Labor

The Chamber of Commerce's Jobs Deception Campaign

Richard Trumka — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:30:06 -0700

Unions are popularly known as "the folks who brought you the weekend." In contrast, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has the distinction of trying to take away the weekend--along with overtime pay, the minimum wage, Buy America rules, workers' freedom to form unions, child labor standards....The list is long and ugly.

So it's farcical that today the Chamber launched a campaign estimated to run in the tens of millions of dollars to promote job creation.

The Chamber's campaign originally started out as an attack against financial regulation--until the Chamber found out how strongly U.S. taxpayers support reining in Big Banks and the financial industry's widespread shady practices. So the Chamber conveniently changed the packaging to purportedly focus on jobs, which in fact the American people desperately need.

Look at who accompanied the Chamber suits while they were announcing their Orweillian-named "free enterprise campaign." As Sam Stein reported here:

Many of the individuals featured on Wednesday are long-standing donors to Republican candidates and groups that have fought efforts to enhance regulation. And, in one case, the business leader appearing alongside [Thomas] Donohue to decry the interference of government in the market place received business through the benefit of government contracts.

Yet, while millions of America's workers struggle to find jobs in an economy where there are more than six workers searching for every one job, the Chamber repeatedly opposed extending unemployment insurance. Can't have government interference in the marketplace, after all. Or aid to jobless workers. The same workers the Chamber's smoke-and-mirrors campaign is supposed to be all about.

The Chamber also is joining with Big Banks and financial giants to try and kill a proposed agency that would protect U.S. consumers from being preyed upon by unscrupulous banks, mortgage lenders and many of the same financial institutions that helped create our nation's economic disaster. The Obama administration's proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which this week is being considered in the House Financial Services Committee, would regulate products such as credit cards and home loans, while ensuring the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission oversaw the $450 trillion "derivatives" market that sunk the world economy.

The Chamber is spending $2 million in attack ads, claiming that the new agency would hamstring even your local butcher from extending you credit for a week. It's the same sorry effort at deception and outright lies that the health insurance industry now is trying to pull in the debate over health care reform. Tell enough lies and hope someone believes you.

As President Obama said in response to the Chamber's distortion:

"We've made clear that only businesses that offer financial services would be affected by this agency. I don't know how many of your butchers are offering financial services," Obama said to laughter.

The Chamber is so twisted up in deception it seems unable to even provide accurate membership numbers. Writing in Mother Jones this week, David Corn points to a big discrepancy between the Chamber's public membership numbers and reality.

In testimony before Congress, statements to the press, and on its website, the Chamber claims to represent "3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions." In reality, the number is probably closer to 200,000.

Not sure if the 200,000 includes Apple Inc., Pacific Gas & Electric and the other giant corporations that recently have pulled their membership from the Chamber because of its draconian stand on climate change.

The Chamber's so-called "free enterprise" campaign has been tried before. After World War II, the National Association of Manufacturers led a similar such effort. That campaign to sell capitalism to U.S. consumers incurred the derision of no less than the editors of Fortune magazine, who found similar sentiments among business executives represented on the boards of the business associations that supposedly represented them.

In dismissing the campaign as ludicrous, one such executive described it this way:

The best way we can demonstrate the importance of Free Enterprise is to make it work.

It's clearly not working now. And although the Chamber may try to wrap itself in the shiny trappings of a feel-good campaign, its repeated attacks on consumers and workers demonstrate who the Chamber stands for: Wall Street not Main Street.

This is a crosspost from Huffington Post.

Former Cigna Health Insurance Executive Supports Public Option

Alex Hogan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:03:22 -0700

It’s not everyday that executives apologize for making bundles of money dressing up the images of corporations that are up to no good. That makes Wendell Potter, a former communications executive at Cigna Insurance, special.

Potter, who now works for the nonprofit advocacy group Center for Media and Democracy, said that he took part in a misleading public relations campaign to defeat health care reform while working for Cigna in the 1990s. He is now advocating for health care reform, including a public option.

The Web site www.wake.mync.com covered Potter’s speech before a luncheon sponsored by North Carolina Policy Watch.

