United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Them and Us :

[blindpig]

WILL BIDEN DESTROY THE UPS STRIKE?
Posted by Chris Townsend | Jul 17, 2023 .



EDITORS NOTE: Just before this posting of Marxism-Leninism Today, it was reported on July 16th that Teamster President Sean O’Brien had requested that President Joe Biden not involve himself in a possible strike at UPS.
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Final union contract negotiations are proceeding between the Teamsters Union and the gigantic and super-profitable UPS (United Parcel Service) Corporation. Will the 330,000 union members be forced to strike on August 1? Will UPS agree to the reasonable demands of its workforce, preventing any work stoppage? Or, will UPS successfully use President Joe Biden to stall or even break the strike and save the company? Will Biden jump in even if the company doesn’t ask him to? With the recent spectacle of Biden’s contemptible wrecking of the rail union strike just 9 months ago fresh in mind, it’s a real possibility that the self-proclaimed “most pro-union President” may yet again prove that he’s not.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

The more than 330,000 Teamster members who work for UPS generate enormous profits for the company. This landmark battle has been shaping up for almost 30 years, and has been intensifying to an unprecedented degree this year. UPS personifies the super-profitable U.S. corporation, having generated more than $22 billion dollars in profits in just the past two years alone. UPS controls more than 43% of the U.S. package delivery market and during the pandemic the company saw a huge jump in package volumes as millions of people shopped on-line and required home delivery. UPS has systematically and scientifically designed the delivery process from beginning to end to squeeze maximum efficiency from its workforce, making UPS a very difficult place to work on account of the punishing production requirements and omnipresent management surveillance of everyone at work. Every job is continuously studied, timed, and monitored; whether it be loading the package vans or the time spent delivering them out on a route. Employees who fail to meet the onerous requirements are disciplined and fired. For more information see this detailed explanation of the UPS issues by Teamsters Local 90 President and Business Agent Tanner Fischer https://youtu.be/BL95hDDoc2U from FightBack! Radio.

Almost half of the workforce are also hired as part-timers, at far lower starting wages. Combined with the backbreaking production requirements and wages as low as $16 hour, turnover is astronomical. Many of these lower-tier, lower-paid jobs were created during the Hoffa years with his full consent, and the creeping cancer of contracting-out of UPS jobs to unorganized low-wage companies likewise took root on the Hoffa watch. Today’s battle features a major union priority of eliminating the lower-tier wage schemes and limiting and rolling back the contracting-out and loss of union positions.

THE COMPANY FEARS ANGRY UNION MEMBERS

Initial company bending on the issues of two-tier elimination, air conditioning for vehicles, and granting of the ML King Jr. federal holiday were clearly offered in the hope of pacifying the increasingly agitated workforce. In the end there are many other key issues including the all-important wage package. A substantial wage package that is overdue for many reasons, not the least of which is the galloping rate of inflation and the fact that UPS workers went all-out during the pandemic – with tens of thousands sickened and countless killed by the virus. Teamster members slaved non-stop during the pandemic but have received no bonus, no “thank you” compensation from the company for Covid-19 duty, no wage increases other than those negotiated 5 years ago when the rate of inflation was low.

The expectations of the union membership are high, and they should be. The Teamster membership – now free of the corrupt misleadership of Jimmy Hoffa – appear to be ready to fight. New Teamster president Sean O’Brien led his campaign for President on the program of mounting a serious and sustained campaign to win not just a better contract at UPS, but a contract that would correct egregious past concessions from the Hoffa era – and take members forward in significant ways over the coming 5 years. All indications are – so far – that the O’Brien campaign to win a better contract at UPS is unfolding from coast-to-coast and is being greeted by members with great support and enthusiasm.

BIDEN: STRIKEBREAKER IN CHIEF

The UPS negotiations take place in their own category, much like the giant railroad labor battle of last year. Both struggles were exceptionally large in size and national in scale, especially in a U.S. labor scene that has seen the destruction of most large pattern-type union agreements. Rail and UPS both present the possibility of some national economic impact, and both have offered simple contrasts between greedy and profitable employers on the one hand, and angry union members on the others. While the UPS battle with the Teamsters may at first glance look like just a large scale but simple union-management fracas, in reality the entire corporate establishment will be in the UPS corner. Big business and its political hirelings are well aware of the danger – to them – of a Teamster win at UPS. And where will the Biden regime come down? Since Biden actively and publicly leaped into the railroad fray, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect him to do likewise with UPS?

In the case of the railroad labor negotiations, Biden cynically inserted himself personally, and by dispatching then-Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to insinuate his way into the multi-union rail negotiations. From the start Walsh’s only role was to avoid a strike with the giant and profitable rail carriers. The outrageous situation of the rail workforce – gross overwork, virtually serfdom conditions owing to a lack of time off, safety issues, badly lagging wages – had to be subordinated so that Biden could avoid the alleged economic damage that would result should the workers be allowed to strike. (For background on the rail fight see my previous articles: “Lions Led by Asses” | MLToday and Learning from the Biden Strikebreaking | MLToday )

Biden and Walsh both systematically played politics with the rail fray. For several months both spoke out against strike as an option, never once supporting the struggle of the rail workers openly. Never once did the Biden regime denounce the greed and perfidy of the rail barons, never once sounded the need for active federal intervention on behalf of the workers’ struggle against this corporate outrage. With the active collusion of several of the 13 rail union Presidents, as well as the rail corporations themselves, in the end the strike momentum was derailed and deflated, and the unions were defeated. The rail strike had been several decades in the making, and an uncontested case exists that a national railroad strike was not only justified, but it was also overdue. With the anti-worker “bag job” completed, the Biden White House declared victory – for itself – and promptly abandoned the whole affair. The rail corporations gleefully celebrated while the exhausted and demoralized rail workforce was left to listen to Biden’s continuous claim that he is “the most pro-union President in U.S. history.”

Throughout the entire rail labor drama, Biden emphasized over and over the “economic damage” that a strike by the 110,000 rail workers would do somehow to the national economy, even if the strike was short-lived. Of course, “the most pro-union President in U.S. history” apparently does not grasp the fact that strikes by their very nature are acts of last resort, and yes, are intended to damage the employer’s economic fortunes. Lost in the media reports of the rail debacle was the fact that the UPS showdown – then still at least 10 months off – involved a workforce 3 times as large as the combined rail union membership – and in many ways promised to be far more disruptive to the national economy. But the precedent was set and the question was posed; if Biden would crush the rail strike momentum of 110,00 union workers so brazenly, wasn’t it almost a sure thing that he would do likewise in the UPS fight?

TEAMSTER MEMBERS ALSO BIGGEST BIDEN TARGET IN RAIL STRIKEBREAKING

In a twist that is apparently unknown, it was the Teamsters Union that also bore the brunt of Biden’s strikebreaking in the railroad fight. Two unions: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way (BMWE), combined, represented a majority of the rail union membership. Both unions have been affiliates of the Teamsters Union for several decades. These rail “operating” members also faced the direst situations with the rail carriers draconian attendance regimes as these workers travel extensively and frequently away from home in their work assignments and essentially were on-call practically every day of the year. Likewise forgotten is the fact that the Teamsters Union has been an independent union for nearly 20 years, having quit the AFL-CIO as part of the Change to Win movement in 2005. With the AFL-CIO already unconditionally in Biden’s grip ( See; Top AFL-CIO Leaders Cast Their Lot with Biden | MLToday ) it will be of paramount interest to see how the Federation and its unions react as the increasingly frantic White House scrambles to recruit labor allies in advance of the UPS showdown.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is well-aware that many of the AFL affiliate leaders will try to “have it both ways”, by telling the Teamsters they have their support and likewise telling Biden that they are in his corner. Many unions realize the key role of the Teamsters Union in their own employer fights, so outright abandonment of the Teamsters is unlikely. But the Teamsters will need to continue to be forceful with the slippery and weakling union leaderships all-too prevalent in the labor movement to prevent any significant public breach from developing. The role of the UPS company can be easily predicted, as it will do just about anything, and say just about anything, only needing to escape a strike. But it is almost a certainty that the Biden forces will continue to try to avoid or even sabotage a UPS strike – perhaps maneuvering that has already been underway for months.

BEWARE BIDEN

Despite the ravings of some Democrats, folks in the political industry enriched by this regime, and Biden labor bootlickers, the Teamsters dare not trust this President in the UPS battle as these facts attest. The months-long Hollywood Writers strike has elicited little apparent White House support – even rhetorical statements. As that strike began more than 3 months ago Biden said he hoped that the striking writers are given a “fair deal as soon as possible”. Lifted from the standard say-something-but-don’t-do-anything political playbook, Biden has not even dispatched his hapless-and-in-need-of-an-assignment Vice President Kamala Harris to Writers Union picket duty. Has the First Lady or Cabinet members been asked to show overt support for the striking writers? Of course not.

The start of the far larger Screen Actors Guild strike now adds new pressure on Biden. Additional tens of thousands of union members are joining the picket line, also confronting the egregious corporate greed in their case by the entertainment overlords. Can Biden bring himself to carry a picket sign, even long enough for a cheap photo op? Can he bring himself to speak out clearly and forcefully against the corporations forcing these disruptions? Might the self-proclaimed “most pro-union President” find the time to stop by the Writers picket line, or the Screen Actor’s picket line, or any of the Teamster “practice pickets” now spreading across the country in front of countless UPS depots and garages? Will he?

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

A glance at the following video tape from just several years ago tells the tale. In an election eve scramble for Teamster votes and manpower in his 2020 election, Biden issued a message heaping praise on the Teamsters Union, and its soon-to-be exiled president Jimmy Hoffa. (A message from Joe Biden to the Teamsters https://youtu.be/SbECBQUd7Qw ) Praising the same Hoffa who systematically conceded all manner of work rules and two-tier schemes to UPS in previous negotiations. The same Hoffa who stood down at the last Teamster election certain in the full knowledge that his members would never re-elect him, led in large part by the giant UPS block of Teamster voters. The entire Biden message is for the members to support him in his election fight. Biden makes no mention of the rail strike then already taking shape, and certainly no mention of the inevitable UPS fight building even then. Almost 400,000 Teamster members work in UPS and the rail industry alone, but why bother to offer specifics about support that he would tender once the union was in need?

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LEFT

As the UPS contract deadline approaches on August 1st, pay close attention. A strike is not a certainty, and there may be a settlement, or an extension of time. But should the strike materialize, this will be the largest and most important labor battle for the past – or the next – 10 years. Now joined by more than 100,000 additional entertainment workers, by August 1 we may see nearly 500,000 union members on the picket line together. The Teamsters Union web site will include factual updates Front Page – International Brotherhood of Teamsters as will the web site of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, (TDU), the leading member-driven militant caucus Teamsters for a Democratic Union (tdu.org) Labor Notes is also a reliable source. Labor Notes | The rail strike situation proved that the bulk of the news media are either incapable of telling the factual real story of a labor fight, or are systematically interested in twisting it for right-wing purposes. Many left outlets will do their best to follow the developments, but again, be careful and skeptical of the reports manufactured by the corporate media who have unhidden loyalty to UPS.

Picket duty to support the Teamsters and the Hollywood workers, and other demonstrations of support will likely appear all-round. Anyplace where there is a UPS depot, garage, or UPS-run facility there will likely be a picket line on day one, August 1. That date may shift forward should there be an extension. It is critical that the company – and the Teamster members – see public support. The 1997 UPS strike 1997 United Parcel Service strike – Wikipedia lasted 15 days and was viewed as a major success. It also set a bar and goals that eventually led to the exit of Hoffa set the stage for today’s fight.

The U.S. left, especially the labor left, has so far played a positive role in the UPS battle, and that must continue and expand. The outcome at UPS may influence more broad labor developments, particularly at Amazon. Young workers need also take particular interest as the shape of the future U.S. workplace will be influenced by the Teamster fight.

WALSH POSTSCRIPT

Left for last – where it belongs – is a postscript regarding the sorry and former Biden Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh. A smalltime union leader-turned-politician, Walsh rose from position to position always trading on his trade union credentials. Arriving eventually as the hand-picked Secretary of Labor in the new Biden regime, Walsh was endlessly ballyhooed as a remarkable figure, a “first”, an extraordinary union and political leader, on and on. Most major unions and the AFL-CIO praised Walsh at every turn, touting his union credentials, excited just at the thought that Biden would actually pick a union member for one – but only one – of his top spots. Where is Walsh today? The rail strikebreaking job was barely buried when Walsh abruptly resigned his position and took a multimillion-dollar job as the head of the Hockey Players Union. His supporters and worshippers were stunned and dumbfounded. As for real union members and working people, having seen his disgusting strike-breaking role during the rail negotiations, his role as special emissary from Biden to wreck the strike at all costs, Walsh now joins the ranks of exiled and discredited misleaders of labor, hopefully to be forever forgotten.

https://mltoday.com/will-biden-destroy-the-ups-strike/

Betting on the Democratic Party betraying the working class is always easy money.

[blindpig]

“Big Three” Auto workers vote to strike by 97%

Over 144,000 workers are set to strike on September 14 if negotiations with their employers, the car manufacturers General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford, fail. The union has already employed the tactic of practice pickets at auto plants in Detroit, Michigan and Louisville, Kentucky

August 28, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


144,000 UAW workers are employed by the three largest companies and are covered by one contract, set to expire on September 14 (Photo: UAW via Twitter)

Workers at the three largest automakers in the United States have just voted to authorize a potential strike of 144,000 autoworkers by a majority of 97%. The United Auto Workers union (UAW) announced the nationwide voting results on August 25. In recent months, the UAW has kicked off a contract campaign to win workers’ demands in contract negotiations for autoworkers at the three largest car manufacturers: General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford. 144,000 UAW workers are employed by these three companies and are covered by one contract. This contract is set to expire on September 14, after which workers will strike if the auto companies do not meet their demands.

The union has employed the tactic of practice pickets at auto plants in Detroit, Michigan and Louisville, Kentucky. Practice pickets are trade union actions in which workers “practice” for a strike by holding down a picket line prior to the start of their shifts. This tactic was employed successfully by Teamsters workers in their historic contract campaign at UPS.

On Thursday, August 24, the UAW announced that they had brokered a tentative agreement with Ultium Cells, which employs UAW workers to manufacture electric car batteries for General Motors. The Big Three for years have been using joint ventures such as Ultium Cells to employ an underclass of workers who are not covered by the Big Three master contract and are therefore not entitled to the same benefits. The tentative agreement will raise wages by over 20% for Ultium Cells workers

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/28/ ... ike-by-97/

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UPS CONTRACT RESOLVED, AUTO BATTLE APPROACHES: WHERE IS BIDEN?
Posted by Chris Townsend | Aug 28, 2023

UPS Contract Resolved, Auto Battle Approaches: Where Is Biden?



