Archive for September, 2007
Join Italy’s IBM Workers in a Virtual Strike
IBM workers in Italy have taken the next step in challenging the corporate globalized world—they’ve set a Virtual Strike on Second Life for Sept. 27.
The members of UNI are waging the online effort after IBM canceled a provision in its contract with Italian workers that resulted in the loss of 1,000 Euros per year for each employee. The works council, supported by the majority of IBM employees in Italy, had asked for a small salary increase. As UNI notes:
For a company that wants to lead in corporate social responsibility, this is unacceptable.
UAW Members Back on Job
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The 73,000 striking UAW members are back on the job at General Motors Corp. plants today after the union and the automaker reached a tentative agreement early this morning. Workers walked off the job Monday morning when talks broke down over job security issues.
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says:
We are proud of this tentative agreement and we look forward to getting into the field and discussing it with our membership.
The strike has been “recessed” and could resume if a weekend ratification vote by members fails. Details of the tentative contract were not released, but at a press conference, Gettelfinger said:
For active members, there will be some changes. I think overall they will be very, very pleased with the outcome of these negotiations and the job security associated with it….I think our retirees will be exceptionally pleased with this contract.
House Passes Children’s Health Bill, 265-159
Republican House members had a choice Tuesday evening—help children secure health care or march in lockstep under President Bush’s veto banner. Forty-five GOP members joined 220 Democrats and voted, 265-159, to renew the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
The bill reauthorizes SCHIP for the next five years and provides an additional $35 billion to help children secure health care.
The House margin was about 25 votes short of what is needed to override Bush’s promised veto. But the 151 Republicans who voted against giving kids health care may feel the pressure from back home by the time the override vote comes.
Union Movement Solid Behind UAW Members on Strike
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Negotiators for the UAW and General Motors Corp. have been back at the bargaining table all day in an effort to reach an agreement that would send some 73,000 UAW members back to work at the 80 plants and facilities where they are walking the picket lines.
There is little news from the bargaining table, but yesterday UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union was ready to bargain “24 hours a day, seven days a week” to hammer out a contract that resolves the issues the sparked the walkout—job security, economic issues, benefits for active workers and winning investment in future products.
Gettelfinger noted that UAW workers sacrificed a 2006 wage increase and a cost-of-living allowance, along with working with GM on a number of other issues, including the corporate restructuring and a 2005 health care agreement.
Making Corporations Keep Their Promises to America’s Retirees
James Robertson spent 33 years working for Bethlehem Steel. He says it wasn’t unusual to punch in at 4:30 a.m. and work 10-hour shifts, six days a week. When it came time to put in for his pension, the retired United Steelworkers (USW) member said, in response to new legislation designed to end corporate bankruptcy abuse, “I was good and ready.”
But his retirement dreams were shattered when the company declared bankruptcy, shedding its promises to provide retiree pension and health care benefits, as has happened to millions of other workers. Says Robertson:
I thought a deal was a deal. Turns out that deal wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Jeb’s Parting Gift to the People of Florida Has Lessons for Everyone
Politics is full of old adages, little nuggets of truth like “all politics are local,” that have been repeated by the political class so many times that they have taken on the qualities of scientific laws like the law of gravity. I would like to add my own truism to the mix, one based on a question: What do you get when you elect politicians who profess their disdain for government and all taxes and run their campaigns by promising to eliminate both?
A poorly run, bankrupt government that does so little for the people that it negates the reason for having a government to begin with. This is surely true at the national level where George W. Bush and his cadre of cronies have presided over an administration that historians already are calling the worst in U.S. history, bungling through world affairs like a bull in a china shop, grossly mismanaging disasters like Hurricane Katrina and turning a historic budget surplus into the biggest national debt we have ever seen.
Democratic Candidates Speak Out in Support of Auto Workers
Six Democratic presidential candidates have made public statements in support of the 73,000 striking workers at General Motors Corp. (GM) plants around the country. So far, no Republican presidential candidates have issued statements.
UAW members went on strike yesterday after what UAW President Ron Gettelfinger called GM’s “one-sided negotiations” that failed to provide adequate job security to its employees. The union already had given GM a nine-day extension to negotiate a fair contract, which expired Sept. 14.
Tell Congress to Stand Up to Bush on Children’s Health
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At a recent news conference, President Bush accused supporters of an expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) of trying to “score political points.”
The fight over children’s health isn’t about chalking up political points. It’s about making sure millions of children have access to secure, quality health care.
The U.S. House will vote next week on legislation to expand SCHIP to cover 10 million children—4 million of whom are now uninsured. We need a strong bipartisan show of support for the bill to demonstrate to Bush just how isolated he is on this issue.
Click here to tell Congress to stick up for kids, not Bush.
Bricklayers Build on Clinton’s Union Support
Today the Bricklayers (BAC) announced it would become the fifth union to endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for president.
The executive council of the 100,000-member union voted unanimously to support Clinton after she came out the favorite in a member poll.
Kentucky Labor’s Successful Kickoff Weekend
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Bernard Pollack, AFL-CIO field coordinator, sends us this report on the campaign to elect a working family-friendly governor in Kentucky.
More than 400 union activists turned out this weekend for the Labor 2007 kickoff in Louisville, Ky., to knock on doors and talk with thousands of Kentucky union members across Jefferson County.
Top labor leaders kicked off the day by rallying union members for the hard work ahead. Speaking to a sea of activists in yellow “Labor 2007” shirts and standing in front of a yellow banner reading “It’s Our Time,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said the union movement is mobilized for the final six weeks of the 2007 campaign. Trumka said:
This is the beginning of the end of the reign of the rich and powerful in Kentucky, because it is the beginning of the end for Ernie Fletcher.
