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Archive for the ‘protest’ Category

Belgium: Protesting raising prices, worker’s halt everything in 1 day strike

In 1 day strike, Belgium, protest on October 13, 2008 at 5:55 am

Monday Oct. 6th., workers in Belgium caused the country to close down.
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image above is from Jan.2008 Day of Unity, not related to this story

From Earthtimes:

Brussels – A nationwide strike of unions protesting the rising cost of living brought chaos to Belgium on Monday as trains, ports and public services shut down. In Brussels, tram lines were closed, bus lines were running only limited services, main-line railway stations shut down and traffic jams were widespread.

International train services were hard hit by the closure of two of Brussels’ three main stations, with both the Thalys service to Paris and the cross-Channel Eurostar train – already on a reduced service after a fire last month – closed for the day.

In the province of Flanders, local services reported over 280 kilometres of traffic jams on Monday morning, an increase of 40 per cent over a normal working day. Workers also blocked the port of Antwerp, the country’s main trading port.

In Wallonia, striking workers picketed industrial areas round the towns of Charleroi, while many shops and services remained closed.

The unions are protesting at the rising cost of living. However, the current financial crisis and the collapse of Belgium’s biggest bank, Fortis, have largely wiped the strike off Monday’s front pages, leaving it open to question how much impact it will have.

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I believe the image above is from Belgium but not from this past Monday, from the
very talented photographer
han Soete, who contributes labor images to Labourstart

Reuters add’s:

BRUSSELS, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A nationwide strike over rising prices severely disrupted public transport in Belgium on Monday, forcing the cancellation of all high-speed international rail services in and out of the country.

Picketing outside the port of Antwerp restricted access, although workers at the port itself did not join the strike, Antwerp Port spokeswoman Annick Dirkx said.

Unions are protesting against what they say is the government’s failure to respond to rising prices and are urging it to take steps to alleviate the impact of inflation.

They say they want to send a clear signal to the government before it presents its 2009 budget to parliament on Oct. 14.

“Purchasing power is really a point we want to stress,” ACV trade union chairman Luc Cortebeeck said when the union announced the protest last month.

Check out the Reuters article for the reach of the 1 day action, eventually it will spread across the rest of the “free” world if nothing changes and fast, it was only 6 short months ago I was writing about rising prices and food shortages causing starvation in places like Haiti and Bangladesh and I warned that it was the beginning, I also wrote about a strike in Greece and since then France has successfully struck for a nationwide 7 hour day. Remember, it’s our labor that keeps the gears of the industrial world turning, without us they are nothing.

Emergency Labor mobilization on Bailout this THURSDAY!

In 2008 election, Bailout, collapse of the middle class, mccain, NY, NYC, protest, Rally, travesty, Wall Street on September 25, 2008 at 2:16 am
From the E-mail, and my friends at METRO Labor communicators

Dear Joseph,

This Thursday at noon, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will join hundreds of members of the New York City Central Labor Council for an emergency mobilization on Wall Street to protest the current bailout package. As written, the package gives a blank check to the Bush administration and bails out corporate executives at the expense of working people.

Please join us at Broad and Exchange Place at noon this Thursday.

The current bailout package is unacceptable, and we must state our opposition loud and clear. To truly build an economy that works for all, any bailout package must:

  • Be governed by an independent board with transparency and effective public and congressional oversight.
  • Use the full array of financial and legal tools available to the government to stop foreclosures and restructure home mortgage loans for working families.
  • Address the causes of the crisis on Main Street in addition to the symptoms on Wall Street. Congress should pass a second stimulus package in its entirety.
  • Work to address the weaknesses in our financial regulatory system and corporate governance system that allowed this disaster to happen.

Say NO to the blank check for the Bush administration.