Major labor unrest among several key sections of the organized working class continues this summer. As the 75,000 Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild members remain on strike, the massive 340,000 worker UPS [United Parcel Service] contract with the Teamsters union fell into place even before the expiration in late July. The much awaited and predicted strike action never materialized as the company capitulated on several key issues in the face of a serious strike threat. The final settlement was overwhelmingly accepted by the membership, even though this “catch up” contract still left some key problems unresolved. The situation of the part-time workforce is still less than ideal, although many significant advances for this huge section of the UPS workforce were won. The massive Teamsters union mobilization to drive this settlement was a welcomed sight and it can be credited with most of the progress made in this agreement. For a good recap of the UPS settlement see the balanced and detailed report by labor writer Luis Feliz Leon in Labor Notes: Despite Big Teamster Wins at UPS, Some Expectations Outpace Gains | Labor Notes

Auto Battle Approaches

With the UPS showdown now behind us, the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) contract with the “big three” auto companies – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — now looms ahead. The 150,000 UAW members in almost 275 plants and locations across the U.S. have now begun to mobilize towards their September 14th contract expirations. The issues are familiar: badly lagging wages, criminally low pay for perpetually “second tier” workers, overwork and forced overtime, little time off in many plants, perpetual management harassment, and preservation of health and pension benefits, among others. In this round of negotiations the UAW is also led by virtually all new leadership, the result of one-member-one-vote elections forced on the union by the government in the wake of the removal of the previous UAW leadership for widespread theft and corruption.

New UAW President Shawn Fain is leading the campaign to rebuild the shattered leadership of the union, and to prepare the membership for the major battle ahead with the “Big 3” auto barons. Member mobilizations and substantial educational work is now underway across the union, a much-needed antidote to the years of virtually company union “leadership” by the previous union administrations. These efforts are long overdue and will be needed to focus the members on the need to fight – and possibly strike – if necessary. The several decades of concessions granted to these super-profitable companies by the former UAW leadership are astonishing, although not surprising given the business union mindset where member needs are always subordinated to company “partners”. Restoring the fighting capacity and spirit of the UAW members is a daunting task, but there is no question that without this being done there is little chance that gains will be made in the coming negotiations. On August 25, UAW members at the Big 3 voted to authorize a strike if necessary, indicating that support with a whopping 97% margin. For details on this process as we approach the September deadline see: UAW Auto Bargaining Resources | UAW

Mind-Boggling Auto Profits

The three U.S.-based auto companies are experiencing a never-before-seen gorge of profits, the three companies having banked more than $21 billion dollars in profits in just the first six months of this year. Astonishingly, the Big 3 have raked in a quarter of a trillion dollars in profits in the last 20 years. See the UAW video that details this amazing success for the auto bosses; NEW UAW VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS BIG 3’s MASSIVE PROFITS, MAKES CLEAR THEY CAN EASILY AFFORD UNION’S CONTRACT DEMANDS | UAW UAW President Fain, when pressed by a company-friendly media, explained point-blank that “Record profits mean record contracts…” The Big 3 auto corporations are part of the wider trend of super-profitability in many U.S. industries. With labor unions having been repressed or even liquidated over the past 50 years, wages in real terms driven down to levels not seen in decades, with all manner of public subsidies now poured into many industries by national and local governments, and with taxes on corporations reduced or even ended all across the spectrum, it is no wonder that the profit stream has reached flood stage.

Biden’s Destructive Interference

It seems apparent by now – or it should be, based on the facts readily available in several recent labor disputes – that President Joe Biden opposes strike action on principle. His gambit is to ingratiate himself with the microscopic layer of union “leaders” who are spellbound by the attention, then systematically undermine and attempt to sabotage any strike action – or even hard bargaining by unions that are willing to fight back. Evidence of active intervention by Biden in recent strike showdowns on behalf of the workers and union members is non-existent. A few White House press releases have appeared to wish workers a hoped-for “fair” settlement with their belligerent and anti-union employers. Biden does say the word “union”, and praises unions occasionally in general terms, but only in front of union audiences.

The actual Biden record of supporting workers and their unions who are compelled to resort to serious strike threat or action is miserable. By itself this fact demolishes the self-created myth that Biden is somehow the “most pro-union president in U.S. history.” His shameful breaking of the rail workers strike in late 2022; his meddling in the West Coast Longshore negotiations as revealed by the Chamber of Commerce; the recent UPS settlement where Teamsters President Sean O’Brien publicly rebuked Biden and told him to stay out of the negotiations; and now his dangerous pressuring and factionalizing to undermine what may develop into a strike in the auto industry are all alarming acts.

Biden Unwilling To Pressure the Employers

Rather than Biden taking tangible and swift action to rein in the profiteering corporations there are a few words, some well-wishing, followed by active collaboration with the employers. There have been no White House meetings called for Biden to read the riot act to the fabulously wealthy bosses forcing these strike situations. No high level meetings have been called for Biden to mobilize the federal machinery to pressure the corporations. There have been, however, multiple examples of Biden funneling billions of dollars in subsidies to the electric vehicle industry, a virtually unorganized section of the economy that now endangers the jobs of hundreds of thousands UAW members. He has failed utterly to consider the real plight of the workers who are forced out of necessity to the brink of strike action, or to even strike. The considerable presidential power and reach has instead been deployed in all the recent situations to place pressure on the unions involved to slow down, calm down, hold back, and give in to the bosses’ demands that they settle without fixing the dire problems they face. There is no evidence in any of the recent battles that Joe Biden has ever raised his voice to the corporations even one time!

Those in labor and elsewhere who are inclined to want to believe the myth that Biden is “the most pro-union President in U.S. history” must be challenged. Those who promote this myth and use it to enforce political discipline within the unions, demanding unconditional obedience to the Democratic Party, must likewise be exposed, even denounced in some cases. They provide political cover for an administration that has proven itself to side openly and covertly with the employers in situations where strike action is not only justified, but also required. His actions have weakened and short-circuited the momentum of more than half a million union members in the past year, who would have accomplished more, and would have given greater encouragement to the broad working class, if this White House stayed out of the matter. Joe Biden lives in comfort, free from the pressures felt by the rank and file who now toil under dictatorial employers and in intolerable conditions not seen since before labor’s renewal in the 1930’s. Mobilized and energized union members, led by authentic labor leaders will address our plight, and the fuzzy intrigues, interventions and pronouncements of this President are not welcomed.

https://mltoday.com/ups-contract-resolv ... -is-biden/

'Which side are the Dems on, boys?'

Know them by their works....has Taft-Hartley been repealed yet?

....thought so.

[blindpig]

‘These Are Demands for the Whole Working Class’
JANINE JACKSON
‘These Are Demands for the Whole Working Class’


Janine Jackson interviewed Labor Notes‘ Lisa Xu about the auto workers’ strike for the September 22, 2023, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.


Janine Jackson: Listeners will know that members of United Auto Workers are on strike against the Big 3 automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). Some elite media seemed to be doing their darnedest to fit this unprecedented action into old terms.

ABC (9/22/23)

ABC nightly news delivered a textbook segment on the UAW “threatening” to expand its walkout, the things they’re “demanding,” how the strike is already “disrupting” operations and “idling” workers, and closing on the note that economists are already looking for potential impacts on consumers, and if the action goes on, “ar prices will rise.”

It’s a stuffy script, and it’s not really working. Many people, inside and outside of organized labor, feel something different in the air. More and more question the cartoonish gap between everyday people working hard but still struggling to survive, and company owners asserting that profit rates prove they’ve earned their annual millions and the yachts that come with them.

So all eyes are on the auto workers strike for many reasons. All the more reason to think critically about the way the news media report it to us.

Lisa Xu is an organizer with Labor Notes. She joins us now by phone from Detroit. Welcome to CounterSpin, Lisa Xu.

Lisa Xu: Hi. Thank you for having me.

JJ: I want to talk about the feelings and energy and the people in this story, because it’s so crucial. But let’s start, though, with some backdrop for the strike.

It’s not the whole UAW out at this point; it’s a smaller group of workers in a few places. What, in general terms, or specific terms, is the UAW calling for? And, I mean, the whole union isn’t out, but they’re all ready to go, right? What’s going on here?

Sit-down strikers, Flint, Michigan, 1937. (photo: Sheldon Dick/Wikimedia)

LX: Yeah, no, thank you for that question. The UAW is calling this a “stand-up strike,” in reference to the 1936–1937 Flint sit-down strikes, which really led to a massive expansion of the UAW over the next decade.

And the strategy is, as you described, currently about 13,000 members across three plants—one each at Ford, Stellantis and GM—are out. The stand-up strike strategy is going to consist of escalation from there on out.

UAW President Shawn Fain, I think, has said this will just be dependent on what happens at the bargaining table. And they’ve announced that tomorrow is another deadline, and they’re going to assess how well bargaining is going. If it’s not going well, they’re going to call out more workers. That deadline is noon tomorrow.

In terms of what workers are asking for, this is really about clawing back concessions going back decades, and reversing a major decline in the standard of living for auto workers, a decline that many American workers have seen.

You’ve probably heard about the demand for big wage increases, same as the wage increases the CEOs have given themselves, an end to wage and benefit tiers, and the restoration of pensions and retiree healthcare to those hired after 2007. (That’s a major inequality existing within the UAW.) End to the long-term abuse of temps, a shorter work week, 40 hours of pay for 32 hours of work, and job security and protections against plant closure. And there’s more, too, on the table, but that’s some of the bigger ones.

JJ: A number of those things are absolutely resonant, I’m sure, for people in any industry. The idea of a shorter work week, the idea of getting back concessions—things that workers gave up because they were told that companies were suffering, and now that companies are not suffering, somehow it’s not time to give them back. I think a lot of those things have meaning outside of the auto industry.

But I wanted to just lift up one thing, which is, the UAW is really resisting the idea of tiered workers, the idea that there are temporary workers who were just on a lower tier, where they’re never going to get pensions or benefits. And I point to that, just because it seems so refreshing to see a union actively trying to get all workers to identify together. That seems to me like a great thing for building worker solidarity.

LX: Absolutely. And that’s why workers across the Big 3, whether they’re the so-called legacy workers, the first-tier workers, or they’re second-tier, they all recognize how much damage this has done to solidarity within the union. So there is a push across all these tiers to end tiers.

And like you said, tiers are an issue affecting many other workplaces in the US. We saw the Teamsters end a particularly pernicious form of tiers among UPS drivers, earlier this summer. And, yeah, it is really a big deal for exactly what you said, the strength of the union.

JJ: Another element, and this could be a whole show, but let’s just touch on it: I know that another piece of what the union is saying is, yes, they recognize there’s a transition to electric vehicles. They want that transition not to come at the cost of good jobs. And labor vs. the environment is such a perennial for news media. I wonder if you could just speak briefly to the idea that union auto workers are afraid of the future, somehow, or that they’re somehow opposed to adjustments to climate disruption.

LX: To get into the media critique portion of it, that’s kind of a tired narrative, too. I think a lot of UAW auto workers recognize, the writing is on the wall when it comes to the EV transition, and now it’s time for everyone pushing the transition to a clean energy economy to live up to everything they’ve been saying about good-paying union jobs. That part of it, they seem to have forgotten about.

I think it’s really as simple as that. It’s just calling out that hypocrisy. You said these would be good jobs, so where’s the action now, right?

JJ: Right. Well, I’m going to bring you back to media in just a second, but I did want to say that you dug into a particular aspect of this in your work that can be kind of invisible, or a little under the radar, which is the fact that the Big 3 also operate—it’s not just manufacturing plants—these after-sales parts distribution centers. And those places, the companies were kind of setting them up for a strike, and you dug into that. What did you learn about these parts distribution centers and their role, and what’s interesting about that?

LX: Yeah, they don’t get talked about very much. It was actually kind of hard to dig up information.

So they’re called “parts distribution facilities,” and that makes you think, oh, they supply parts for assembly plants. But no, it’s actually spare parts for when you need a new door when you get into a car accident, or you just need some kind of accessory.

When the Big 3 is selling them directly to dealerships, before the dealership applies any markups, the Big 3 is actually applying a huge markup. I think this is another site of consumer price-gouging for them. They’ve racked up these massive profits just operating these warehouses, and we think of them as making cars, not turning a profit on selling spare parts. It turns out it’s actually a significant money-maker for them.

An article I wrote, I dug up some statements that a former CEO of GM made about just how high these profit margins are, and how it generates billions of dollars of revenue for GM. And I think it’s the same for the other companies, too.

Labor Notes‘ map of Big 3 worksites.

JJ: Just a sort of tentacle that you only find when you report on it. You highlight the fact that unlike big plants, these distribution centers are often smack in the middle of an urban area. So if they were to go on strike, it would look different. It would be an opportunity for the community to have it really up close and personal that these workers were on strike. I thought that was interesting.

LX: Yeah, so there was a map we published along with this article. I wouldn’t say they’re downtown, but they’re within travel distance from coastal cities that might not think of themselves as being near a Big 3 facility. So, yeah, it’s a way for communities outside of the Midwest to support workers, should they walk out of these facilities.

JJ: Community support, of course, can be key. And here, the media play a role that determines how the story is presented to people who are outside of the industry, maybe people who’ve never been in a union or have personal knowledge of unions, and who might be late to work one day because of a picket line.

So media play a big role in explaining the validity, the importance, the issues at play here. You are also a reporter. What have you made of media coverage of this action? What would you like to see more of, or less of?

Lisa Xu: “The whole thing is designed to make you think anytime workers take action, they’re the ones at fault. They’re the ones causing trouble.” (image: Labor Notes)

LX: Yeah. Well, I’m a new reporter, to be fair. I was an organizer for five years. I’m new to reporting, but I’m bringing that same anger from organizing to some of the media coverage we’re seeing.

Honestly, it’s a little infuriating. I’m sure you’re familiar with that. And you mentioned some of the ways in which, through the rhetoric and the emphasis, the media are implying this is a really bad thing for you, the reader, the listener. But once you dig into that a little bit more, you’re like, wait, who is it actually bad for, right? I’ve been trying to tally up all the bosses’ talking points that journalists and editors have decided to just run with very uncritically, whether they know it or not.

So actually, prior to becoming an organizer, I was an economist. So I come out of this world of analysis that really has a pro-corporate slant, and a lot of people don’t realize that it doesn’t actually all add up; it’s just what they’re taught. And obviously the whole thing is designed to make you think anytime workers take action, they’re the ones at fault. They’re the ones causing trouble.

JJ: I don’t know that it’s a lack of general economic understanding. It does seem to be just the way media slant things, when corporate leaders are able to just say, as in this case, oh, we couldn’t possibly afford to give workers what they’re asking for here. I think one of them said, I forget which one, “That would put us out of business.”

As a reporter, you just type that up and put it out to the world? When we know that, I think it’s $21 billion of profits in the first six months of this year from the Big 3. That just doesn’t add up.

LX: One great thing that’s happening in the media, that I’m sure you probably talked about before, it’s just the wave of unionization among media workers and journalists. So I think there is now more critical thinking out there.

But there are a bunch of business reporters reporting on this too. I mean, come on, just look at the numbers. Do they really think this is true?