Potter described an “oligarchy” of seven huge for-profit companies that enroll one out of every three Americans in health care insurance.

It’s a cartel in many ways ... Even non-profits like Blue Cross Blue Shield retain such a commanding section of the market in some states that competition is stifled.

Under a public health insurance option, said Potter:

You’d get better value and that would force insurance companies to also give you a better rate and price health care plans more competitively.

While Potter has left Cigna far behind, the company is back to investing big money into public relations efforts to defeat current health care reform legislation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is calling for insurance commissioners in Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania to investigate whether the funds that Cigna and WellPoint are spending on such advertising are leading to increases in consumer premiums.

In the last decade, premiums for employer-based health insurance rose 120 percent while pouring more than $3.5 billion into lobbying activities, says Trumka.

The labor federation and advocates in the group Consumer Watchdog are also calling for an investigation into UnitedHealthcare, where they say employees were put under pressure at captive audience meetings to join that company’s efforts to defeat health care reform

The Revolution Will Be Twittered

Tula Connell — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:24:07 -0700

How appropriate Michael Moore premiered "Capitalism: A Love Story" in Pittsburgh this week, to coincide with our 26th AFL-CIO Convention. Moore, in an action spearheaded by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), marched with AFL-CIO delegates to the movie theater, and afterward, encouraged all of us to sponsor it in theaters throughout the country, because, as he says at the end of the film, he needs help to spark the populist revolution.

He'll have a great partner with the new leadership of the AFL-CIO. Late yesterday, delegates elected Richard Trumka president, Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer, and re-elected Arlene Holt Baker executive vice president. The team is a mini-revolution in itself: It's the first time the top leadership of the AFL-CIO includes two women, and Shuler, 39, is the youngest-ever unionist ever to hold so high a position in the labor movement.

But the revolution won't stop there. Trumka, who in recent weeks has previewed the dynamic style he will bring as leader of the labor movement, has long fought against the corporate greed that Moore illustrated in his latest documentary. Trumka is not afraid of a fight: In 1989, when Pittson Coal Co. tried to avoid paying into an industry-wide health and pension fund, Trumka as president of the Mine Workers (UMWA), led one of the most successful strikes in recent American history, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Trumka combines working-class roots as a Pennsylvania coal miner with the education of a lawyer from Villanova University—and ties it all together with guts, determination and a commitment to social justice that takes on Wall Street greed and waffling Democratic politicians with zeal.

As Trumka said last week at the Center for America Progress:

More than ever, we need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies and challenges those who, well, can't seem to decide which side they're on. I'm talking about the politicians who always want us to turn out our members to vote for them, but who somehow always seem to forget workers after the votes are counted.

Our convention in Pittsburgh (Sept. 13-17) coincided with the teabagger protest, offering an illustrative contrast between the values of the 21st century progressive labor movement and the reactionary 18th century wanabees. As Art Levine writes in In These Times:

This weekend, tens of thousands angry "Tea Party" protesters (not two million, the figure right-wing bloviators have concocted) denounced the "socialism" of the Obama administration and the President's healthcare plan.

Some, but hardly all, of the protesters—fueled by Fox News disinformation and mobilized in part by corporate front groups—displayed even uglier invective against Obama, calling him a terrorist and likening him to Hitler.

Yet on Sunday, a different vision of America was unveiled: the AFL-CIO started its convention in Pittsburgh with the goal of creating an economy and government that works for everyone. The contrast with the protest in Washington couldn't have been more stark.

The AFL-CIO Convention also offered a pointed contrast with the teabaggers in another way: Some 43 percent of national union delegates were women, people of color and LGBT. Such diverse participation didn't just happen by accident.

In 2005, AFL-CIO delegates passed a resolution requiring affiliated unions send delegates to the 2009 Convention that represented their membership—and we made sure it did. Time and again throughout the convention and in the standing room-only AFL-CIO Diversity Conference that preceded it, union delegates praised the leadership of retiring President John Sweeney for his commitment to ensuring that the union movement's leaders—from those at the grassroots to the national levels—reflected the workers they represent. And as Holt Baker said more than once, she became the first African American in a top AFL-CIO leadership position because of Sweeney's commitment to diversity.