Join President Sweeney and hundreds of union members for an emergency mobilization at Broad and Exchange Place at noon Thursday.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO


MEDIA ADVISORY

for Thursday, September 25, 2008


NEW YORK CITY CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL EXECUTIVE BOARD URGES CONGRESS TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN WORKER WHEN ACTING ON WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN

New York City’s Labor Leaders To Propose “Seven Conditions for $700 Billion” Bush Big Bailout to provide stronger protections for working families and impose aggressive public oversight on financial institutions

WHO: New York City Central Labor Council

WHAT: Labor Rally Calling on Congress to Protect Workers In Bush Bailout

WHEN: Thursday, September 25, 2008 at 12:00 p.m.

WHERE: Broad Street and Exchange Place (Wall Street District, Manhattan)

CONTACT: Carolyn Daly, NYC Central Labor Council 917-705-4740

For more information, please contact the Central Labor Council at 212-604-9552 or visit www.nycclc.org.

Got This from Talking Union

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 — With the country facing the biggest financial crisis of our time, threatening the homes, livelihoods, retirement savings and financial accounts of millions of working people, the labor movement of New York City today called on Congress to put responsible conditions on the risky Bush Administration “Big Bailout” plan before any action is taken to ensure government accountability and financial benefits for the American worker.

The principals and members of the Central Labor Council Executive Board joined the national AFL-CIO and Change to win organizations to call on Congress to apply strict conditions and oversight to any plan that would bailout troubled businesses and risk worker’s hard-earned money. The Bush bailout proposal comes as the FBI announced it will investigate fraud at the companies whose failure led to the financial crisis, including such powerhouses as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, and American International Group.

In rising anger, labor leaders proclaimed that “Wall Street’s crisis” has become “Main Street’s problem” as workers struggle to pay their bills, hold on to their jobs and keep their homes. The union delegation urged Congress to approve only a bailout plan that includes a payback and equity investment return strategy for working people who are footing the bill and addresses the concerns of our nation’s health care, education, energy, infrastructure and jobs crisis.

In response to the growing concerns for worker’s needs, the Central Labor Council Executive Board today announced the following “Seven Conditions for $700 Billion Bailout Plan”:

1.Tap Into Financial and Legal Tools to Stop Home Foreclosures. Use the full array of financial and legal tools available to the government to stop home foreclosures and restructure home mortgage loans for working families.
2.Institute Aggressive Public Oversight. Any action of the $700 billion bailout must be governed by an independent board with transparency and effective public and congressional oversight.
3.Stop the CEO Party Train. Restrict executive compensation at any companies that directly benefit from the bailout.
4.Repeal the Bush Tax Cuts. Repeal of Bush tax cuts to finance the bailout; invest money towards national infrastructure investments in highway, bridge and rail maintenance and improvements, and improvements in public educational systems and preservation of public services, mass transit and health care services.
5.Let Wall Street Pay for Wall Street’s Mistakes. Every company that benefits financially from the bailout must present a secure return investment plan.
6.Prey on the predators. Crackdown on predatory lending practices by corrupt financial institutions by using full force of the law.
7.Address Corporate Governance Imbalances. Work to address the disastrous weaknesses in our financial regulatory system and corporate governance structure that allowed our financial future to become so vulnerable.

The Central Labor Council urged Congress and members of the New York Congressional Delegation to act quickly and responsibly, and hold those who caused our national financial crisis accountable.

Women join together against Sarah Palin in largest political rally ever held in Alaska

In 2008 election, Alaska, mccain, protest, Sarah Palin on September 16, 2008 at 8:16 pm

When a few women in Alaska were talking over coffee about welcoming home Sarah Palin with a hometown protest, never in their wildest dreams did they realize that what they would accomplish. The ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally wound up being the largest political rally in Alaska’s history. With approximately 1,400 attendees and 90 counter protesters.

Wake up people! Even the people in Alaska realize that Palin isn’t suited to be a heartbeat away from the Commander In Chief of the greatest country in the world.

Here’s a Video

A huge thanks to The Rag Blog for pointing me to Mudflats Blog, who states:

Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.

You can read the full article and see tons of first hand pictures of the rally, by checking out the story at Mudflats, entitled “‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!