And the UAW has been doing a great job of comparing numbers. I actually, before this interview, dug up a chart that Shawn Fain presented on one of his last Facebook Lives, comparing the increase in the Big 3’s North American profits, which went up 65%, this is over the last four years; CEO pay, which went up 40%; stock buybacks, which went up 1,500%. And then you get down to UAW top wage rates—so not even the wage rates for second-tier workers or temps, just the top wage rate—that went up 6%. Labor costs are only 4 to 5% per vehicle, and vehicle prices went up 34%.

There’s a lot of numbers that just go to show you they’re making choices. All corporations are making choices. And then collectively, as a society, we’re making choices about how much, basically, labor’s share of income is supposed to be. And apparently it’s supposed to be very, very low.

JJ: Right. Well, it’s obvious that union activity is up, and we’ve seen reporting on that, but labor energy is also up. And it’s not, I don’t think, just because people are frustrated or frightened, though certainly many of us are, but unions seem to be different now. They’re doing different things. They’re engaging workers in ways that are new. And I think folks are recognizing that. Am I misreading that? It seems to me that something new is happening.

LX: I think if you’re on the ground and you’re talking to workers, especially in these unions that are undergoing this revitalization, I think it’s definitely real. And I mean, you see it in new organizing too, right, with new unions that are being formed. It’s real.

And I think the really exciting thing about the Big 3 strike is among union leadership, the new reform leadership, and the rank and file, I think there’s a feeling that they’re making history, not just within the context of the UAW, which would already be enormous, but labor history. I don’t think that’s an overstatement. I think people really feel like there’s something in the air, and especially with the ambition of demands that are being raised, these are demands for the whole working class.

Everyone knows it was unions that won the eight-hour workday. Now it’s going to be up to unions to bring that back, because people don’t have eight-hour workdays anymore.

So I think it’s absolutely real. And sometimes that’s hard to capture in the numbers. Sometimes it’s clearest if you’re on the shop floor, or you’re an organizer talking to a lot of workers every day,

Jacobin (9/16/23)

JJ: A writer for Labor Notes, Luis Feliz Leon, I heard say some time ago, “Solidarity needs to be experienced to be believed.” I thought that was a really compelling comment.

LX: No, I think that’s a great comment. I went through that myself, being in the union, that converted me. And yeah, I do think it’s hard for people who’ve never had that experience of workplace organizing to have faith in how transformative that can be, right?

So Shawn Fain, for people who haven’t heard it yet, gave this amazing speech on Facebook Live—Jacobin did a transcript of it; this was last Wednesday on the eve of the strike—just talking about the role of faith, asking union members to take that leap of faith and stand up in this historic moment. And it was just a very moving speech.

He’s Christian, and he cited scripture from the Bible, and I’m not, but it was just very, very moving. And I think it is about, I think once you’ve had that transformative experience, you understand what workers can accomplish when they’re organized.

JJ: We’ve been speaking with Lisa Xu, organizer and reporter with Labor Notes. They’re online at LaborNotes.org. Lisa Xu, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

LX: Yeah, thank you for having me. Thank you.

https://fair.org/home/these-are-demands ... ing-class/

[blindpig]

AUTO UNION MOVES FORWARD
Posted by Chris Townsend | Oct 30, 2023 | Featured Stories | 0

BY CHRIS TOWNSEND
October 29, 2023



Any knowledgeable observer of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) over the past 50 years would have inevitably been forced to note that over recent decades the union’s membership had been dramatically slashed by hostile employers and politicians, that both union activity levels and influence had declined massively, and in many quarters the auto union had been transformed into a particularly virulent company union.

So addled and company-captured was the UAW top leadership that by 2014 a series of federal government criminal investigations and prosecutions grew, expanded, and eventually led to the removal of more than 30 national UAW leaders. The resulting U.S. government-ordered union election which produced Shawn Fain as new President of the UAW in March of this year was an earthquake both inside and outside the union.

Auto union old guarders and employers alike both feared the election of Fain. But by the narrowest margins Fain was elected to the top spot, and in just several months the union is already well into an expanding process of renewal. It is still early, and only time will tell, but the current strike struggle is clearly solid evidence of the new leadership’s intention to restore the union to a serious trade union path.

New Day for UAW

In a union stripped of democratic process for many decades and permeated with the corruption and class-collaboration ideologies of the ruling Administration Caucus, the first time ever “one member, one vote” union leadership election ordered by the federal government has acted as the long overdue conduit for significant change. The union membership is visibly fed up with company union mis-leadership and concessions to the employers of every kind by the old regime. The decades-long job loss and plant closing blackmail imposed on the membership by the auto companies has generated record-breaking profits all at the expense of the living standards of the workforce. The newer and mostly younger workers entering the industry in recent years are particularly disgusted with a union leadership who had sold them out and left them trapped in perpetual second class and frequently impoverished status.

The nearly two-month UAW national strike against the U.S. auto companies now reaches a new phase as the employers are beginning to give way. The Ford company agreed to a tentative settlement on October 26, and Stellantis (Chrysler) conceded on October 28. Bargaining with the General Motors company continues, and a similar settlement looks probable very soon. The rank-and-file membership has enthusiastically welcomed the strike and has rallied to Fain and his new and genuine approaches. Election campaign promises of “change” are now seen and felt. The previously discredited union leadership is now replaced with something far more credible – and worth following. Decades of retreat and surrender have been arrested, and the integrity and spirit of the union is being repaired.

Next Stage of the Struggle

Negotiations with GM are still underway (as this is written, October 29) but it is still unknown so far as how influential the Ford and Stellantis (Chrysler) settlements be with the remaining talks. Many, but not all the stated union goals have been reached at Ford and Stellantis, with some notable exceptions such as the restoration of the full pension system for new hires as well as the reach for a 32-hour week. See the UAW official reports for details of the settlements as well as a status update on GM. Membership ratification processes will now take many weeks, but all indications are that the new agreements are popular among large sections of the rank-and-file.

The UAW selective plant-by-plant strike tactic has proven effective so far, and the spirits of those on strike as well as those awaiting the call to the picket lines by all appearances are high. The union has frequently communicated with the membership from day one of the strike action on September 15, and Fain has also shared a level of detail about the ongoing negotiations unheard of in UAW living memory. Gone apparently is the secrecy that suffocated and discredited previous UAW negotiations, an undemocratic tool that always provided the old union regime with the ability to control negotiations and make all decisions in spite of member wants and needs.

Union Consolidation Required

With the auto strike still underway at GM and with the consolidation of the Fain Administration barely off the ground, it is required to review the need for this process. The Fain leadership group has been in control for barely 6 months; the Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) slate is likewise still new to the situation. In less than one year UAW activists have won control of the union from the old guard, although just barely in the hotly contested election. The now-ousted Administration Caucus are still to be found throughout the staff and bureaucracy of the union, and fragments of this faction will undoubtedly dig in and regroup for a renewed challenge to recapture control of the union apparatus somewhere down the road. This is a remarkable situation, impossible to imagine just one year ago.

Exposing, cornering, and removing once and for all the discredited elements of the former regime will be no small task. A comprehensive sorting-out is required as some worthwhile elements are to be found among the defeated company union Administration Caucus. It was, it should be noted, a requirement for anyone to move onto the union staff, or to otherwise move up inside the union, to acknowledge the ruling regime and offer assurances of loyalty to it. With the Big 3 strike now looking to be concluding, a renewed and urgent priority for the union becomes the need to further consolidate the position of the current leadership.

It must be remembered that in recent years the greatest defacto sponsor of the Administration Caucus was the employers themselves, who worked tirelessly to protect their “investment” in those union “leaders” loyal more to the companies than to the union membership. While many in the Administration Caucus may make efforts to “get with the new program” if only for preservation of their jobs, the employers will no doubt be inevitably drawn back to play politics and factionalize within the union on a renewed basis. It would be dangerous to presume in any way that this process of disinfecting the cadre of the union is anything other than a life-and-death situation for the Fain forces.

Restoring a sound trade union basis of thinking and operating in the UAW will not come automatically; internal education and re-education at all levels is required, and hopefully will be built-in to the day-to-day functioning of the union itself. For decades any class struggle references or themes in union education and training were suppressed, the proud history of UAW formation and early struggles was mentioned in only the most vague and superficial ways, and any notion of a trade union culture and ideology outside of the imbecilic and self-serving Administration Caucus playbook was absent. An all-out political and union educational campaign is called for.

To fail or refuse to undertake this much needed but difficult work is to invite a regrouping and regeneration of the employer-sponsored company-union elements and may lead directly to a resuscitation of the worst forces of the regime only recently defeated. For interesting and informative reading regarding the class struggle roots of the early auto union see Roger Keeran’s The Communist Party and the Auto Workers’ Union and Phil Bonosky’s Brother Bill McKie: Building the Union at Ford.

Signs of Political Independence

One significant and encouraging accomplishment of the new Fain leadership was his quick dismissal of the Biden regime efforts to interfere in the auto negotiations, and likewise his out-of-hand rejection of the crude attempts by anti-union bigot Trump to insert himself into the fray. This is an early encouraging sign of a more legitimate independent course of political action for the union. The Biden visit to Michigan early in the strike was a barely disguised and ultimately failed attempt to revitalize his flagging re-election campaign and was cynically launched only after Trump had announced his intention to visit Michigan and presumably gather support from working class voters there. While Biden – at least – carried a picket sign with UAW members for a few minutes, the publicity stunt was seen for what it was, and no fanfare or member enthusiasm of any significance resulted from the presidential walk-by. The Trump attempt at piggybacking on the strike and the legitimate demands of the strikers fell completely flat as the deranged Trump failed to connect with the strike in any significant way.

The dueling attempts of Biden and Trump to try to appropriate the union platform at the expense of the striking auto workers have come and gone. UAW President Fain handled both unwanted guests skillfully, and he deftly refused to allow the stunts to derail the strike strategy or hijack the media for more than a few minutes each. Considerable political pressure was brought to bear on Fain, especially by the Biden forces who were seeking the customary union leader bootlicking, with no significant results. Perhaps most noteworthy of all, the obvious public disinterest in either the Biden or Trump visits reflects the deep-seated distrust of these figures from the widely discredited old political order. The working and middle classes have grown weary of the stale rhetoric of both parties, their constant drumbeat of hot button issues, and the fact that living standards continue to be driven down by the corporations who ultimately comprise the funding base of both parties anyway.

Biden departed Michigan quietly to return to his primary preoccupation of funding and expanding U.S. sponsored wars around the globe, and Trump slipped out to return to deal with the multiplying criminal trials now threatening to quash his re-election campaign. What might have been a credible or even relevant effort by one or both politicians to play some meaningful role in the auto strike was never in the cards. Biden and his White House business handlers may yet make an attempt to interfere in the ongoing strike, and must be monitored, but the Trump bandwagon is likely gone for the remainder of the conflict.

Unorganized Auto Companies – a Major Problem

It is certainly premature to discuss the strike as if it is resolved, or even approaching that point, owing to the pending member referendums on the settlements. One must be reminded however that the auto negotiations and strike are persistently overshadowed by the increasing numbers of unorganized auto assembly companies in the U.S. The need by the UAW to address this crisis is not new but is long overdue. The need to seriously confront and organize the unorganized auto companies already here; Nissan, Toyota, Honda, VW, Tesla, BMW, KIA, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz, among others – is a life and death problem for the UAW and the new Fain leadership. The auto union likewise finds itself awash in a sea of unorganized auto component and parts manufacturers, in addition to the growing number of electric vehicle (EV) plants.

The U.S. auto and light truck markets also continue to be systematically flooded with massive imports of vehicles largely produced in low-wage countries. While not a new problem, the embattled state of the UAW members at the U.S. Big 3 reflects among other things the dire need for a rational industrial policy for this key industry, an obvious need but with little to no political support in the current environment. Neither Democrats or Republicans seek any conflict with big business on behalf of auto workers or manufacturing workers in general. Long ago both groups were captured by business elements promoting their self-serving religion of so-called “free trade”. But all gains made in the current round of negotiations are ultimately threatened by the continued growth of unorganized and low-wage imported vehicle production, and an immediate shift of all union efforts to these tasks at the conclusion of the strike is warranted and required.

The rapid growth of EV manufacturers also presents a particular problem for the union, as the industry strictly exists at its current scale owing to massive government subsidy and support. Billions of dollars in direct subsidies, tax breaks, and regulatory support from all levels of government have enabled this nearly union-free industry to take root and grow. This taxpayer-funded largesse has also been showered on the EV manufacturers with virtually no strings attached so far as lessening their virulent anti-union bigotry, another problem ignored by politicians in both major parties. Virtually all of the auto companies outside of the Big 3 have consistently proven to be rabid opponents of union organization, utilizing all legal and illegal means to crush organizing wherever the UAW has been able to stimulate it.

The Long March to Trade Union Revitalization?

As the internal developments in the auto union and the resulting ongoing strike illustrate, the long road to union revitalization is not straight, predictable, or even certain. New UAW President Shawn Fain has managed to win democratic control of a badly damaged union, beset on all signs by hostile employer and political elements both, facing an uncertain internal union situation, but otherwise blessed with a membership apparently willing to fight back. Facing any one of these major challenges would be enough for any new union president, but the clear progress made so far by Fain and his new direction is evident and to his credit.

One as-yet-unknown factor in the revitalization of the union is the fact that between one quarter and one third of all UAW members are now employed in non-manufacturing workplaces. This gigantic section of the union is to be found in higher education occupations, the public sector, in non-profits, insurance, and in other industries largely removed from the factory legacy of the UAW. New organizing efforts in these non-manufacturing sectors are sure to grow as they present a considerably greater chance of success when compared to manufacturing. As the character of the UAW continues to evolve in this way the new leadership will have to further consider this in their future plans and direction for the revitalized union.

As the auto strike and test of the new UAW leadership and membership plays out, it is worthwhile to look back and seek counsel from legendary labor organizer and strike strategist William Z. Foster. In addition to the auto-specific books already referenced, a must-read volume would be Foster’s American Trade Unionism, his collected works. Available at: American Trade Unionism – International Publishers. Foster’s book deals with many aspects of the situation in auto today; the need for labor to engage in massive new campaigns of organization; to utilize strike struggle more effectively, and the necessity to combat the degenerate elements within the business unions who have led many of the unions to ruin. The current strike struggle of the auto workers and their concurrent efforts to reclaim and inject new energy into their union are to be supported by all, and on all fronts.

https://mltoday.com/auto-union-moves-forward/

As you probably know, tentative agreement has been reached with GM. Up to the workers now. Seems like they've won. Next, how long can the foreign car makers in the South remain non-union after this?

[blindpig]

UAW members attend a rally in support of the labor union strike at the UAW Local 551 hall on the South Side on October 7, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.[
(PHOTO BY JIM VONDRUSKA/GETTY IMAGES/INTHESETIMES)

A General Strike in 2028 is a uniquely plausible dream
Originally published: In These Times on November 8, 2023 by Hamilton Nolan (more by In These Times) | (Posted Nov 10, 2023)

The labor movement is a capricious friend–it hands out heartbreak as much as it hands out joy. But every once in a while, it is able to wave a triumphant flag and give us all a glimmer of what its potential could truly be.