Trumka will carry on that mantle. At the AFL-CIO Diversity Conference, he stated:

As a matter of policy, as a matter of principle, we'll make our movement more inclusive, more welcoming, more like the workers we represent, more like the democratic movement that we are. You have my promise.

The Trumka team also will augment that outreach by focusing on young people, recognizing that we must reach the next generation to carry on the fight for workers' rights long after we're gone. Because as Trumka said in his keynote at Netroots Nation last month, where many of you got a first glimpse of the fiery Trumka:

Unions are more critical today than ever in our history. In this uncertain economy, after years of stagnant real earnings, unions are the best hope for this younger generation to gain the standard of living their parents and grandparents enjoy. For 200 years unions have served to counterbalance wealth and privilege in this county and to help raise standards for workers to improve their jobs.

In his acceptance speech yesterday, Trumka outlined the powerful labor movement he intends to shape:

What kind of labor movement do we need? A younger labor movement. A greener labor movement. A labor movement that can project its power—to defend workers anywhere in the world. A labor movement that's organizing the unorganized. A labor movement that's winning health care for every family—and, yes, a labor movement that stands by its friends, punishes its enemies, and challenges those who can't decide whose side they're on.

The AFL-CIO Convention ended today. But under our new leadership the momentum—dare we hope, the revolution?—is just beginning.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

Findlay, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce Kills Buy America Parade Because Unions Backed It

Tula Connell — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:20:08 -0700

The Chamber of Commerce--that's the U.S. Chamber of Commerce--proved once again how anti-American it is when it comes to supporting U.S. industry.

In Findlay, Ohio, unions had been organizing a parade and all-day event for this Saturday to highlight American-made products and the need for U.S. trade and economic policies that reward job growth in this country. The unions worked hard to get the business community involved and spent months meeting with the city's Republican mayor, who supported the plans.

But in the end, GreaterFindayInc., the local Chamber arm, killed the Heart of Commerce and Community Celebration. Says Donnie Blatt, United Steelworkers (USW) Rapid Response coordinator for District 1:

GreaterFindlayInc. did everything they could to sabotage us. They told business not to cooperate with us.

Looks like GreaterFindlay also put a lot of pressure on Mayor Pete Sehnert, who now says the city will hold a similar event next year-but without the participation of unions in organizing it.

Seems GreaterFindlay now has the mayor just where they want him. (To e-mail GreaterFindlay, you need to fill out a form--here--and submit it.) According to the local newspaper:

"Basically, Findlay's a non-union, Republican area and mostly what we had were Democratic speakers and union people," Sehnert said. "It's not what I had in mind."

Someone could infer from Sehnert's statement that a pro-America, buy-America celebration isn't supported by Republicans. Because the Greater Findlay Chamber of Commerce rejected an event that would have opened with a parade of U.S.-made, union-made Harley-Davidsons and classic American autos driving down Main Street, alongside floats showcasing American-made products. Speakers would have included U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Betty Sutton, the state attorney general and state treasurer. Blatt says Gov. Ted Strickland was thinking of speaking as well.

The state's oldest manufacturing firm planned to join the festivities, with its owner speaking about the importance of keeping manufacturing in Ohio. USW District 1 planned to give out free hotdogs and hamburgers.

Blatt and Rod Nelson, president of USW Local 207L, and Rob Greer, USW Rapid Response coordinator, met weekly with the mayor over two months, constantly reiterating that they did not want the Heart of Commerce and Community Celebration to be solely a "union event" but sought participation by the local business community.

Their goal from the start was to ensure that local business played a key role in the event, where they could display "made in Ohio" products to offer consumers locally made options. Says Blatt:

We told the mayor: "We don't want this to be a union event. We want this to be a celebration of American manufacturing, a celebration of American workers. We want this to be a community celebration highlighting the need to keep good jobs in the U.S. and in Ohio.

But Blatt says the Chamber of Commerce didn't see it that way.

The mayor came back repeatedly and said the GreaterFindleyInc. were raising hell with him because they said this is a union event.

I said the only reason this is a union event is that they're making it a union event.

