at: https://youtu.be/BU6oenzMa98

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Both Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) unions — ATU 241 and ATU 308 — are preparing to “take this to the wall” to get a proper contract, after about a year of working without one. This contract rally on Jan. 16, 2017, taking place on Chicago’s south side at the historic Mt Pisgah church, further revved up the energy and militancy that was shown last Dec. 21 at protests at the CTA HQ and 95th Street transit hub. Speaking and interviewed in video are: Carlos J. Acevedo (Financial Rec. Sec.-Treas., ATU 241); Kenneth Franklin (Pres./Bus. Agent, ATU 308); Leonard Morris (Ret. former Pres. of ATU 241); Elwood Flowers Sr (Ret. former Pres. ATU 241); Jonathan Jackson (Prof., College of Business, Chicago State University); Tommy Sams (Pres./Bus. Agent, ATU 241). Length - 14:01


ATU contract rally took place at Mt Pisgah church, where Dr. King spoke in 1967. Photo: Labor Beat




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