The recently concluded UAW strike offered just such a moment. It wasn’t just the contract agreements themselves, which were a material success, but also the union’s public call for movement-wide coordination to build the possibility of mass action around the May 1, 2028 expiration of the next auto contracts. “We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own so that together we can begin to flex our collective muscles,” the UAW declared on October 29.

This could be the beginning of the most exciting resurgence of American organized labor power in a century. Or, it could just be a tweet. What happens in the coming months will determine which of those things is the case.

The general feeling of a labor power resurgence since the pandemic has been fueled by a procession of high profile wins: The Starbucks and Amazon union drives, the massive organizing on college campuses, the friendly Biden administration and its uniquely pro-union NLRB, the historically high favorability of unions in public opinion polls, the periodic mini-strike waves at a variety of fed-up workplaces. This year, we have seen a trio of actions–the Teamsters backing down UPS with a credible strike threat, and the successful WGA and UAW strikes–that show what can be won with the power of strikes at a larger scale.

All of this is encouraging. All of this is evidence of a real shift in public sentiment. All of this, however, does not add up to a robust and lasting change in the balance of power between capital and labor. Right now, what we have are a bunch of discrete occurrences, a bunch of data points that amount to proof of potential.

There are two things that will determine whether or not this promising moment leads to a true, historic revival of the labor movement. The first is easily measurable: union density. Barely one in ten American workers is a union member today. Despite all of the wins just mentioned, that number has not risen in the wake of the pandemic. The primary thing that unions need to do today is to organize more union members. Without this, organized labor is a walled and shrinking garden, rather than a legitimately expansive force for society-wide change.

The second thing is related to the first, but it offers a broader menu for action: We must see some tangible coordination of action across the U.S. labor movement. It is great when one union wins a contract, or organizes an important new company, but those isolated events will not be enough to take on the combined power of trillion-dollar multinational corporations and their political allies. Not even when they involve tens or hundreds of thousands of workers. Big unions, the ones with the most resources, along with whatever non-union groups want to help them, must be able to sit down and plan and carry out big national campaigns together if we want to have any chance at winning the class war.

Amazon will never be a unionized company without an enormous, multi-union campaign. Nor will the powerful and wealthy tech industry be organized without an enormous multi-union campaign. We will never achieve the eternal goal of “organizing the South” without an enormous multi-union campaign. Nor will we ever pull off strategic general strikes without an enormous multi-union campaign.

The process of scaling up from some unions making incremental progress to a national labor movement strategically building and exercising labor power wherever and whenever it needs to, all in order to drown the monster of inequality once and for all, will require a whole lot of coordination. That sort of coordination–the sort that happens in service of movement goals, rather than those of individual (and sometimes feuding) unions–really doesn’t happen today.

Ideally, an organization like the AFL-CIO would have begun coordinating such an effort years ago. But they haven’t, and there is little evidence that they will. So unions will have to build these coalitions themselves. And that’s what made the UAW’s public call for other unions to line up their contract expiration dates with theirs so exciting.

This is not some meaningless fringe group. This is a powerful, national union with more than 400,000 active members, fresh off winning a consequential industrial strike, that is shining the Labor Movement Bat Signal high in the sky and beseeching its peers: Join us! If we get ourselves aligned, in four and a half years, we can really put the capitalists in a headlock.

There is much to love about this strategy. It is both powerful and achievable. Lining up contract dates does not require the blood, sweat, and uncertainty of huge new organizing campaigns. It is a way to make existing unions stronger by drawing their influence together into a single point. (Look at the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, currently threatening to strike the entire Las Vegas strip, for an example of what can be won with this tactic in practice.)

Doing this not just in one union or one industry but across many unions in many industries can set the stage for a mass walkout. It can make political power brokers pay attention in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t. It can captivate the public, and draw them into the fight even if they are not union members. It is a real world example of scaling up. It is not just one group of unionized workers making a demand for themselves; it offers the promise of workers in general making demands for the entire working class, backed up by the threat of a general strike. It’s not a dream. It can be done. The UAW is exactly the sort of credible organization that can be the launching point.

What it will take is other major unions taking this call seriously. Most union contracts are three years long, give or take. That means that unions must begin planning for this now. Contracts that are negotiated in 2024 and 2025 need to set their expiration dates for May 1, 2028. Realistically, the UAW and its allies need to convince many of their fellow big unions that this is a real goal within the next six months. There should be furious inter-union lobbying already taking place. The more radical unions, who have an actual vision, should publicly sign onto this plan in the near future, and then they should fan out and try to draw in the less radical unions, by arguing that this action is low-risk common sense. It’s a good argument!

The bigger this gets, the stronger it is, and the more it helps every union. And the more it helps every union, the more leverage it gives this broader coalition of unions to make larger demands that will benefit everyone in the working class, unionized or not. Union leaders need to be made to see the virtues of this argument soon. The case then needs to be made to individual units, and to individual workers, who will have to decide that they want their own contracts to be a part of this strategy.

There is not a lot of time to waste. But on a more positive note, this is a uniquely plausible opportunity for a historic boost in organized labor power. The path to achieving this goal is very straightforward, and there is no part of it that is not within the capabilities of existing unions, their organizing staff and current members. It does not require finding a huge amount of new resources. It just requires today’s unions to have a little vision, and to be willing to work together.

Sometimes, ironically, those qualities are in short supply in the labor movement. But there is no reason we can’t stop being our own worst enemy, right now. Big things are on the table. Let’s reach out and take them.

https://mronline.org/2023/11/10/a-gener ... ble-dream/

Careful, solidarity must be built, ephemeral enthusiasm is encouraging but staying power needs more than that. Never forget the disaster of the 1937 Textile Strike in the South. To date we have yet to recover from that. Organizing BMW will be a tough row but could be doable. While efforts at Amazon have been discouraging so far it is textbook that the more stake workers have in an action the greater their commitment.

[blindpig]

THIS IDEOLOGY IS KILLING THE LABOR MOVEMENT
Posted by MLToday | Nov 20, 2023 | Other Featured Posts | 0



BY JOE MANISCALCO
November 14, 2023 Work-Bites


“You know, we have to deal with these insurance companies. We just have no choice in that because that’s the world.” — CWA Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton.

Underneath the fight municipal retirees are waging in New York City and other places around the country to save their traditional Medicare benefits from the onslaught of privatized Medicare Advantage plans lies a systemic defect in today’s labor movement that if not finally corrected guarantees some harder times ahead — for retirees and active workers alike.

It’s a philosophical and ideological deformity that has long plagued the working class and is made manifest in lots of the performative job actions, carefully-controlled strikes and anemic contracts being paraded around and passed off as “historic” achievements.

CWA Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton — a Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] trustee in New York — could not have expressed this disastrous self-defeating kind of orientation any better then when laying out the rationale for attempting to push Medicare Advantage and privatization onto municipal retirees currently covered by traditional Medicare.

Before getting into it with Work-Bites, Middleton made a point to stress her local’s “progressive” stance and support for single payer, universal healthcare “like what they have in Canada, like what they have in Europe, like what they have in many countries that are advanced.”

“If the federal government would ever come up with universal health care,” Middleton continued, “we will be first on board with that. But until the federal government does something like that — that’s tangible, that’s something that can be used across the nation — you know, we have to deal with these insurance companies. We just have no choice in that because that’s the world.”

Okay, let’s all let that sink in a minute.

We have to deal with these insurance companies. We have no choice in that because that’s the world.

Now, let’s all insert our favorite labor leader from history here and imagine them saying:

“Yep…as soon as the government comes up with an eight hour work day — we will be the first on board!”

You betcha…as soon as the government gives us the weekend — we will be the first on board!”

Sadly, the mindset — the ideology — that Middleton expresses is common on the labor beat today. You run into it a lot covering the crisis in health care, sure — but you also encounter it in regards to a myriad of other labor struggles throughout NYC and across the nation. Middleton is no outlier.

She expresses an ideology scores of other union leaders like her have adopted — either purposefully or not — which ignores any understanding or acknowledgement of labor’s historic role as the most potent force for transformational change working people in this country have ever had — and the role labor leaders have had as the chief agents of that change.

“It’s disheartening because labor leaders of the past would never have done this — and they would never have come up with that excuse,” Marianne Pizzitola, retired first responder and head of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees says.

New York City municipal retirees fighting to retain their traditional Medicare coverage are unambiguous about what’s happening to them. Ask them and they’ll tell you pointblank: the heads of the MLC — their own union leaders — are selling them out.

Anita Clinton worked for NYC Transit for nearly 30 years and isn’t about to give labor leaders a pass. She’s part of group of TWU Local 100 retirees who are also attempting to put the brakes on the Medicare Advantage push.

“I don’t understand why so many union leaders have accepted this,” she says. “Chipping away Medicare is the privatization of Medicare. It’s a disrespect to the members who work long and hard. Transit jobs in and of themselves are very dangerous. People who work in the tunnels are breathing steel dust every day, you got the third rail — I mean, there’s all kinds of dangerous situations out there.”

Chris Hedges broke down the larger problem beautifully at the New York City launch of Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant’s Workers Strike Back campaign back in June when he characterized the challenge facing working class people today as both “confronting a system gamed against us through the two-party duopoly” — and — “confronting a union leadership that have become junior partners in the capitalist system.”

Both Democrats and Republicans are driving workers into a “system of virtual serfdom,” Hedges said and things are only going to get worse “until we step outside the system and pit organized power against power.”

Retired municipal employees, many of them in their 70s and 80s contending with life-threatening diseases, are some of the least equipped to lead that fight — but that’s just what they’re doing.

“A lot of times, many illnesses or sickness might not manifest themselves until much later on,” Clinton adds. “And that’s when we need health care the most — and that’s when they’re giving us the knife in the back.”

Kay Tillow is a single payer advocate from Kentucky who has spent the past two decades of her life attempting to rally stultified union leaders into action.

“I think that part of the problem is just falling behind whatever the National Democratic Party says is its position,” Tillow says. “And part of the problem is the people in our own movement who kind of relented and say, well…okay, it’s not possible now…we should work on something else.”

For further context, see some of the scathing criticism leveled at the UAW leadership immediately following what should have been a truly transformative national strike against “The Big Three.” A 25-percent raise in base pay over four and a half years might sound okay when you really need the money, but that’s only until you realize how much inflation has torpedoed the value of workers’ wages. It also falls far short of the 40-percent raises UAW President Shawn Fain was demanding.

And we shall see what Fran Drescher and the gang over at SAG-AFTRA really end up with when all is said and done. But if lots of lofty talk about the “most progressive AI protections ever written” doesn’t set off alarm bells in your head it should — because what are we talking about here: no soul-stealing AI until after 2028 — and then only restricted to the first twenty-five feature film credits!?!

Tillow is still a lot more charitable than others in the labor movement who have grown fed up with the supine stance rank and file workers are getting from too many union heads enjoying six-figure salaries. Tillow acknowledges rising costs are making it harder and harder to maintain health care benefits and “that’s the pressure that pushes people to find the solution.”

“But,” Tillow continues, “they’ve chosen the wrong solution. They’ve chosen one that takes us backward and will hurt their future retirees as well — and it’s gonna destroy Medicare in the meantime.”

Looks like it’s just never a good idea to give our collective power away to anyone.

https://mltoday.com/this-ideology-is-ki ... -movement/

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ORGANIZE THE SOUTH! EMPTY SLOGAN OR REAL GOAL?
Posted by Chris Townsend | Dec 11, 2023 | Featured Stories | 0



BY CHRIS TOWNSEND
December 8, 2023


I joined the labor movement 45 years ago, and ever since I have been witness to hundreds of speeches, pleas, demands and shouts that “The labor movement must organize the South!” The entire U.S. left wing, the progressives in the unions, our allied media, and without exception the academic left all make repetition of this demand a veritable obligation required of leftists. You are expected to say it, want it, daydream of it, tell others to do it, the works. But there is no requirement that you actually have to try to do it. A high percentage of those playing this political game seem to start their speech with some reference to their grandfather having been a union member someplace – but not them. These folks are not going to organize anything.

Only a rare few ever try to seriously conduct union organizing in the South, and they should be commended and celebrated. But for those who do take a crack at it, obscurity awaits. Even if there is a measure of success “Organize the South!” remains just a slogan, a hollowed-out slogan at that. The left becomes infatuated here and there with union organizing in the South as part of this exercise. But it rarely lasts. Let’s instead consider some facts and identify some of the real sources of the crisis.

THE U.S. SOUTH

As defined by the U.S. federal government, the United States “South” includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. That’s almost one-third all states in the entire country. The highest levels of job growth have been in this region for decades, with many of the employers arriving after fleeing unionized states in the North and West. European and Asian companies increasingly locate in these states, attracted to abysmally low wages and of course the lack of any union organizing threat. Union membership density in these states is led by the state of Maryland at 11.6%. It’s all downhill from there, until you reach the absolute abyss in South Carolina where it is 1.7%. Astonishing, so read that again: only 1.7% of the entire workforce in the fast-growing state of South Carolina belongs to a union.

FAILED SLOGANEERING

All the jumping up and yelling about “Organize the South!” has had more than 77 years to have some effect. The CIO’s much ballyhooed “Operation Dixie” halfheartedly took on the task in 1946. Not surprisingly, the results were few. Today, in 2023, it’s time to sober up; despite all this rhetoric and posturing the fact is that union organizing in the South may today be at its lowest ebb in the entire history of our labor movement!

There are of course occasional drives and union elections in the South, and some do succeed. A few are even big enough to catch corporate media attention, as was the case with the big Amazon union election in Bessemer, Alabama, several years ago. Bessemer: No Organizing Effort Is Ever Wasted – MLToday But overall, the number of NLRB union elections and the number of workers participating in them continues to fall year upon year as NLRB statistics show. And in the public sector, all forward progress has ceased towards legalizing public sector unions in the many Southern states banning basic unions rights for their state and local workers. The one Southern state that did provide some official union organizing structure for the public sector via state legislation – Florida – is now systematically dismantling that apparatus and decertifying the existing unions by the score.

UNION ORGANIZING IN THE SOUTH TODAY

There are a number of ways to measure union “organizing” in the South today. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections are conducted by the federal government in private sector workplaces but only where a union has first battled its way forward to get that election. Always in the face of furious and illegal employer resistance. Despite the lack of public sector legal machinery at the state and local level many tens of thousands of these workers are in unofficial and as yet unrecognized unions, seeking any immediate gain that can be made and defending themselves from attacks as best they are able. Federal government employees can organize – and sometimes do – in the array of federal agencies scattered across the region. Unorganized railroad and airline workers who work in the South periodically move to organize using the Railway Labor Act/National Mediation Board machinery.