Blatt and the union members who worked so hard to pull together this event did so because we need jobs in this country. Just ask the 26 million U.S. jobless workers who need jobs or full-time work but cannot find it. Blatt summarizes the event this way:

We wanted us all to come together to show the importance of keeping jobs in America.

Clearly, once again, keeping jobs in America is not an economic strategy that interests the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. (Let's just delete the "U.S." portion of that name, shall we?)

This is a crosspost from Firedoglake.com.

103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College

Tula Connell — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:44:29 -0700

Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is an registrar in Maryland. They're all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: The National Labor College.

With a 46-acre campus just outside Washington, D.C., the nation's only labor college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and grants bachelor's and master's degrees. The college evolved from the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, created in 1969, and now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.

On Saturday, 101 students will receive B.A. degrees and two others will be awarded M.A. degrees, as the Labor College graduates its 11th class in a ceremony on the Silver Spring, Md., campus. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will give the commencement address.

The Labor College's mix of on-campus course work and life credit enables full-time workers to complete their higher education and, in many cases, fulfill lifelong dreams: Schaffer, Merkel and Almazan are the first in their families to receive bachelor's degrees.

Almazan, an organizer with the Machinists union, says he enrolled to reach an education goal he set for himself years ago.

My motivation wasn't really because of my career. It was more about just making my parents proud and setting a good example for my kids, my children. That's why I enrolled and pursued it.

Almazan sometimes rose at 4:30 a.m. to work on his assignments before his workday began and, at times, skipped family events to ensure his coursework was completed on time. His parents, migrant farm workers who now have retirement security because of their union pensions, will join him at the graduation ceremonies, as will his six children, one of whom will graduate from the University of Florida within months of her father.

The Labor College enables adults working full-time with families and other commitments to break the barriers they face in pursuing higher education. Merkel, a member of the Office and Professional Employees union, oversees apprentice training programs at the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters union in Maryland. When the union partnered with the Labor College for training programs, Merkel, 48, became inspired to pursue her degree as well. Her curiosity about why more union members don't take advantage of the Labor College's resources sparked her final research paper on the importance of college degrees for union apprentice instructors. In interviewing union members and compiling the data from the results of the 1,800 surveys she sent out, Merkel found that time and money were two important factors holding adults back from pursuing their degrees. But there was another factor: fear. Says Merkel:

It's a sort of a fear of failure. Growing up, I don't know about them...but we didn't grow up with money. My best friend went off to college and I went to work and cried my eyes out because I couldn't go. It just wasn't an option for me. It was a class thing.

Talking with union members about the Labor College, Merkel says she will hear:

"Oh, Cathy, I can't do that. You've got to get one of those smarter, younger guys to do it."

They've been taught all their lives that they're blue-collar workers and that's what they do. They fear academics. It can be intimidating. If I say I'm a welder, if I say I'm a plumber, how seriously does the academic world take me?

And that's what sets the Labor College apart. Says Merkel:

From the minute I walked on the campus, I thought it was a perfect fit for any worker.

A member of the United Steelworkers (USW), Honeycutt is the union's Safety Department coordinator at the Conoco Phillips plant in Ferndale, Wash., and tailored her final research project at the Labor College to address workplace safety and health issues. She created a database from the past 20 years of the refinery's morbidity and mortality reports and shared the information with other union members on the USW's Conoco Phillips Council, which includes workers from plants nationwide. Her research turned up an unexpectedly high number of lower back injuries, which she now seeks to address.

Honeycutt, mother of three college-aged children, says her double major in Safety and Health and Union Leadership and Administration was

so interlinked to everything I do. It taught me how to research stuff, locale stuff, report writing, that of course is way beneficial here, because what I do is write reports.

She credits members of the Fire Fighters with giving her the inspiration for creating a database from job safety reports, a cross-pollination of ideas that occurred because of the time she spent with other union members at the Labor College.

I think the strength of NLC is because you have that diverse group of unions. It was such an eye-opener to me to see how other people do things. I know so many different people from so many different unions.

Schaffer, whose grandfather was part of the famous 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia, spends evenings teaching sheet metal apprentices at the Sheet Metal Workers International Training Institute after working full-time as a sheet metal worker at Aerofab in Dayton, Ohio. He says the structure of the college is "very helpful for somebody that's been out of school for a long time" and getting the opportunity to attend was "an unbelievable dream."