Video: When union busters attack

In anti-union, lock out, protest, strike, video, violation on April 20, 2008 at 7:57 am

Thanks to Bert at MySpace for giving me the heads up on this video, link below

Bert

Aramark, NY protests, strike at 3 locations and a New Haven, CT. Rally to oust the company on 4/14/08

In Aramark, Goldman Sachs, protest, schools, SEIU, unite-here on April 11, 2008 at 8:53 pm

From the Village Voice (4/10/08) :

Dressed in red amid the blues and grays of Wall Street, union leaders pounded drums and shouted over loudspeakers yesterday to add a voice of dissent among the limos and police protection that lined Front Street in the financial district during Goldman Sachs’ annual shareholders meeting. The Service Employees International Union organized the event to ask Sachs to pressure food service provider Aramark, in which the bank holds a 20% stake. As the rally went on outside the meeting, representatives from the union addressed shareholders to demand improved labor conditions at the food services giant. Current and former employees claim that Aramark provides unfair wages and fires workers who attempt to organize for better pay and benefits.

“I was trying to organize my co-workers so that we could get the things we need” said Antonio Gomez, a former worker at Houston’s Convention Center, where Aramark provides cleaning services. Gomez said he organized partly to remedy a lack of health care coverage and was subsequently fired by the company.

“When people would get sick or injured, [Aramark] would basically say ‘That’s your problem,’ and ‘If you can’t come to work, don’t bother coming back at all’” he said.

A press representative from Aramark declined to comment on these specific allegations, citing company policy on privacy, but disputed the union’s claims more generally, saying that the company provides competitive wages and benefits. The company also said it has a 50-year relationship with unions nationwide, including SEIU.

“As a services business we rely on the quality of services provided by our employees, for that reason we make an effort to provide competitive wages” said Christine Grow, a press representative for Aramark. “A vast majority of our employees have access to health care benefits.”

The workers came to the Goldman Sachs meeting after a nationwide fact-finding tour of sites run by Aramark and say that they want to put a human face on the decisions Sachs makes as a primary stakeholder in Aramark. The union said many of these problems began when Aramark went private. Their list of concerns extends from the company shortchanging school districts in Detroit on bulk-order food to 33 major health-code violations at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA.
(continued)Read Full Story

From CNN Money (4/10/08) *Abridged

Late Wednesday afternoon, workers also went to the offices of Warburg Pincus and CCMP Capital, two of Aramark’s other private-equity buyers, where they spoke to representatives of the firms. “They were polite enough to listen to us, but they said the big bosses were in a meeting,” says Mark Williams, who works for Aramark at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.

“Since the private equity deal, the company has become more arrogant,” he says. “They seem tougher in union negotiations. They want us to work more to earn health-care benefits.”

Some unionized Aramark workers in New York are also striking as part of a contract dispute, attracting attention from passersby with an eight-foot-tall inflatable skunk on 52nd Street. They work in three cafeterias, at the CBS Building in Midtown and two offices of the Bank of New York in lower Manhattan. At all three cafeterias the workers are employed by Aramark, not the tenants.

CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) and Bank of New York (BK, Fortune 500) spokespeople said their companies have no plans to get involved in the dispute. “Over the years, many CBS employees have gotten to know and appreciate the men and women employed in our cafeteria,” says CBS spokesperson Shannon Jacobs. The cafeterias have stayed open during the protests.
(continued)Read Full Story

Meanwhile in New Haven, Connecticut, there is a rally to oust Aramark from the local school district

Mobilization Alert: Rally Against Aramark April 14 in New Haven

The campaign to expel the private company Aramark from New Haven’s public schools continues with an April 14 rally in front of New Haven City Hall on 165 Church St. Join New Haven public service workers and AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee on the steps of City Hall as we renew our call to stop corrupt privatization and incompetent outsourcing.

Parents, students, and school employees are urging members of the New Haven Board of Alderman to cut all ties with the private contractor Aramark because of the company’s mismanagement of food services and facilities maintenance.