Airline worker organizing campaigns can be very large, even in the South. Currently three unions: Teamsters (IBT). Machinists (IAM), and Flight Attendants (AFA) are making a push to organize the gigantic Delta Airways with big Southern operations. More than 50,000 workers may organize with a huge slice of those workers based in the South. This will be a tough and multi-year project, and should it succeed it is likely more Southern workers will be organized in one swoop than in the entirety of recent decades.

NLRB ELECTION CRISIS IN THE SOUTH

NLRB elections would be one of the most significant measures of Southern union organizing levels, and the simplest for observers to track. Covering all private sector workers trying to unionize and getting far enough to win an election, the NLRB process enables you to track day by day the success or failure of unions across the country. Southern union elections can be easily identified by state. See: Recent Election Results | National Labor Relations Board (nlrb.gov)

Don’t worry if you are strapped for time. If you venture a look at the ongoing NLRB elections in the South today you won’t have to spend very much time on it. For instance, during the last week of November in the entire U.S. South, there was exactly one NLRB election. The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) was the winner, managing to organize 48 bus operators and other transit staff who work for the bitterly anti-union French multinational Transdev company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Not every stretch of time is this dismal, and sometimes the record- keeping of the NLRB is imperfect and an election is omitted for some reason from the list. A union here and there also manages to win voluntary recognition from an employer. The week before, from November 17 until 25, the situation was a little better, as reported by The Valley Labor Report; The Valley Labor Report (tvlr.fm) A number of elections were won and several were lost, but overall the total number of workers participating in the entire U.S. Southwas at best a few hundred. A few hundred workers with the chance to vote for a union in the most populous region in the country with a total of 115 million residents! There are good weeks and bad, but the trend over the decades has been for fewer and fewer elections in smaller and smaller workplaces. It is becoming more and more rare for a union to even lose an election in the South because there are so few happening at all!

There is no way around this. We face the catastrophe of a virtual lack of union organizing in the South. The employers run riot and routinely crush union drives, yes. But that is nothing new. The more basic problem here today is that organized labor – the unions – have largely withdrawn from the battlefield. They have abandoned, with only a few exceptions, any pretense of even trying to organize in the Southern states.

ONE EXPERIENCE

I began my trade union career in the State of Florida, in west Florida, the deep South, as a rank-and-file organizer in 1979. There was no greater challenge in that Southern state than for the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) to organize in Florida shortly after the passage of the law legalizing state and local unions. As a transit craft union we were forced to organize thousands of non-transit public employees – in addition to the transit workers – a situation forced on the union by the imperfect state legislation. But legislation that at least enabled official union organizing and recognition.

As a young worker and volunteer organizer in those drives I had no idea how possible – or impossible – union organizing would be. Our small ATU local outpost and some dedicated International Union leaders at that time pushed forward and organized on a big scale. Four elections were run, and won, totaling more than 4,500 workers in just several years. Our herculean efforts re-established ATU in Florida after it had been shattered in the 1960s, when private transit companies fled and stripped ATU members of their legal union framework.

Nothing we did was pretty, or high tech. We used index cards to keep track of the huge number of workers, ran hand crank printers to produce thousands of primitive union flyers, went to the gates before dawn, called every number we had ten times, searched the neighborhoods and bars to find the workers, and ran union meetings too numerous to count. What we lacked in sophistication we made up for in enthusiasm. We had the union organizing spirit, we had a righteous mission. We were organizing the unorganized!

I left ATU after five years to return to the North with my wife. I returned to ATU in 2013, after a gap of almost 30 years, returning as the International Union Organizing Director, responsible for among other things all new ATU union organizing in the U.S. and Canada. With only a skeleton crew, and over 7 years, more than 150 new transit units were successfully organized. And half of those wins were in the states designated as “the South.” More than 40 units alone were organized and won in or around the greater Washington, DC area, all falling in the Southern geography. A total of 16 new transit units were won in Virginia alone, with another concentration being found in Texas with 10 new units being organized into ATU during that span of years. Since my retirement from ATU in 2022 their success in the South continues, as the recent Baton Rouge win attests. At this point almost 4,500 workers have been organized by ATU in “the South.”

ORGANIZING, NOT SLOGANS

I do not recall a single instance when we heard – or said – “Organize the South!” We approached our organizing on a go-where-the-action-is basis. With only a few leftists scattered in ATU it was unlikely that we would have heard that cry anyway. We went North to revive organizing in Canada after a break of more than12 years, adding 10 new units to ATU’s ranks. We went to the West, the Northeast, the Midwest, wherever we could generate organizing activity. And over and over, and over again we were drawn to the South. We ran as many elections as we could sustain. We went back to units where we had previously failed, or where interest had been crushed, or petered out.

As with many industries in the South, African-American workers were there in large numbers, sometimes majorities. These workers readily talked to the union, and frequently had the courage to do their part in the face of the constant employer pushback. Together we did the work that allowed these workers to vote, to actually organize. We didn’t over-think it, stall, wait for perfect conditions. We went forward wherever we could. Never did we wait for enough of the resources that we thought we needed. We were not afraid to lose. In fact, our lost elections and fizzled campaigns are a roadmap today for the union to return – sooner or later.

CONFRONTING LABOR’S LETHARGY

No matter how you slice it, if a little known craft union like ATU can experience this degree of organizing success in the South, with a bare handful of organizers on hand, only a few local unions geared to organize, and with the ATU leadership at best only sporadically interested in new organizing, then there can be no doubt that other unions could follow and perhaps repeat some of this example – and repeat it in the South! The bogus and defeatist notion that “You can’t organize in the South” was proven false over and over.

This example by ATU would be best considered by the labor movement as a whole, but it remains unknown. Even ATU itself is unable to recognize this remarkable progress. The AFL-CIO is well-aware of the ATU success in the South, but so paralyzed and inert is the current federation that the example has no meaning, will not be examined, or learned from – let alone imitated. Few of the folks shouting from the housetops “Organize the South!” apparently bother to spend any time studying the real situation on the ground.

Are other unions experiencing similar success? For starters, the fact that more than 75 Starbucks stores have organized in the South should be a wake-up call. The Workers United union and its Starbucks Workers United Starbucks Workers United (sbworkersunited.org) movement are creating a true organizing miracle that continues two years after its launch by a mere handful of young socialists. When was the last time that a chain company in the South faced this scale of union organizing? Both Workers United and ATU would find themselves out of the limelight as unions, proving that large scale organizing can be initiated even by unlikely unions. These workers and unions are in motion, demanding and winning elections, and are not frozen by sloganeering or defeatism. They want to organize, Now!

WILLIAM Z. FOSTER ON ORGANIZING

Legendary union organizer and strategist William Z. Foster confronted this problem over and over again during his decades-long labor organizing career. In his collected works, American Trade Unionism, International Publishers (intpubnyc.com) Foster exposes and denounces the repeated failure of the predominant business union leadership to seriously address the organizing crisis. His formula for the problem was simple. The union leadership had to be pushed into action one way or the other.

Were Foster alive today I am sure he would be proud of the ATU and Workers United examples, as they have been accomplished against-all-odds and in unions largely unknown at large. Foster would applaud the progress so far, but he would quickly remind us of the need to immediately address the bigger organizing questions. How do the unions build the real capacity and stimulate their leadership to launch massive new organizing campaigns? And do it NOW! How can the union leadership at all levels be pushed to embrace organizing as the primary mission of labor, and not just an annoying side project? How can the unions be compelled to redirect huge amounts of resources – currently stuffed into investments or squandered on obscene salaries and perks for top leadership – into new organizing.

Foster would implore the left elements to take the debate over this crisis of new organizing into the unions, raising it in every way imaginable. The rank-and-file naturally embrace the need to organize on a wide scale when even rudimentary education is carried out to point out its necessity and benefits. Militants must ask these difficult questions and continue to push and challenge the otherwise moribund and sometimes corrupt union leadership standing in the way of any progress on this basic task. William Z. Foster referred to the crisis of new union organizing as “A life and death question for the labor movement.” That remains the case today to an even greater degree.

NEW ROLE FOR THE LEFT REQUIRED

The broad left is generally the only force even occasionally raising the crisis of union organizing in the South today – or anywhere for that matter. And it’s time for that left to learn some lessons; sloganeering about the need to “organize the South!” and related feelgood gamesmanship must end, and the difficult work of coaxing – and forcing if necessary – the unions to take real action is the order of the day. It also must be re-learned that trade union “agitation” is not the same as “organizing”, as one leads to a momentary activation of some supporters while the other leads to actual trade union membership, winning of real gains, and possible strengthening of the unions. The myriad of academic theories of union organizing – some quite sound, but just as many so much absurdity – must be subordinated to an ethic of actual organizing and not just talking about organizing. Elections must be run, not just by the dozens, but eventually by the hundreds and thousands.

Workers by the thousands – and eventually tens or even hundreds of thousands – must be set into motion even in campaigns facing a steep climb. The deadly “fear of failure” virus must be confronted at every turn. Swift and real campaigns of union organization can and must be initiated, and the menace of endless “labor social work” must be redirected to support this goal. Capable organizers must be trained, deployed, and supported, with an emphasis on bringing forward rank-and-file members. The early work of the new auto union (UAW) Autoworkers Stand Up! | UAW leadership in expanding dramatically the new union organizing of tens of thousands of unorganized auto workers is a step in the right direction. With enormous numbers of those workers located in the South, the UAW today is leading the way in tackling this crisis.

Workers across the U.S. can be organized, and organized in substantial numbers, even against today’s steep odds. Even in the South. But it will not materialize absent left trade union forces making it happen both in the workplaces and in the unions themselves. Don’t tell me to “Organize the South!” Talk to me instead about what needs to be done so we can begin to do that. Let’s discuss how it is we are going to win over some of the labor leaders that can be won over, and how we are going to compel sleeping labor leadership to seriously take on new and big campaigns of new organization. It’s time for them to lead or be shoved out of the way.

https://mltoday.com/organize-the-south- ... real-goal/

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US union leaders call on labor to join movement for a ceasefire
At a Washington, DC press conference labeled “Unions for ceasefire now,” union leaders joined Congressmembers in calling on labor to take action

December 14, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch


Shawn Fain speaks at the Unions for Ceasefire Now press conference outside of the US Capitol (Photo: Dawn Le)

On December 14, the leadership of the United Auto Workers, the Postal Workers Union, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), held a press conference in Washington, DC with several members of Congress to call upon the labor movement to take action for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I thank our UAW members for speaking out and pushing us to come out in support of a ceasefire,” said UAW President Shawn Fain, whose union joined the movement for a ceasefire earlier in December. “It was the right thing to do. Now it’s time for the rest of our elected officials to step up and do what it takes to end the violence. And I call on the rest of the labor movement to join us in this mission for peace and social justice for all of humanity.”

Representative Cori Bush, who is leading the push within Congress to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire, was the first to speak at the press conference. Representative Rashida Tlaib also spoke at the press conference. Tlaib is the only Palestinian in Congress and was publicly humiliated in early November by her colleagues who censured her in Congress for her statements in support of Palestine.

Grant Miner, Vice President of UAW Local 2710 (Student Workers of Columbia) told Peoples Dispatch that Fain thanking membership for calling for a ceasefire is “indicative of how every single person needs to be pushing their union to take a stance on this.”

“Workers make America run. And you can in fact have an effect on what these international labor bodies do and say by really putting in the hard work to advance the cause of Palestinian liberation in your workplace.”

On December 13, a coalition of rank and file workers, including UAW members, disrupted a talk given by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, in an attempt to pressure her and the AFT to call for a ceasefire. Demonstrators held up a banner that read “Educators say permanent ceasefire now.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/14/ ... ceasefire/

[blindpig]

The dawn of a working class upsurge
December 20, 2023 Stephen Millies


Actor Wanda Sykes, right, with Writers Guild of America members and supporters on a picket line outside NBCUniversal headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, on May 23, 2023.


Presentation given at the Socialist Unity Party national plenum on Dec. 16, 2023.

Eighty-six-year-old Verna Mae Jackson was crushed to death on Dec. 6 while working at the FedEx world hub in the Memphis International airport.

Six months before, 16-year-old Michael Schuls was killed in a Florence, Wisconsin, sawmill near the border with Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

What were an 86-year-old Black woman and a 16-year-old teenager doing in these dangerous jobs? Both of these tragedies were preventable.

Seventy years in age and 800 miles separated these two murdered workers. Maybe FedEx will be fined for unsafe conditions.

Florence Hardwoods was fined $190,000. It was found that the sawmill employed nine children, some as young as 14.

Yet, under Wisconsin law, it’s perfectly legal for teenagers to work in sawmills. Child labor is making a big comeback.

At the same time, the share of folks older than 60 in the workforce has doubled since 2000. By exploiting both the young and old, capitalism is extending the time that it extracts profits from us.

Karl Marx called this stealing “absolute surplus value.”

These two murders on the job are another sign of how much the working class has been pushed back in the last 50 years.

Look at the federal minimum wage. Because of the tremendous struggles of the 1960s, it was raised to $1.60 in February 1968.

To equal the purchasing power of that you would need at least $14.04 today. But the federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25.

That’s nearly a 50% drop in real terms, although many states, because of struggle, have raised their own minimum wage. These include California, Maryland, and New York.

In 1975, Wall Street demanded and got 50,000 New York City municipal workers fired. In the late 1970s, tens of thousands of Chrysler workers were laid off, most of whom were Black.

Reagan crushed the PATCO air traffic controllers’ strike in 1981 while AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland did nothing.

He was busy helping to overthrow socialist Poland. Kirkland also served on Reagan’s Social Security Commission, which raised the retirement age.

Targeting Black workers

Big capital was determined to lessen its dependence on Black labor in basic industry. The Black-majority cities of Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and Gary, Indiana, were wrecked as hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost in auto and steel.

Fifty years ago, General Motors was the biggest employer of Black workers who were members of the UAW. Today, it’s non-union, poverty-wage Walmart.

Look at Baltimore. When I moved here in 1978, 20,000 or so workers were employed at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point mill, the largest in the world. Thousands more worked in shipyards, the Koppers factory, and at the GM plant.

All these unionized strongholds of our class were wiped out. Close to seven million manufacturing jobs, most of which were unionized, were destroyed coast-to-coast.

Seven million homes were foreclosed, and millions more evicted.

The biggest defeat was the overthrow of the Soviet Union. That was more dangerous than Hitler coming to power by crushing the German working class.

Yet the capitalist class can’t make a penny in profits without us. Thousands of Amazon workers now are employed at Sparrows Point.

Organizing drives at Amazon will make Jeff Bezos pay union wages and benefits. He might even have to trade in his $500 million yacht.

After decades of being beaten up, the U.S. multinational working class is fighting back! Capitalists are taking note.

A recent Wall Street headline read, “For Labor Unions, 2023 Was the Year of the Strike — and Big Victories.” The Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations has counted 354 strikes this year.

Back in 1933, one of the first working-class victories was winning unions in Hollywood. Movie making is big business.