Like Honeycutt, Shaffer says the opportunity to meet union members from around the country at the Labor College campus was a key part of his experience, including the 25 members of Sheet Metal Worker unions nationwide--the most from any union in this graduating class--who will join Honeycutt in graduating this weekend.

Meeting all the different union people--that was great. There were lots of sheet metal workers in the program. We'd sit at night and talk about how they do things in their local that's totally different from Huntington [West Virginia].

Now Schaffer, who has worked 22 years in the industry, hopes his B.A. in Labor Education will help advance his career as trainer. His achievement already has thrilled his family, especially his mother, who passed away in April. Schaffer, who is heart-broken his mother will not see him graduate, consoles himself with the knowledge that she read his final research paper, which described the Blair Mountain battle her father took part in.

She was so proud to have a child who was getting ready to graduate.

Another benefit: Schaffer says his degree also makes it easier to encourage his daughter, Lori, to finish college and his high school son, Matthew, to attend.

Merkel isn't alone in encouraging union co-workers to enroll. Says Almazan, who already has recruited two new students:

I'm trying to promote and encourage other members of our union that are seeking a degree to go there, that is geared toward our kind of lifestyle that will assist you in attaining a degree.

The Labor College enables working adults to obtain higher education many thought was long out of reach. It provides students with valuable skills they can take back to their workplaces and their unions. It also opens up for them the bigger picture of the U.S. union movement--it's short-term goals, long-term accomplishments and network of activism.

Honeycutt says the Labor College

gave me a broader sense of union policies and priorities, just introduced you to the bigger picture which never think about--you've got your own little world. It gives you deeper appreciation for why we matter. We really do a lot of good. We really do matter.

Adds Merkel:

The Labor College shows you what a sisterhood and brotherhood means.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College

Tula Connell — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:35:21 -0700

Almazan, an organizer with the Machinists union, says he enrolled to reach an education goal he set for himself years ago.

My motivation wasn't really because of my career. It was more about just making my parents proud and setting a good example for my kids, my children. That's why I enrolled and pursued it.

It's a sort of a fear of failure. Growing up, I don't know about them...but we didn't grow up with money. My best friend went off to college and I went to work and cried my eyes out because I couldn't go. It just wasn't an option for me. It was a class thing.

Talking with union members about the Labor College, Merkel says she will hear:

"Oh, Cathy, I can't do that. You've got to get one of those smarter, younger guys to do it."

They've been taught all their lives that they're blue-collar workers and that's what they do. They fear academics. It can be intimidating. If I say I'm a welder, if I say I'm a plumber, how seriously does the academic world take me?

And that's what sets the Labor College apart. Says Merkel:

From the minute I walked on the campus, I thought it was a perfect fit for any worker.

Honeycutt, mother of three college-aged children, says her double major in Safety and Health and Union Leadership and Administration was

so interlinked to everything I do. It taught me how to research stuff, locale stuff, report writing, that of course is way beneficial here, because what I do is write reports.

I think the strength of NLC is because you have that diverse group of unions. It was such an eye-opener to me to see how other people do things. I know so many different people from so many different unions.

Meeting all the different union people--that was great. There were lots of sheet metal workers in the program. We'd sit at night and talk about how they do things in their local that's totally different from Huntington [West Virginia].

She was so proud to have a child who was getting ready to graduate.

Another benefit: Schaffer says his degree also makes it easier to encourage his daughter, Lori, to finish college and his high school son, Matthew, to attend.

Merkel isn't alone in encouraging union co-workers to enroll. Says Almazan, who already has recruited two new students:

I'm trying to promote and encourage other members of our union that are seeking a degree to go there, that is geared toward our kind of lifestyle that will assist you in attaining a degree.

Honeycutt says the Labor College

gave me a broader sense of union policies and priorities, just introduced you to the bigger picture which never think about--you've got your own little world. It gives you deeper appreciation for why we matter. We really do a lot of good. We really do matter.

Adds Merkel:

The Labor College shows you what a sisterhood and brotherhood means.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.