Aramark is under fire because of the poor quality of food services and facility management in the New Haven school system. New Haven has contracted with Aramark for the last 12 years — at a cost of millions to the taxpayers.

Community members are telling elected officials to return the New Haven school system to a self-management model that would save taxpayers millions and provide better services to the kids.

News stories on Aramark in New Haven:

  • Click here to read “Chicken — and Company” — Blasted in the New Haven Independent.
  • Click here to read “Aramark Excoriated at Aldermen’s Public Hearing” in the New Haven Register.
  • Click here to watch ”Clean Schools” on Fox 61 News.
  • Click here for a press release on Council 4’s billboard campaign pointing to the waste caused by bear proof dumpsters.
  • Click here to read “Union billboards slam Aramark on trash bins” in the Feb. 12 New Haven Register.
  • Click here to read “Trash Talkin” in the Feb. 13 New Haven Advocate.
  • Click here to read “School board to seek new food, facilities pacts as unions rally against Aramark” in the Feb. 2 New Haven Register.
  • Click here to read the editorial “City should end dealings with Aramark” co-authored by Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano and New Haven Central Labor Council President Bob Proto.
  • Click here to read “Custodians Want Break with Aramark” in the Jan. 14 New Haven Register.
  • Click here to read “School Custodians: Fire Aramark” in the Jan. 15 New Haven Independent.
  • Click here to read “School Workers Petition to Cut Ties with Aramark” in the Jan. 15 New Haven Register.

Learn more about the perils of privatization and contracting out:

  • Click here for AFSCME’s Privatization Website Resources.
  • Click here for the daily AFSCME Privatization Update.
  • Click here to read “Schools for Sale,” which examines the privatization of non-instructional school services.
  • Click here for Council 4’s “Privatization Equals Corruption” site

SEIU and UNITE-HERE have united to hist a website called Facts On Aramark

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Slavery: Alive and well in USA Pt.2, Indian pipefitters abused in H2B Visa scam, main stream media picks up story full year after facts are released

In conspiracy, construction, DHS, discrimination, ICE, India, offshoring, protest, Rick Berman, Right to Work, slave, strike, teachers, travesty, UnionReview, violation on March 13, 2008 at 11:42 pm

Main Stream Media, are they lazy, or is it in their best interest not to report factual information.

In November 2007, I wrote a story entitled “Slavery Alive and Well In New York and the rest of the US” at Union Review , in which i run through the various ways in which is not only tolerated and unregulated but the facts are so underground the real tallies on these human rights infractions are almost impossible to figure. From the Long Island, NY perfume barons who had actual slaves living in their house, the slave like conditions in which undocumented workers in the construction industry must endure, to the prostitution industry that uses indentured servitude to pay their way to the states which the NY Times reported on way back in 1994. Before that story, back in 7-08, I wrote about the H1B Visa abuse, mostly in the tech sector, that a law firm actually had the audacity to produce a video training seminar where they boast on how to use this procedure. That story, “Corp Objective: Disqualify Qualified American Workers, Get H-1b Visa’s For Non-Citizens.” and it’s follow-up, “Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers” are among my two most read entries since I have been writing about the labor movement. Which brings us to the newest in the trend of slavery and Visa abuse that is alive and well in these United States.

From:ABC News 3-07-08

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim ‘Slave Treatment’
Workers Call for Signal International to Be Prosecuted on Alleged Human Trafficking Charges

Rebelling against alleged “slave treatment,” some 100 workers recruited from India staged a dramatic protest at a Mississippi shipyard Thursday, claiming they had been tricked into coming to the United States.

The workers, brought from India to work as welders and pipe-fitters at Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, hurled their hard hats at company gates and demanded a federal investigation.

The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees.

The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing.

“For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves,” said former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan. “Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end.”

The workers have reported their situation to the U.S. Department of Justice and are calling for Signal International to be prosecuted on human trafficking charges.