Eighty years later, both the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild went on strike for months in 2023, bringing the Hollywood moguls to their knees. Workers used their courage and intelligence to beat back artificial intelligence.

The Teamsters eliminated the hated two-tier pay scheme for drivers at UPS without going on strike. Wages for part-time workers were raised to $21 per hour.

That wasn’t enough for many part-timers, who justifiably wanted $25 in these inflationary times. I don’t think that Teamsters president Sean McBride settled for less because of pressure from the White House.

I think he was trying to show Amazon workers that by joining the Teamsters they can get more money, too, without a lengthy strike. We’ll see how that works out.

Solidarity with Palestine!

The Starbucks workers seem to be unbeatable. They continue to struggle in hundreds of stores across the country. They’ve got billionaire Howard Schultz on the run!

Nurses and other health care workers conducted 27 strikes across the United States. Picket lines were set up in New York and throughout California. There were also strikes in Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, St. Louis, and the state of Washington.

Workers at Rutgers and Temple universities went on strike as well as against colleges in Illinois.

The biggest star was the UAW strikes against the Big Three automakers that lasted more than six weeks. The union struck all three at once for the first time, although only striking a few selected chokepoints.

The hated pay tiers that were imposed in 2008 were smashed. The lowest-paid workers got the biggest wage increases. That’s what our late Comrade Vince Copeland advocated for decades.

Nonunion outfits like Toyota were so scared that they increased their wages, too. That won’t keep out the UAW. More than a thousand workers at Volkswagen have signed union cards.

Just as notable is UAW president Sean Fain’s demand for a ceasefire in Gaza. So had Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, who did so earlier.

Long gone are the days of George Meany supporting every filthy imperialist war. “Solidarity Forever” means solidarity with Palestine!

No railroad workers have any illusions about “Amtrak Joe,” who has now become “Genocide Joe” Biden. Despite being forbidden to strike by Congress, most railroaders were able to claw sick days out of the rail tycoons.

We are at the very beginning of a working-class upsurge. The actions that have been taken at Amazon warehouses are like those of the autoworkers in 1933 and 34.

The United Farmworkers Union is springing back to organize some of the poorest workers.

Who would have thought that small groups of Starbucks employees would stage work stoppages at hundreds of coffee shops? That takes enthusiasm and discipline.

We look forward to union drives at Walmart. The Teamsters will come to Memphis, where FedEx has 30,000 employees, and Verna Mae Jackson was killed.

The labor movement will come to some of the smallest towns just like the Black Lives Matter! movement did.

We’re mad as hell and we won’t take it anymore!

https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/ ... s-upsurge/

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UE Members Take Action for Palestine Ceasefire


Janvi Madhani, UE Local 197-TRU, speaks at Unions for Ceasefire Now press conference

DECEMBER 15, 2023
Washington, DC and Pittsburgh

“In no other country is it more true that we, the workers, have a direct say in the plight of Palestinians,” declared Janvi Madhani of UE Local 197-Teachers and Researchers United at a press conference yesterday in the nation’s capital. “Our hard-earned tax dollars go directly towards the bombs being dropped in Gaza but not towards healthcare, housing, or education at home.”

Madhani was representing UE at a press conference, Unions for Ceasefire Now, organized by Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).

“Since October 7, Israel’s escalation of violence in Gaza has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians,” she noted. “The Israeli campaign of terror has expelled more than 1.9 million Palestinians from their homes — more than 80 percent of the population. Israel does this all with impunity and with the United States’ explicit support.

“Time and time again, our government has initiated wars and destabilization campaigns around the world. To what end? The two major US wars of the past two decades, Iraq and Afghanistan, cost us billions of dollars while producing more extremism, more war, more instability, and more danger.”

UAW President Shawn Fain, who also spoke at the press conference, said, “as a labor movement, it’s up to us to stand up and fight for the best of what humanity is and can be. The UAW is proud to stand here with our fellow union family … to call for peace and to call for a ceasefire.”

Fain thanked rank-and-file UAW members for “speaking out and pushing us to come out in support of a ceasefire. It was the right thing to do. … And I call on the rest of the labor movement to join us in this mission for peace and social justice for all of humanity.”

Since UE and UFCW Local 3000 initiated a labor call for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine in October, the UAW, American Postal Workers Union, National Nurses United and National Education Association, along with many regional and local unions, have all called for a ceasefire.

Madhani concluded her remarks by calling on President Biden to “immediately call for a ceasefire, halt unconditional aid to Israel, and immediately restore the basic rights of Palestinians who have been deprived of food, water, fuel, and life-saving medical aid so that the real work of justice for Palestinians can begin.”


Left to right: Wisam Awadallah (Local 197), Sandy Peeples (Local 197), UAW President Shawn Fain, Chelsea Bland (CLUW), Brandon Mancilla (UAW Region 9A), Janvi Madhani (Local 197), Rachel Williams (Local 197).

Madhani was joined by several other members of Local 197 who traveled to Washington with her. Other speakers at the press conference were UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla, Judy Beard of the American Postal Workers Union, Chelsea Bland of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Gene Bruskin, the national coordinator of National Labor Network for a Ceasefire, Reresentative Bush, and Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), André Carson (D-IN), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)..

Political Action in Pittsburgh
On Monday, December 4, rank-and-file members of UE Locals 667 and 696 visited the offices of Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) and participated in a Zoom meeting with staff from the office of Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), demanding that the two senators support a ceasefire.

“War is a detriment to labor,” Local 667 President Fritz Geist told the senators’ staff, “as this project funnels resources, both monetary and human, into actions that result in the further alienation of human beings on both ends of the conflict. Currently, resources that could go into healthcare, education, housing, and infrastructure are instead funding the eradication of an entire nation of human beings overseas.”


Left to right: Jason Lovell, Local 667, retired UE NEWS editor and Local 506 member Al Hart, UE Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker, Fritz Geist, Local 667, Eastern Region President George Waksmunski, Crystal Grabowski, Local 696 (seated), John Trapp, Local 667, and Field Organizer Ben Wilson.

Crystal Grabowski, Local 696, reminded Fetterman’s staff that their local union “put out a statement calling for a permanent ceasefire and the protection of health care workers and their patients in Gaza … after the International Planned Parenthood Federation clinic in Gaza was destroyed.” They blasted the office for simply ignoring their local’s demand, saying that “If Fetterman truly stands with unionized workers, then he doesn’t just get to ignore our demands while workers performing the same work that we do are slaughtered by Israel’s occupying forces in Gaza.”

Local 667 member Jason Lovell also expressed frustration with Fetterman’s “antagonism to people who disagree” with him, accusing the Senator of being “disrespectful” to his constituents.

“We cannot bomb our way to peace”


Retired UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley.

The previous Friday, December 1, members of Local 197 had traveled from Baltimore to Washington, DC to join a labor press conference where retired UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley spoke. “We cannot bomb our way to peace,” declared Kingsley. “In Gaza today, bombs paid for with our tax dollars are falling on the heads of ordinary workers just like the members of my union. On their families, too. It’s time to stop this, time to leverage the billions in U.S. aid we send to Israel to stop this rain of death and destruction on innocent civilians.”

Retired UE General President Peter Knowlton also spoke at a peace rally in Dartmouth, MA on December 10, where he likened “the intimidation and job discrimination faced by people today for supporting Palestinian rights” to the repression that UE faced during the McCarthy era.

https://www.ueunion.org/political-actio ... rs-join-ue

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Southern Human Rights Organizing and the Amazon Workers' Struggle

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist 20 Dec 2023


Jennifer Bates testifying before Senate Budget Committee hearing March 17, 2021

Jennifer Bates is an organizer with the BAmazon Union , the effort to organize Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama. BAmazon Union is affiliated with the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU). I spoke to Ms. Bates at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) which was recently held in Nashville. SHROC is an opportunity for human rights organizers and defenders to come together to share strategies, learn from each other, and build relationships. It’s a gathering of grassroots organizers and human rights defenders from across the U.S. and Global South. Ms. Bates and I discussed the history of the struggle in Bessemer, working conditions at Amazon, and the challenges of union organizing in the south.

Margaret Kimberley: What should we know about working conditions at Amazon warehouses?

Jennifer Bates: The working conditions are terrible. The working conditions don't have the employee at heart. Working at Amazon is more so profits over people. And there's a phrase I use to say, we're just a “sweep away.” So almost like if you fall out on the floor and pass away, they just take a broom and move you on and put someone else on your station.

I've never seen the injury rate like Amazon’s. And most of the time they rush to put employees back to work with injuries. They even call doctors. I had one doctor tell me they were trying to force them to release workers back to work knowing that they were still injured. They're not reporting to EEOC (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) like they should. And I think at one point where two people died within one day, like a night shift and the day shift. And that week, EEOC said that Amazon only reported one, even with the accidents, they said we have no lost time accidents, they're not reporting the injuries, because they are pressuring the employees to come back to work.

MK: People order from Amazon, because it's so fast. But that means the speed that most people like in getting something they want, that takes a toll on the workers, correct?

JB: That's correct. They are telling you we want more, but they don't think, they really don't care about the injuries that are caused. And we have people with back problems. People who have knee injuries, arm and hand injuries as well. I just had surgery a couple of months ago for an injury that I had. There are people on crutches, you know, people have fallen dead. Mandatory overtime during peak season, you know, people are ordering those packages. They’ve got to get them within two days, so they're pressuring their employees to get those packages out as fast as you can, which has taken a toll on them mentally as well.

MK: And what percentage of the workers at your warehouse are black?

JB: 80%

MK: And the other 20%?

JB: They are a mixture of Indian, white, Latino.

MK: And you've had I believe two votes to form a union and you've lost those votes. Why do you think you lost?

JB: Well, the first one we lost, the second one is still in court. Yes, we have a hearing within a few weeks. We still have ballots that haven't been counted yet. So we're waiting on the Labor Board to make a decision on that case, but what happened was in the first the first election, we had over 3,000 cards from employees who signed the cards, to state that they want a union and once we turn those cards in the Labor Board said okay, well, we got more than enough.

And I think the system is kind of weak when it comes down to our workers, because at that point, they gave the opportunity to the company, “Hey, it's time for you to run a campaign.” But why run a campaign when you have 3,000? They even had classes where they bring in employee relations people, you know, you're teaching the people in these captive audience classes, where you're saying that you're teaching them more about why they don't need a union. In fact, I call it confusion, and manipulation classes in fear tactics, because that's what I experienced in it, and you have people who are afraid, because Amazon ran their vote.

So they put their fear in the younger generation. And some of the older people, those people who may be the only income bringing the all income in the household, and they were in the south, right? Because we're in the south, there has always been a fear of bringing in unions or people going to lose their job, because why? Because it's low income anyway. And there has always been a fear pushing Alabama and the politicians designed to keep unions out. Because what happens is it gives power to the people.

MK: You know, that fear has to be very strong, because the conditions you described, one would think you'd want union representation. I'll call it propaganda to get people to vote no, when they clearly want to say yes. Given that the working conditions are so bad, how long do most people last? Is there a high turnover rate?

JB: Yes, high turnover. And Amazon is so bad that we can be teaching people on board to unionize one day, but then a few months later, those people are no longer there. Some people will decide that they can't stay to work under those conditions, or husbands or spouses say you know what you need to get out of there, I don't need you to work under a heartless company like that, you know, you're getting injured.

MK: How long have you worked there?

JB: I've worked there for three and a half years.

MK: And how did you come to be a leader in this organizing effort?

JB: When we first began, Darryl Richardson was the one who called RWDSU. But it was several of us who were talking about it who had been a part of unions before. Richardson and some others who came from another facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who had been a part of unions and realized that what was going on there was an abuse of power.

People are getting fired. There was no opportunity to present their case to say that's not fair, or that's not true. So we knew the benefits of being a part of a union organization.

So I think, because I wasn't afraid of management, I pushed the campaign. Amazon tried to tell the employees that it's just the union who's just trying to come in here and take their money. So at some point, Darryl, and I had to come forth and say, “No, it's not just these people who are coming in here, there are a group of people who contacted RWDSU, because we want a union here.”

MK: We are meeting here at the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference. Everyone in attendance is not from the south but we come to learn from people like yourself, about the work that you're doing. Tell us about why you came and why you think it's so important to have these opportunities to gather.

JB: Actually I spoke with Jaribu Hill and Aaron Greene earlier this year, in June, I was on a zoom with them. I like to learn. And because I like to learn, I also like to teach. And I realized that education is power. And without power, we can't move forward, without knowledge, we can't move forward. So I decided to go and I wanted to share what our efforts were and to share our struggles as well. And once I got to SHROC I realized that there were so many other dimensions of human rights in this country, and especially in the south, I didn't realize that there were other struggles, other than just in Alabama. And it was a blessing to me to not only teach, but to be taught and have knowledge.

MK: You said the vote is in court now, what is the process? What's going to happen next?

JB: We won't know until we go to the hearing. And I guess we'll give our testimonies on the illegal actions of Amazon during that campaign. There were a lot of illegal actions taken by them. And we get to present our evidence. We found a lot of you ULPs, unfair labor practices. There'll be a decision later on, on whether the Labor Board will rule in our favor that we will run a new election. We have 500 ballots that weren't counted. They were contested by Amazon. Those ballots will be counted, I think, and we'll just make a decision on whether the other election will be overturned, and we'll push another election or whether we'll be certified as a union. So the hearing hasn't been scheduled yet. It was supposed to be in September, but they postponed it and moved it up because we had to add a couple more charges. I think one was when they fired me at Amazon.

MK: But they reinstated you?

JB: Yes, they reinstated me the following week, but they still didn't allow me to work. They put me on a leave of absence. But they went to the media, and told the media, “Oh, yeah, we reinstated Jennifer Bates and it was a misunderstanding, a miscommunication, and that lets you know that our system works. We heard her side of the story. So they told a journalist that they reinstated me, but once I returned to work that day, it said that I was inactive. Because I had an injury I was on light duty, lifting 10 pounds or less. I went back to the doctor but each document I brought back, Amazon continued to deny.

MK: And how can people be supportive of your organizing efforts?

JB: Continue to tell our stories right now. And if we have other actions to come and be a part of them. Open avenues like social media, if you see an article about what’s going on use your platforms to get the word out.

MK: Thank you.

https://blackagendareport.com/southern- ... s-struggle

******

“It Looks Like the Railroad Is Asking for You to Say Thank You”
by Jessica Lussenhop and Topher Sanders
Dec. 19, 6 a.m. EST


Former brakeman Chris Cole lost both of his legs while working for Kansas City Southern Railway Company. Credit:Bryan Birks for ProPublica

After brakeman Chris Cole lost both his legs on the job, railroad officials removed evidence before state regulators could see it, omitted key facts in reports and suspended him from a job he could never return to.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

CHRIS COLE LAY ON HIS BACK in the gravel beside the railroad tracks, staring up at the overcast sky above Godfrey, Illinois. He could not see below his waist — a co-worker had thrown himself over Cole’s body to spare him the sight, although the man couldn’t keep himself from repeating: “Oh my god, Chris. Oh my god.” So, instead of looking down where his legs and feet should have been, Cole looked up. What’s going to happen to my family? he remembered thinking.