Chamber of Commerce Sides with Foreign Embassies Against Buy American

Tula Connell — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:15:21 -0700

There they go again. Those running the show at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are attacking again the Buy American provision in the economic stimulus package.

Ignoring, once more, that Buy American makes fundamental economic sense by ensuring at least some of our taxpayer bailout money is invested in American-made productions, the Chamber is siding with foreign embassies battling the Buy American provisions. In a June 2 letter to lawmakers, Bruce Josten, the Chamber's executive vice president for government affairs, asked Congress to exclude Buy American provisions from all legislation.

More recently, the Chamber held a joint press conference June 11 with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters to decry the Buy American provisions in the stimulus. For a trade association with "U.S." in its name, siding with foreign corporations against those in the United States is, well, you fill in the word that best describes it.

Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), framed the Chamber's action this way, according to the Daily Labor Report (subscription required):

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is effectively suggesting that America needs to buy more Canadian to dig out of our economic hole. That position doesn't pass the U.S. economic interest laugh test.

The Chamber's anti-Buy American stance, which undermines the interests of America's workers, also isn't amusing for the millions of jobless workers in this nation.

In fact, the Chamber's false argument that Buy America provisions will start a "trade war" is a tired one. The stimulus requires that U.S. material be used in projects funded by the bill, but also states that the clause should not override U.S. international trade commitments.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative spokeswoman Deborah Mesloh said the Obama administration is committed to ensuring that the Buy America requirements in the stimulus legislation are applied in a manner that is consistent with U.S. obligations under international agreements.

Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), said the rules are necessary to boost the sagging domestic economy and should be included in other spending bills.

It is common sense that a small portion of your tax dollars in a stimulus package dedicated to stimulating the American economy be spent in America.

At the AAM blog, Steve Capozzola knocks down the Chamber's feeble arguments against the Buy American provisions.

Buy America provisions in the recent stimulus bill are both consistent with longstanding U.S. policy and adhere to America's international trade obligations.
Most other countries utilize the same domestic procurement efforts.
Furthermore, the U.S. has been a leading proponent of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), which opens the U.S. market to foreign bids. Some of the very countries criticizing Buy America policy have made no such reciprocal efforts to open their markets.

Tantillo, whose AMTAC is founded by U.S. manufacturers, succinctly sums up the need for Buy American provisions:

The only way for the U.S. economy to climb out of recession is for people to start buying more American-made goods and services, including the U.S. government.

This is a crosspost from AFL-CIO Now blog.

Honors For Three Fighters For Economic And Social Justice

Isaiah J. Poole — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:02:56 -0700

A theme that seemed to run through the three acceptance speeches of the award recipients at the America's Future Now! gala dinner Tuesday night was that people who have been left out or left behind in the move toward the American Dream are due their chance for prosperity, and now is the time for the progressive movement to take the lead in making that happen.

All three Gala Award recipients—John J. Sweeney, outgoing president of the AFL-CIO; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus; and Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change—know a lot from first-hand experience about the left out and left behind. Sweeney, before leading the nation's largest labor federation, grew up in a working-class family in New York City, where his father was a bus driver and transit union member. Lee was a single mother on public assistance when she went to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and began getting active in the area's left-wing political scene. Bhargava has for more than nine years made organizing low-income people, people of color and immigrants his life's passion.

All three used their gala speeches to challenge progressives to ensure that the movement works to have a substantive impact on the daily lives of working families.

One of the worst aspects of the conservative era is that "poverty and racial justice were not only not addressed, but were actively taken off the table," said Bhargava, the winner of the Paul Wellstone Leadership Award.

Now that we are at the beginning of a new political era, progressives have to move beyond merely pressing for legislation and ensure that low-income people and people of color have a voice and are empowered, "This is the moral test of progressive politics," he said.

Lee, in accepting her Progressive Champion Award, spoke of "the progressive promise," which she said includes a
commitment to economic justice, peace, empowerment of the disenfranchised and "equal justice for all." She added that wherever there are disparities between the well-being of the society as a whole and hat of people of color, "progressives and people of color must come together to eliminate those gaps."