Signal International strongly denied the workers’ allegations. The company released a statement saying, “Unfortunately, a few of the workers whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions.” According to the statement, “The vast majority of the workers whom Signal recruited has been satisfied with the employment and living conditions at Signal.”

Signal called its housing complex “state of the art” and said government inspections have “found that Signal’s practices and facilities are fully compliant with the law.”

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has faced a severe labor shortage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and many companies have replenished their workforce with overseas labor brought in under a guest worker plan. Human rights groups, however, charge that many foreign workers have been exploited by their employers.

“The U.S. State Department calls it ‘a repulsive crime’ when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation,” said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. “This is precisely what is happening on the Gulf Coast.”

How is it that we have temporary Visa’s for Foreign workers when we have vast unemployment here in the United States? It’s amazing how they are getting away with this, under the cloak of labor shortages, I fucking know plenty of welders who are quite capable of doing the job for an honest days pay. Never mind the fact that big business wants more Visa’s. People’s Weekly World has a more in depth article, from way back in March 2007:

Guest workers fired after protesting ‘slave’ conditions

Strike line formed when more than 200 workers walked off of the job at Signal, March 9, in solidarity with at 3 employees that they believe were wrongfully terminated and illegally imprisoned by management on Signal’s property. MIRA photo.

Hundreds of guest workers from India are protesting conditions in a Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard that immigrant rights activists compare to slavery.

Many of the workers gathered in a church on March 11 in this Gulf Coast port, after their employer, Signal International, threatened to send some of them home. Signal is a large corporation that repairs and services oil drilling platforms around the world.

According to Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, “they were hired in India by a labor recruiter sent by Signal. They had to pay exorbitant amounts to the company, to the recruiter and to the attorney who did the labor certification for them.”

Labor traffickers globalized
Signal brought about 300 workers from India in December to work in its Mississippi yard, and another 300 to work in two yards in Texas. The workers are part of the H2B visa program, in which the U.S. government allows companies to recruit workers outside the country and bring them here under contract. The visas are good for 10 months, but the company can renew them for those it wants to keep longer. The workers must remain employed, and if they lose their jobs, they must go home.

Signal H2B worker Joseph Jacobs talking to WLOX reporter March 9, about the general despair of mistreated Indian H2B workers at the Signal International, LLC, plant in Pascagoula, MS, including a young man who attempted suicide when he learned that he might have to return to his country without the opportunity to earn the money he had borrowed to come to the United States. MIRA photo.

Workers say they were promised jobs as welders and fitters, and had to pay as much as $20,000 each to the recruiting contractor, Global Industry. Workers also say they were promised that Signal would refund the money.

“I had to pay $14,000,” says one of those workers, Joseph Jacob. “I worked for years in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, and I spent all the money I had to get the visa, which the recruiter promised would be a permanent residence visa. But that visa never came, and finally he said they could get us a H2B visa. That would give us 10 months of work, and if the company renewed it, we might get as much as 30 months. I thought that was the only way I’d ever be able to get back the money they’d taken.”

Signal put the Indian guest workers to work in the yard alongside U.S. workers doing the same job — welding and fitting. The company claims it pays workers from India the same wages as domestic employees. The guest workers say they were promised $18 an hour, but many were paid only half that after the company said they were unqualified. Chandler says the company recruiter in India determined the workers knew their jobs during the process of hiring them.

The new ‘company town’
Out of their wages, workers pay an additional $35 per day to stay in a labor camp Signal set up inside the yard. “The conditions are very bad here for the H2B workers,” Joseph says bitterly. “Twenty-four of us live in a room in a barracks that measures 12 feet by 18 feet, sleeping on bunk beds. There are two toilets for all of us and only four sinks. We have to get up at 3:30 in the morning, just so all of us have time to use the bathroom before going to work.”

Fired for meeting

Indian H2B workers from Signal International, LLC, marine fabrication company meet at a Pascagoula hall to strategize how to present their demands against substandard living and working conditions, March 4. MIRA photo.