Moments earlier, Cole — a 45-year-old brakeman, engineer and conductor with over two decades of experience working on the railroads — had attempted a maneuver he’d done many times: hoisting himself onto a locomotive as it moved past him. Although dangerous, Cole’s employer, Kansas City Southern Railway Company, did not prohibit workers from climbing on and off equipment that was moving at a “walking speed.” In fact, the company went from banning the practice in the mid-’90s to steadily increasing the permissible speed at which workers could attempt to climb onboard, a change other freight companies would also adopt in keeping with the spirit of a modern strategy to move cargo as quickly as possible.

As he pulled himself up onto the rolling train, Cole said he felt something strike his right shoulder — a rectangular metal sign close to the tracks that read “DERAIL.” He lost his balance and slipped beneath the wheels of a graffiti-covered boxcar. The train crushed and nearly severed his right foot and his left leg at the knee.

Somehow Cole maintained consciousness, calling his co-workers for help before undoing his belt to tie a tourniquet around one of his legs. As the engineer dialed 911, the conductor ran to Cole’s side and used his own belt to tie a second tourniquet around the other leg. A crew of firefighters arrived within minutes. They loaded him onto a medical helicopter that airlifted Cole to an emergency room in St. Louis, just across the nearby Missouri border.

Cole awoke in the middle of the night alone in a hospital room; it was April 2020, just a month after the surging coronavirus was declared a pandemic. Neither his wife nor his daughter were allowed to visit, and so he was alone when a trauma nurse informed him that he lost both of his legs. Cole, a burly man who once stood 6 feet tall, knew his railroading career was over, as were his hopes of providing enough so that his wife — who’d recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis — could stay at home with their 12-year-old daughter.

The next morning, Cole called his manager to tell him that he was alive. Afterward, the manager wrote an email to other members of the company summarizing Cole’s description of the accident: “Upon mounting equipment he stated there was a derail sign that struck him off of the engine and he fell.”

But within days, according to company and court records, Cole’s managers and higher-ups at the rail company began to shape a new narrative — one that erased the role of the sign, leaving Cole solely at fault, entitled to nothing under the railroad industry’s version of workers’ compensation for his devastating injuries.

“The culture of management is that we are going to cover ourselves and cover the railroad and make sure that it doesn’t look bad in the public eye,” Cole said. “And if we got to bury one of our employees, or somebody else, we’re going to do that.”

In many ways, the fight centered on the metal derail sign. Within 48 hours of the accident, before state regulators had a chance to examine it, the sign was gone.

Railroad companies have a long history of hiding injuries, as ProPublica recently reported. But in some catastrophes like Cole’s, in which the injuries are so grievous they can’t be denied, ProPublica found that companies moved almost immediately to cover up their culpability.

Some attempts to deny the causes of accidents obscured safety hazards, such as faulty latches, which could have put more workers at risk, ProPublica found. Others took actions that made worker injuries far worse.

In 2014, after two BNSF workers in Minneapolis breathed in a cloud of highly toxic chemicals that may have vented from passing rail cars, managers claimed that the men were exposed to a far less dangerous substance. One of the workers, Scott Kowalewski, suffered severe, permanent neurological damage. The other later died by suicide, a tragedy that was impossible to incontrovertibly link to the accident.

When Kowalewski sued, BNSF claimed that he didn’t say he was exposed to the more toxic material until three-and-a-half years after the incident and maintained throughout the case that his deteriorating health had nothing to do with the exposure. But a jury sided with Kowalewski in 2018 and awarded him $15.3 million. And a judge concluded that the railroad’s “misrepresentation prevented Kowalewski from receiving appropriate medical treatment that might have remediated his injury.” The judge ordered BNSF to pay an additional $5.8 million penalty for its misconduct, writing that the extent of it was “vast, and spans from the outset of its initial sham investigation.”

Cole’s case wasn’t even the first involving a railroad sign. Bradley Anderson was riding on the side ladder of a rail car in 2019 when he struck his head on a milepost sign that was too close to the tracks. He was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. Officials from his company, BNSF, pulled the sign out of the ground before its position was adequately documented.

This July, the federal judge on Anderson’s case excoriated the company. “Despite receiving multiple court admonitions for destroying and concealing evidence, BNSF engaged in the same type of misconduct here,” U.S. District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger wrote in an order, declaring that the company was responsible for Anderson’s injury, and approved sanctions for the damage caused by the “bad faith” removal of the sign. The case eventually settled.

She also said she was forwarding the case to the Iowa Supreme Court Attorney Disciplinary Board and the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, “in the event either body should see fit to initiate an investigation into an apparent abuse of legal procedure.”

Neither of those bodies would disclose to ProPublica whether they had received the judge’s referral or whether they planned to act on the information.

In civil litigation, it falls on workers’ attorneys to prove companies tampered with evidence. If a judge agrees, they can sanction the companies for millions of dollars or, in an extreme case, even enter a default judgment for the worker. (The judges in Kowalewski’s and Anderson’s cases entered such default judgments against BNSF.) But outside of those repercussions, there is little else in terms of punishment for companies that repeat the behavior. “It comes out in an individual case,” said Daniel Gourash, editor of the American Bar Association book “Spoliation of Evidence.” “The sanction that would be given would not be because of a habitual spoliation activity or conduct or behavior.”

BNSF did not comment on either case but said in a statement that “the safety of our employees always has been and always will be a priority. We believe that’s reflected in our safety culture and record over the last decade, which produced the lowest number of injuries in our railroad’s history.”

In a statement to ProPublica on the Cole case, a Canadian Pacific Kansas City spokesperson denied that any of its actions were an attempt to avoid culpability. (This year, Kansas City Southern Railway Company merged with Canadian Pacific Railway.)

“Through a thorough investigation that lasted several months, Kansas City Southern sought to determine how the incident occurred so appropriate action could be taken to prevent such an incident from happening again,” the company said.

Within hours of Cole’s accident, a bevy of Kansas City Southern supervisors from across the region converged at the scene. They took pictures. They stayed until dark fell.

Early the next morning, Cole called two of his managers from his hospital bed: assistant trainmaster Michael Cline and Chris Knox, general manager of the KCS North Division. Cline sent two emails to several managers at the company: “He stated there was a derail sign that struck him off of the engine and he fell between the engine and cars where the incident took place with the dismemberment of his legs.” Cline told ProPublica he would check with his employer before commenting but then did not respond further. Knox didn’t respond to calls or text messages.

A short time later, four inspectors from the Federal Railroad Administration gathered at the scene along with KCS managers. An FRA operating practices inspector named Larry Piper wrote up his initial findings about what happened to Cole.

“His body struck a derail sign on a metal post adjacent to the pass track, knocking him off the locomotive and to the ground,” the report stated, adding that railroad and FRA officials watched video footage captured on a nearby security camera. “Even though the quality was not perfect, it did substantiate what the employee was saying,” the report said.

Piper communicated those findings to a member of the Illinois Commerce Commission, the agency that performs inspections and enforces state regulations on the railroad, including sign placement.

“It appeared to him that the derail post sign was too close to the rail,” recalled Dennis Mogan, the ICC railroad safety specialist, in a deposition. “The FRA didn’t have any regulations on that, and he thought that the state did and that we should take a look.”

But before that could happen, KCS roadmaster Jeffrey Brickey removed the sign and pulled its pole from the ground entirely. He also covered the hole left behind.

“We’re not supposed to leave any divots or anything like that for trainmen to walk on, so yeah, I cleaned it up,” he testified. Brickey did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.



Photos taken by a KCS representative show the derail sign after Cole’s accident. Credit:Court records

By the time a railroad safety specialist from the ICC named Troy Fredericks arrived about a week later, the sign was long gone. When Fredericks asked Brickey about it, he said Brickey “couldn’t discuss” the sign and “would not talk about” the injury incident. The company did not comment on whether it had been forthright with Illinois regulators; the ICC told ProPublica that Brickey was “responsive to ICC Staff’s concern in the days after the incident.” Before Fredericks left the accident scene, he made note of a completely different sign not far away that he said was positioned too close to the railroad tracks and then left.

Around the same time that the sign disappeared from the site, it also began to fade from the railroad company’s narrative of the incident, despite the existence of the FRA’s initial report confirming Cole’s account. Wendell Campbell, an assistant division superintendent who was one of the first to arrive in Godfrey after the accident, wrote on an employee injury form that the sign struck Cole. But in subsequent paperwork, Campbell omitted any mention of the sign: “Employee was trying to board moving equipment.” Campbell declined to comment when reached by ProPublica.

(Much more at link.)

https://www.propublica.org/article/trai ... es-lawsuit

[blindpig]

Union Activists Need to Break From Pro-Imperialist Leadership and Undermine U.S. Support for Israeli Genocide
By Carol Lang - January 10, 2024 0


Shawn Fain, President of the United Automobile Workers, joins legislators at a press conference for a cease-fire. [Source: aljazeera.com]

“The U.S. Labor Movement Calls for Cease-fire in Israel and Palestine.” That is the name of the resolution that many members of a variety of unions have signed on to, believing that this would bring peace to the Middle East, by having the guns go silent.”The U.S. Labor Movement Calls for Cease-fire in Israel and Palestine. That is the name of the resolution that many members of a variety of unions have signed on to, believing that this would bring peace to the Middle East, by having the guns go silent.

The U.S. labor movement decided it was finally necessary to lend its collective voice to the ever-growing chorus of disgust for the war, although it never refers to the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians. But wait, let’s analyze the resolution and see if all these unions have really put their money where their mouths are.

The resolution states: “We, members of the American labor movement, mourn the loss of life in Israel and Palestine. We express our solidarity with all workers and our common desire for peace in Palestine and Israel, and we call on President Joe Biden and Congress to push for an immediate ceasefire and end to the siege of Gaza. We cannot bomb our way to peace. We also condemn any hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, or anyone else.”

In issuing this call, U.S. unions are joining the efforts of 13 Members of Congress and others who are calling for an immediate cease-fire.

The basic rights of people must be restored. Water, fuel, food, and other humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza, power must be restored, and foreign nationals and Palestinians requiring medical care must be allowed out of Gaza.

While calling for the restoration of water, fuel, food and other humanitarian aid is absolutely required if more Palestinians are not going to die from these atrocities, one must ask who controls the situation in Gaza. Whether Israel decides to allow this to happen, even temporarily, is completely up to Israel because there is no call for Israel to relinquish control of Gaza. Thus, without a permanent cease-fire, and the relinquishing of control over Gaza, this is just an empty call. Putting aside the fact that the entirety of Israel is on occupied Palestinian territory, without calling for the relinquishing of at least the boundaries of Gaza, Israel can at any time, resume its genocidal lockdown. The U.S. labor movement must call for the end not only of the siege but the end of Israel’s control of Gaza, at least as a start, but the resolution does not even mention this as a possibility. Israel, as far as the resolution goes, has the right to retain control.



The Israeli hostages taken by Hamas must be immediately released. Both Hamas and Israel must adhere to standards of international law and Geneva Convention rules of warfare concerning the welfare and security of civilians.

Here again is a meaningless statement, at least regarding Palestinian rights, since the resolution does not mention all the prisoners that Israel took hostage on trumped-up charges or no charges at all, but over the time that Israel has been bombing Gaza, Israel has taken more than 4,000 hostages, mostly children, in the West Bank and put them into administrative detention, i.e., with no specified charges and for an unlimited duration.

There must be a ceasefire in Gaza. The cycle of violence must stop so that negotiations for an enduring peace proceed.


The U.S. has sent 10,000 tons of military equipment to Israel since the start of the Gaza War. [Source: newarab.com]

The cycle of violence must stop? Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians. This war is not a “war” in the conventional sense in that there are two equal sides; this is a genocidal war where a captive people are suffering from bombs being dropped on them daily, where people are dying under the rubble because Israel will not allow any equipment into the territory to dig those people out. It is a “war” where people are being starved and poisoned, because Israel is poisoning the water. It is a war where the heavy weapons are on one side, that is on the side of Israel, and where Israel calls all the shots. Every necessary piece of infrastructure has been bombed including hospitals. This situation does not exist in reverse and so there is no cycle of violence, just brutality on one side. The word war here is a distortion of the English language.

The U.S. must act. We call on President Biden to immediately call for a ceasefire.

The road to justice cannot be paved by bombs and war. The road to peace cannot be found through warfare. We commit ourselves to work in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to achieve peace and justice.

Union members come from diverse backgrounds, including Jews, Muslims, and Middle Eastern communities. The rising escalation of war and arms sales doesn’t serve the interests of workers anywhere. In the end, we all want a place to call home and for our children to be safe. Working people around the world want and deserve to live free from the effects of violence, war and militarization.

Thousands of Americans have joined the groundswell of global solidarity demanding a ceasefire now.

It’s the labor movement’s turn to make our voices heard and demand a ceasefire. Together, we can stand for peace, justice, and a better future for working people everywhere.

The authors of the resolution must either be incredibly cynical or incredibly naïve to even believe that “calling” on Biden will stop the flow of weapons to Israel. The U.S. government has, for many years given Israel $3.8 billion annually to buy weapons from the U.S. arms industry and now another $14 billion is likely to be granted to the Israeli war machine. Biden’s constituency is not the workers whose lives are upended by shortages, inflation and low wages, but the arms industry. To them he must answer their call for ever more weapons. According to CounterPunch, November 14, 2023,

“President Biden described the American arms industry in remarkably glowing terms, noting that, ‘just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.’”

When Raytheon’s CEO, Gregory Hayes, was questioned by a researcher from Morgan Stanley about the profits which the company will definitely accrue from both the wars in Gaza and Ukraine: “The researcher noted that President Biden’s proposed multi-billion-dollar package of military aid for Israel and Ukraine ‘seems to fit quite nicely with Raytheon’s defense portfolio.’ Hayes responded that ‘across the entire Raytheon portfolio you’re going to see a benefit of this restocking on top of what we think will be an increase in the DoD topline as we continue to replenish these stocks.’ Supplying Ukraine alone, he suggested, would yield billions in revenues over the coming few years with profit margins of 10% to 12%.”


Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes [Source: ft.com]
The article goes on to say: “In 2021, the most recent year for which full statistics are available, the U.S. armed 31 nations that Freedom House, a non-profit that tracks global trends in democracy, political freedom, and human rights, designated as ‘not free.’”

The Pentagon budget is now approaching $1 trillion. So, the question is how likely, given the enormous power of the arms industry, will it be for Biden to go against their wishes? The call for a cease-fire is as meaningless as expecting a zebra to shed its stripes and become a horse.