"Serving working people is the biggest honor I could have," said Sweeney, the recipient of the Lifetime Leadership Award. During his remarks, he recalled a recent visit to the White House in which he was able to reflect on how he, a son of Irish immigrants, found himself in the presence of two other children of immigrants: President Barack Obama and his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. It is a positive sign, he suggested, of how far this nation has come.

Sweney, who will soon retire from the AFL-CIO to become "a labor activist at large," quickly pointed out the struggles ahead for the movement to better the lives of workers—specifically singling out "health care for everyone and the ability of every worker to join a union"—but he did it with a note of optimism. "We will turn around our economy and make it work for everyone," he said.

Broken Dreams and Cookie Crumbs

Tula Connell — Fri, 29 May 2009 06:25:57 -0700

When Brynwood Partners in 2006 took over the Stella D'oro factory in the Bronx, the Wall Street private equity firm had every reason to believe it would be easy to slash the wages, pensions, holidays and sick pay of the 136 bakery workers.

But the takeover brainos forgot one important fact: The workers are represented by a union, Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM). And throughout their more than nine-month strike, the workers have been strongly supported by their union brothers and sisters and by members of the community as they walk the picket line every day outside the plant where Brynwood now employs strikebreakers.

The saga of Stella is part of an all-too-familiar story of what has become our American Dream—a Dream deflated, bust and broken by unfettered corporate greed. Originally a family-owned firm, Stella was acquired by RJR Nabisco, then taken over by Kraft when RJR Nabisco broke up (in the wake of the disastrous KKR leveraged buyout). Stella was run into the ground by its corporate overseers, then dumped to private equity earlier this decade when Kraft began to dispose of "non-core" assets under pressure from Wall Street.

Generations of New Yorkers grew up with and loved Stella D'oro cookies, once an iconic, national, premium Italian-style biscuit brand.

Vicky has 28 years on the job baking those cookies. She began work at Stella D'oro at age 20. Now she has no paycheck coming in nor any health benefits. Vicky and her co-workers walk the strike lines at West 237th and Broadway every day, defying corporate chieftains who, after the union contract expired July 31, 2008, demanded reduced wages, four fewer paid holidays and workers shell out an additional $1.32 per hour for health insurance.

Imagine the equity guys having to sweat over $1.32 an hour. If only.

Every day is another hardship for the workers on the picket line. A month into the strike, they already were talking among themselves about their fading American Dream. This from the Riverdale Press:

On Sept. 11, nearly a month since the 24-hour picket outside of the Kingsbridge factory began, striking workers sat on lawn chairs underneath their usual blue tarp and an American flag.

It was a day fraught with symbolism, as workers struggled to make sense of the stark contrast between the patriotism they felt on the anniversary of that tragic day and the American dream they say is slipping away from them.

The bakery workers have been joined on the picket lines by nurses, staff at the City University of New York, textile workers and many others, with New York State Teachers Union recently presenting the workers with $2,500 for their strike fund. The workers have taken their struggle to the luxurious offices of Brynwood Partners in Greenwich, Conn., and to the home of Brynwood Partners and Stella D'oro Chairman Hendrik Hartong III, son of Henk Hartong Jr., former Pittston coal CEO and Brynwood founder.

If you're in New York, stop by the picket lines or take part in a rally and march this Saturday, May 30. The group is assembling at noon at the Target on West 225 Street, one block east of #1 Station and will march to Stella D'oro factory at 237 Street/Broadway.

Either way, you can take action to support the striking workers by sending an e-mail to Henk Hartong and Brynwood Partners at huppsv@brynwoodpartners.com or info@brynwoodpartners.com. Tell them to go back to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair agreement to preserve the living standards of their loyal employees.

Solidarity is what has enabled the workers to withstand these long months without pay or health care. Solidarity is what will enable them to win.

Take the Pledge: Buy America

Tula Connell — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:55:10 -0700

So, the world isn't flat after all. Not that some of us ever bought into Thomas Friedman-speak. But many in this country did, especially those running the political show, and now we have a chance to shape a progressive future on the ashes of such failed visions.

And that progressive future needs a widespread recognition of the acceptance of the need to Buy America. A good first step is taking the American Auto Revivial Pledge.