A month ago, the Indian guest workers began meeting in a local church to discuss how they might get the company to refund the huge sums they paid to come to the U.S., and to protest the bad conditions. They organized a group, Signal H2B Workers United. It was after the company found out, they say, that it accused workers of being unqualified for their jobs and cut their pay. Eight were told they were completely incapable, and Signal announced it was sending them back to India immediately. Joseph was fired. “I am now terminated because I attended the meeting,” he says. “That’s what the company vice-president told me.”

Signal International President Dick Marler told the Mississippi Press that although workers had been employed since December, the company only discovered recently that they had no skills. Federal law required the company to fire them, he asserted.

Signal did not return calls for this story, but a statement on the company web site says the workers “receive the same pay and are taxed the same as all other Signal craft personnel. Workers from India have a reputation for being pleasant and hard-working.” It quotes Marler, who says, “We are fortunate the U.S. government has such a program that allows us to supplement our workforce during a time of emergency created by hurricanes.”

Deportations, company lock-up
When the company announced the terminations, one worker disappeared. Another, Sabu Lal, slashed his wrists and was taken to the Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula. He told the Mississippi Press that dying would be better than being sent home.

“Lal and I are from the same place in India,” Joseph explains. “I knew he had sold his home, and had no place to return to. He was only able to make back a small part of the thousands of dollars he paid to the recruiter, and he said he couldn’t go home like that.”

Company security guards locked the fired workers in what they call the TV room, and wouldn’t let them leave.

Their co-workers contacted the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, which went to the Pascagoula Police Department. The police went out to the yard and eventually freed the imprisoned workers. Outside the yard, dozens of workers and activists denounced the firings and mistreatment.

DANGER: Guest worker programs

Signal International plant in Pascagoula, MS. MIRA photo.

“We’ve learned about case after case of workers in Mississippi, Louisiana and all along the gulf in these conditions,” Chandler says. “There are thousands of guest workers who have been brought in since Katrina and subjected to this same treatment. Mexican guest workers in Amelia, La., were held in the same way. They also got organized, and came to Pascagoula to support the workers here when they heard what happened.”

According to Chandler, Signal imported hundreds of workers from Peru a year ago, and after sending them home, brought the present group of guest workers from India to replace them. He says the experience of these workers highlights the problems inherent in proposals introduced into Congress over the last two years, which would set up similar schemes for the importation of as many as 400,000 guest workers per year.

“Organizations that are fighting for the rights of workers and advocating on behalf of workers should be totally opposed to these kind of programs,” he says. “The conditions that people work in here are so exploitative they’re worse than the conditions for even undocumented workers.”

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and the Southern Poverty Law Center plan to go to court to stop the deportations. Meanwhile, workers say they are determined to continue challenging the company until the money they paid the contractor is returned to them.

Suppression of News that matters

Whatever your thinking, know this as a fact, this information was out there a full year ago and the suppressive corporate media didn’t acknowledge it.

It is us against them, at so many levels. Turn off the damn TV and get to learning.

We knew about the abuses in New Orleans, the facts are never reported on, just take a look at the article at Union review published by Chuck Lazette in Sept 0f 2007, entitled “In the Lawless Post-Katrina Cleanup, Construction Companies Are Preying on Workers“, and its further backed by a comment I found on the upcoming attack on the guest commentary found in the NaplesNews that was published on Labor Day in 2007 about unionized teachers entitled “Labor Day ’07: Union bosses’ agenda scary“, by corporate lobbyist, and the mind behind “The Center For Union Facts” and other disillusioning bullshit against the people of America, Rick Berman. Here is the counter “attack” and I use the terms loosely, because Mr.Charlie Ward uses FACTS in his comment.