RESOLUTION TO CONDEMN THE AFL-CIO FOR ITS SUPPORT OF ISRAEL

What then must be done? I proposed a resolution in my union, the Professional Staff Congress, a local within the AFT, after a long discussion about the cease-fire, about condemning both the AFL-CIO and the American government for helping Israel, by either giving direct aid to the Israeli government to buy weapons or, in the case of the AFL-CIO bureaucracy, by buying Israeli bonds which would allow them to purchase American weapons. The AFT and the AFL-CIO have supplied collectively many millions of dollars to the State of Israel.

After the cease-fire resolution, my resolution condemning the AFL-CIO giving moral and material support to Israel was open for discussion, or so I thought. I introduced it saying that, if we want a real cease-fire, we must shut off the spigot so that Israel can no longer continue to buy arms to murder Palestinians. As soon as I introduced the resolution, a Zionist at the meeting called the question, shutting off all debate. I received 17 votes in support of my resolution, although there were radicals who opposed the genocide, but who refused to support my resolution and, since there was no debate, it was hard to know exactly what the reason was. But whatever the reason, the bombs are continuing to fall.

The crimes against the Palestinian people are incalculable, but inevitable, given the relationship of the union bureaucrats to the American government, that is, the “leadership” will never oppose the American government. Historically, from the inception of the AFL, the leaders supported American imperialism starting with the Spanish-American War.

During the Cold War, U.S. imperialism was omnipresent. The results of these interventions garnered not a peep from the trade unions but, in fact, AIFLD (American Institute for Free Labor Development) was organized by the AFL-CIO to covertly support American interventions around the world.


[Source: cosmonoautmag.com]

So when the labor unions call for us to sign a cease-fire declaration, do they really mean it? The cease-fire declaration, as I said, is at best duplicitous and is not outside the absolute betrayal of the American and world’s working classes.

Please sign this call and add your name to a growing list calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza says the resolution.

While calling for a cease-fire, Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT, continues to donate money to Israel while crying crocodile tears for the lack of peace in the region. Historically, she has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars of dues money buying Israel bonds without either the consent or the knowledge of the members.

In an article in the Electronic Intifada (March 26, 2015) by Ali Abunimah entitled “Why is the American Federation of Teachers promoting Israeli apartheid?” Abunimah said that Weingarten, while decrying her dislike for Netanyahu because he was a war monger who will only discourage peace, still managed to argue for a two-state solution, although it was clear even then that not only was this never going to materialize, but at a conference with J Street, the liberal Zionists, he wrote: “The J Street program lists the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) as a major donor to the conference.”

“IFT, which represents more than 100,000 educators and public employees in Illinois and is affiliated with the AFT, ignored repeated requests for comment about the amount of the donation and its purpose.”

Abunimah lets us know that IFT president Dan Montgomery, who serves as a vice president of the AFT, “went on [a] junket [to Israel] with Weingarten.” In the meantime, through her crocodile tears about peace with the Palestinians, Weingarten continues to oppose the BDS movement.


Randi Weingarten [Source: realcleareducation.com]

Moreover, from an article in CovertAction Magazine which I wrote about the utter betrayal of the AFL-CIO (June 24, 2022), the Jewish Labor Committee, of which Weingarten is a member, wrote in a manual: “Please DO NOT discuss with union members, representatives of the press or others, guesstimates of the value of State of Israel Bonds held by unions. ‘Divest from Israel’ activists have used such information in their arguments and have quoted figures found in Jewish newspapers and/or provided by Jewish communal representatives.”

Randi Weingarten was certainly not the only union leader who engaged in support of Israel.

The Teamsters, under James Hoffa (son of legendary Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa), not only raised money for the Israelis, but ran guns to them supporting the creation of the Israeli state. The number of interventions by both the Teamsters and other unions is too numerous to list in one short article, but just one example will suffice.

In an article written by Joe Allen called “The Teamster Connection: Apartheid Israel and the IBT,” Allen writes: “The Younger Hoffa raised $2.5 million for the Yitzhak Rabin Center. During his visit, a room at the center will be dedicated to the Teamsters. Hoffa said he had been looking for a way to strengthen his ties to Israel, and began to work for the Rabin Center on the advice of friends. During his time here, he plans to visit the Histadrut-run Alumim Youth Village in Kfar Saba, whose original Jerusalem facility was built by a $300,000 donation from his father.”


Golda Meir with Jimmy Hoffa in 1956. [Source: joeallen-60224.medium.com]

The betrayal by the AFL-CIO cannot be overstated.

It is only the power of the working class that can end this genocidal war, that is, if the workers stop loading war materiel onto ships bound for Israel, the war can end overnight. Already there are workers in a number of countries, such as Belgium, Italy and Local 10 of the Longshore Union in the U.S., who have done this.

Unfortunately, the powerful AFL-CIO, which has traditionally supported American imperialism throughout its dirtiest wars all over the world, through AIFLD initially, and now through the Solidarity Center, continues to support the Israeli state and thus the genocide of Palestinians.

The working class must break from its pro-imperialist leadership and take power into its own hands.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/0 ... -genocide/

Not just 'pro-imperialism' but pro-capitalism.....While there is necessarily an implicant recognition of capitalism in trade unionism there cannot be an acceptance of capitalism in a progressive union.

Repeal Taft-Hartley!

[blindpig]

UE: A REMARKABLE EXAMPLE
Posted by Chris Townsend | Jan 22, 2024



BY CHRIS TOWNSEND
January 18, 2024

In late March of 1936, a stalwart group of unionists in the electrical and radio manufacturing industries gathered in snowy Buffalo, New York, to found what quickly became the second largest union in the CIO upsurge. The various streams of unionism that converged in Buffalo represented the grizzled union diehards in the manufacturing shops of some of the biggest corporations in the country; General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, and RCA among them. It also included new faces, young militants, workers energized by the overall left-wing growth in response to the catastrophe of the Great Depression.

The founding Convention had barely ended when a strong section of metal workers – who had toughed it out as part of the independent Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) – sought affiliation. Thus was born the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), the first new industrial union founded by the Congress of Industrial Unions (CIO).

In the nearly nine decades since UE’s founding, myriad histories and studies have been conducted on the union, its history, its functioning, its countless travails and many battles. Book upon book and articles too numerous to mention have been produced. Some have merit, probably most do not. Because the writers who have written about and studied UE over these many years include a huge proportion who were not dedicated to telling the truth about this remarkable union at all, but were instead a part of the immense well-paid machinery that was committed to the total destruction of UE and all that it has stood for.

UE SURVIVED

It is safe to say that no U.S. union has suffered and withstood such an extreme degree of government and corporate repression as UE – and survived it – with the exceptions of the west coast Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). While always a militant and activist union, UE found itself by the late 1940’s beset on all sides by McCarthyite forces launching attacks of every imaginable variety. At any given time in that period the union was being raided, investigated, prosecuted, spied-on, infiltrated, disrupted, and slandered, all to a degree difficult to comprehend today. At any given moment thousands of UE’s leaders and members were either already in jail, under indictment, fired, blacklisted, hounded relentlessly by the secret police, or facing deportation.

As a result, UE faced internal turmoil to an unimaginable degree. Right-wing, opportunist, and company union forces welcomed the outside interference as they all jockeyed to grab a piece of the union for themselves in the carnage. The employers all aided the sabotage and wrecking by the corrupted elements seeing an even more profitable future without UE’s resistance. Countless UE stalwarts and militants were dragged out of the union forcibly, as the first 200,000 members robbed from UE were done as a result of the union being barred from the NLRB ballot entirely.

Every legal and illegal tactic was justified as a fight “against communism.” Legions of paid informers took the witness stands to perjure themselves and provide the government with excuses to frame-up, fire, and jail these workers. UE leaders later referred to these monstrous episodes as “the dirty decade.”. That is an understatement if ever there was one.

A DIFFERENT UNION, A BETTER UNION

The women and men who built UE into the partisan working-class trade union organization that it remains today were guided not just out of the necessity of building a new union, but by the sincere dedication to create an entirely new and better union. Unfortunately, and frequently deliberately, the remarkable aspects of UE structure and practice are ignored by detractors and many scholars.

Here is just a partial listing of UE’s characteristics that will stun most union members and labor movement activists. In no particular order, UE:

Pays its three National Officers no more than the highest wage earned by a working member, and provides those Officers with the same benefits as other staff.
Holds a Convention every two years where 100% of the delegates are rank-and-file members, not paid staff members controlled by the leadership.
Elects Convention delegates at the local level, by democratic vote.
Runs an open Convention, with no beefy “security” to keep the members out or harass them at the behest of the “leaders” controlling all aspects of the Convention.
Allows the member-delegates to speak to the body multiple times if desired.
Convenes its Convention in cities where UE members live and work, not junketeering and corrupting destinations like Las Vegas.
Makes an open, detailed, and complete financial report to the Convention with ample time for questioning and discussion.
Conducts the Convention democratically and sets union priorities and positions on union and political issues by democratic vote.
Maintains a union absent the dreaded and coercive “trusteeship” clause, one of the most abused aspect of many business unions.

UE: AN ALTERNATIVE TO BUSINESS UNIONISM

Founding UE Director of Organization was Romanian immigrant and metal worker James Matles, later the General Secretary-Treasurer of the union. Matles was known for his militant and hard-charging style and his command of union principles, strategies, and tactics. He was persecuted non-stop by the bosses and politicians. He spared nothing in his dissection of the failed and corrupt business union world. After being elected and re-elected annually for 38 years he retired in late 1975, only to pass away suddenly less than a week after his final Convention. In probably his last act as a UE Officer he addressed a staff and local leader meeting in the central valley of California, then the site of considerable UE organizing activity.

Matles offered in his meeting comments that, “…the combined forces of the set-up failed to liquidate UE for all time, they failed to extinguish us, kill us off…. So, if you hope to play any serious role in the labor movement in the days to come, you must study the UE as an outstanding example of a rank-and-file union…” His retirement speech and its introduction by longtime UE General President Albert Fitzgerald remains a hallmark in UE history and in the more broad history of member-driven militant unionism. Remembering Jim Matles and the Legacy He Left UE . (Link t0 recording of that speech.)

And perhaps most important of all, the book authored by Jim Matles and his longtime friend James Higgins, “Them and Us: Struggles of a Rank-and-File Union” is mandatory reading for all grappling with the situation facing the working class in the United States today. Also check out UE’s pamphlet produced for the membership just several years ago in 2020 to explain and perpetuate the philosophy of UE.

UE REBUILDS

The very survival of UE as a national union is as remarkable as the principles and practices of the union. The political and corporate assault had barely begun to recede in the 1960’s when the scourge of plant closings and the deep impact of new technologies began to rob the union of members from coast-to-coast. But consistently led at the national and local level by successive generations of unionists dedicated to clean, aggressive unionism, UE persevered and dug in for the long haul. Decade after decade these real leaders resolved to maintain a union dedicated to several key principles: to pursue aggressive struggle at all times; to maintain rank and file control; preserve and practice political independence for the union; to confront inequality and discrimination of all kinds and apply trade union solutions vigorously; and work for international solidarity with the ultimate goal of unity with all workers worldwide.

By the 1990’s, UE found itself once more in deep and turbulent waters as the huge U.S. manufacturing base was systematically destroyed and shipped overseas by a criminal alliance of corporate leaders and politicians in both political parties. As union after union collapsed and disappeared altogether, UE soldiered on and fought day after day, and year after year to survive. It was a struggle to fight today, but also to find a way to fight tomorrow. Expanding for the first time into new industrial sectors, workers desiring a strong, democratic and aggressive union steadily flowed into UE. Today, the membership composition no longer represents anything that would be recognized by the founders in Buffalo. UE today represents workers in 100 or more different occupations; public and private employees, service staff, health care professionals, transportation workers, retail workers, higher education professionals, non-profit staff, manufacturing workers, federal contract workers, and others.

And starting with a single local union of 900 graduate students that joined UE in 1996 at the University of Iowa, the past year has been witness to a literal tidal wave of almost 25,000 new graduate students who have joined UE. Employed by a dozen different colleges and universities all across the country, these young workers reached out to UE to seek that different and better kind of union. Historic Organizing Gains Highlight of Convention | UE (ueunion.org)

UE ANTIDOTE TO CONFUSION AND DEMORALIZATION

The example set by UE and its many remarkable aspects – combined with the truly amazing results by a small and bare-bones union – is an optimistic model for all union members and working people. As Jim Matles said it, “…an outstanding example.” New generations of workers are joining UE who toil in the workplaces of 2023, and millions more are finding out about UE for the first time thanks to the wonders of today’s internet.

Familiarity with UE and its legacy that comes down to us from the CIO era is an antidote to both confusion and demoralization in the labor movement today. As working people, we are not condemned to labor perpetually in unorganized hell-holes for workplaces, or accept without question membership in stagnant, undemocratic, listless, ineffective unions all being bombed into submission as the employers and politicians unleash their latest assaults. The lesson of UE today is that a fighting revival for working people is possible, and that fighting back is still worthwhile – and will bring gains.

UE as a union bears serious study by all working people seeking a path forward different from the business union road to ruin. Join UE, organize into a different union, start your own union, or inject UE principles and practices into your current union. Do that whether the business union “leadership” approve of it, or not. The labor movement belongs to all of us, not just the tiny few who exist to explain why things that need to be done cannot be done.

https://mltoday.com/ue-a-remarkable-example/

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One of the largest unions in the United States just called for a ceasefire in Gaza

The Service Employees International Union, which boasts two million members, joined a growing section of the US labor movement in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza

January 22, 2024 by Peoples Dispatch


Image via SEIU

“Wherever violence, fear and hatred thrive, working people cannot,” reads a statement by Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). SEIU, which boasts two million members, just joined a growing section of the US labor movement in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. SEIU is now the largest union in the country to issue such a statement.

The statement begins with condemning “the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7th,” while also condemning “the widespread attacks on innocent civilians, including the bombardment of neighborhoods, healthcare facilities, and refugee camps, by the Israeli military.”

“We call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving food, water, medicine and other resources to the people of Gaza,” reads the statement. “We call on elected leaders to come together to bring an end to the violence and demand a peaceful resolution that ensures both lasting security for the Israeli people and a sustained end to decades of occupation, blockades and lack of freedom endured by the Palestinian people.”

SEIU joins an emerging sector of the US labor movement which includes the United Auto Workers, the American Postal Workers Union, the United Electrical Workers, and an SEIU local, 1199. SEIU joins this movement as popular support for a ceasefire grows, with a new poll indicating that voters are more likely to support political candidates who call for a ceasefire.

The union’s statement also indicates a willingness among major unions to break from the established Democratic Party status quo as the Biden administration has been openly hostile towards calls for a ceasefire. The White House has gone as far to condemn the progressive congress members calling for a ceasefire, calling the pressure for peace “repugnant” and “disgraceful.”

Congress has also thus far failed to hold Israel accountable for ongoing war crimes in the Gaza strip. The US Senate recently rejected a proposal by Senator Bernie Sanders to require a State Department report on Israel’s human rights violations, on the basis that the US can investigate any country receiving US military aid. The proposal was rejected by 72 to 11.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/01/22/ ... e-in-gaza/