One of the hardest connections for those of us in the union movement to make with our progressive allies has been in the area of trade and policies that encourage U.S. consumers to Buy American Made. Especially Buy America.

Why is that so?

Calls to buy American-made products are not throwbacks to 19th century U.S. xenophobia. Nor are they red flags for launching trade wars. The fact is, European nations have significant legal trade barriors that are called everything but what they are, protectionist. And far from isolationists, U.S. unions work closely with our union brothers and sisters around the world, championing the rights of workers wherever they are abused.

In fact, those who most stridently oppose Buy America are the very self-styled cheerleaders of the ol' red, white and blue: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, opponents of all things progressive.

Many kudos to social activist Danny Glover who last week joined an 11-state, 34-city "Keep It Made in America" bus tour sponsored in part by the United Steelworkers (USW). Glover told the crowd that saving the auto industry is good for the country because it saves good jobs. And it's important to help more workers join unions so they, too, can have benefits and decent wages.

On Tuesday, bus tour participants held a daylong "teach-in" on Capitol Hill to highlight the impact of the automotive supply chain in communities and to present a plan to save the auto industry. In short, 7.2 million U.S. jobs are tied to the American auto industry. Laid-off steelworker Doug May from Edwardsville, Ill., put it in these stark terms:

As a USW member, I sent three children through college. I feel sorry for some of the younger families. They won't have opportunities if the manufacturing base fails. How are we going to compete if we can't send our kids to college?

If the mill closes, it will be an ugly scene [leading to] an increase in alcoholism, divorces. If pensioners are cut off, it could create an economic tsunami.

But it's not just about the next 20 or 30 years. Making sure the nation keeps quality U.S. jobs is essential to the nation's long-term future. And buying the products we make encourages more made in this country. Economist Jeff Madrick sums it up this way:

There are at least three major reasons why a nation must indeed make things to maintain its prosperity: First, making goods is on balance—with exceptions—more productive than providing services, and rising productivity is the fundamental source of prosperity; second, related to the first, making goods creates higher-paying jobs on balance—again, with a few exceptions; third, a major nation must be able to maintain a balanced current account (and trade balance) over time, and goods are far more tradeable than services. Without something to export, a nation will either become over-indebted or forced to reduce its standard of living.

USW President Leo Gerard talked with workers along the Keep It Made in America bus tour. As Gerard notes, workers like Kevin Vest have a clear view of why Buy America is critical to the future of all of us. Vest, a truck driver, was furloughed with 600 other Steelworkers Feb. 13 from Freeport-McMoRan's Chino mine in New Mexico.

He read in a newspaper about a $100 million wind farm to be built near his daughter's house in Arizona. The 30 wind turbines are to be manufactured by a company from India and the huge towers are to be constructed in Mexico. Vest wants to know why GE can't make those turbines. If the American company did the work, they'd probably buy the copper wire for the turbines from an American company. And that company might buy the ore to make the wire from his mine—or some other downed U.S. copper mine, putting some Steelworker back to work....

For the same reason, Vest always buys American cars. There's copper wire in engines and molybdenum (molly) in other steel car parts. Buying that car keeps him employed, but also fellow Americans who make the glass and axles and all the other parts.

Corporations are gutting this nation. And increasingly, they are doing so even when their U.S. plants are profitable. In Lackawanna, N.Y., ArcelorMittal is disembowling a steel mill that employes 260 workers and has rebuffed efforts to sell the plant to an interested U.S. buyer. The plant has been consistently profitable, earning $48.4 million even in a recessionary year like 2008. Such a move is not an isolated incident, writes Roger Bybee in a stunningly raw look at the stripping of this nation's productive wealth.

Not only are they accelerating the pace of outsourcing to low-wage nations like China, but there have been several recent instances of corporations closing profitable plants in the United States and then refusing to sell them to other companies interested in keeping the plants open and retaining the current workforce.

We can sit by and say the world is flat and our happy global interconnectedness means we buy into the status quo. Or we can take steps to say we support U.S. workers and U.S. jobs because it's not just their paychecks at stake. It's our future. I hope you'll join me in taking the American Auto Revivial Pledge.

This is a crosspost from Firedoglake.