More for Rick Berman: Why didn’t the Right to Work Committee defend the rights of the American workers in Louisianna(which is, after all, a right to work state? Recently, the State of Arizona (which is also a right to work state), passed legislation stating that businesses can not hire illegal workers, and illegals can not own businesses. These illegals are leaving Arizona by hundreds a day, selling their houses, leaving for other states or heading back to their homeland. The U.S. workers of Arizona have had enough of their wages being undermined and demanded change–and they got it. Guess who is challenging this new law? The United States Chamber of Commerce. Where is the outrage by you and the Right To Work Committee? Union membership in Arizona has grown by 30% in the past two years. One wonders why. With respect to The Employee Free Choice Act,tell the truth. The glitch in the bill that you and the Right to Work Committee object to is not the way a union is voted in.(card vs. secret vote–they are both legal and valid, and it is diversionary to assert that this is the issue. The issue really is that this bill would stop management from stalling for time and finding bogus reasons not to sit down and negotiate–just as you and the Right to Work Committee assert that unions use this tactic to slow down a decertification process. What is really not wanted is the clause that would require a federal mediator to step in if management and the union representation can not come together, and any employer who commits unfair labor practices shall be fined $20,000.00 for each violation. Thus far it has been passed by the House and it is up to the Senate. They are being lobbied strongly against this bill—by you know who. You are correct, unions do lobby and donate to politicians that they perceive will help them with their issues. As you know,all union members have the right to use the Beck Right Law, which states that they can request that none of their dues be used for political interests to which they do not subscribe. It’s a law. Conversely, anti- union organizations and businesses also lobby strongly and donate heavily for support of their interests. So, where’s the beef? It’s politics. Right now, the NLRB is stacked with anti-union people, mostly Republicans. And yes, you are right, if the Democrats win, the pendulum will swing the other way. That, too, is politics as usual. The only thing The Right to Work Committee has done has been to assure that an individual does not have to join a union or pay dues, even if there is a union in their workplace. But they have done their best to undermine labor laws for all workers: i.e. minimun wage, overtime laws, OSHA and reduced workmans comp entitlements , which have been reduced as much as 50% in some right to work states already, and other laws which protect the rights of workers both union and non-union. In closing, Mr. Berman, I would like to say that with all the faults unions have, they have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, education, betterment of all races, and for the developing of character in man than any other association of men. Clarence Darrow

Remember, before there is profit, there is labor. Abraham Lincoln (Republican President)
Happy Labor Day. Charlie

One more note about Labor Day, according to WIN, Workers Independent News Radio on 3-14-08 “The Department of Transportation came under fire by Senator Byron Dorgan on Tuesday over a controversial “pilot program” that allows Mexican trucks to operate on US roads.”, that program, which is Illegally being funded by Mary Peters DOT, was being pushed into operation directly by President Bush to have had a start date of Labor Day 2007.

There is a war against the workers here in the United States and using Labor Day to push our faces in it is showing you just how brazen they are. I don’t think if you add all the facts you could come to any other conclusion. Rick Berman, who this site got it’s name from, has now launched a new agenda, to find the worst unionized teacher, in the same week here in New York the United Federation of Teachers is fighting for the city to keep its funding for students. Yeah those bad teachers fighting for kids. What a bunch of bullies.

Don’t let this happen to your school district

In Aramark, protest, schools, SEIU, unite-here on January 28, 2008 at 12:35 am

‘NO to ARAMARK’s green eggs and ham!’

Detroit joins national protest against Aramark. / DIANE BUKOWSKI PHOTO
Detroit joins national protest against Aramark. / DIANE BUKOWSKI PHOTO

By Diane Bukowski
Special to The Michigan Citizen

DETROIT — Dozens of demonstrators braved chilling winds outside the Detroit Public Schools Welcome Center Jan. 18 to kick off a national campaign aimed at dumping Aramark contracts at school districts, universities and hospitals.

Members of the community, including DPS parents and state legislators, along with the unions UNITE/HERE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Operating Engineers Local 547, Teamsters Council 43, and the Detroit Federation of Teachers, among others, called on the new school board and DPS Superintendent Connie Calloway to cut ties with Aramark.[more]

You can read more at Facts On Aramark