RTW: ‘Bad Economics and Cynical Politics’
A New York Times editorial hit the mark Sunday when it castigated Republican lawmakers for pushing so-called right to work (RTW) laws in states like Indiana and correctly connected this anti-worker agenda with a similar assault on voting rights. Both moves are financed by a little-known organization funded by extremists like the Koch brothers.
Many Republican leaders are adopting model legislation proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national corporate-financed conservative organization that is also assisting the Republican push to require voter identification cards to suppress the vote of minorities, young people and other constituencies that tend to favor the Democratic Party.
The editorial points out how the assault is one that undercuts workers’ most valuable asset: their strength in numbers to bargain collectively for a fair deal at the workplace and to mobilize together to elect lawmakers who will back working families. RTW laws undermine all that and, in doing so, cut at the economic underpinning of America’s middle class.
Check Out Visits by Jobless Workers to Lawmakers’ Capitol Hill Offices
Jobless workers and members of the faith and labor communities visited lawmakers in Congress yesterday to urge them to extend unemployment insurance (UI) for the long-term unemployed. Hundreds gathered for a rally on Capitol Hill before fanning out to talk with individual lawmakers.
Check out these video clips of visits to lawmakers from New Hampshire, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina.
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Eye-Witness to the Cruel Conditions in Tobacco Farm Labor Camps
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Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from North Carolina, where she is on a fact-finding trip to witness the brutal conditions endured by tobacco workers.
We joined a diverse delegation of 25 activists, students, labor and community leaders and traveled to farm labor camps in Dudley, N.C.., to witness firsthand the appalling and abusive conditions of tobacco farm workers.
Our journey began with a visit to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), where we learned about a recent report, “State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry,” that brings light to the tobacco industry’s impact on the human rights of farmworkers in the fields of North Carolina. Issued jointly by FLOC and Oxfam America, the report presented human right violations that we would later witness.
We drove 40 minutes into the country to visit labor camps where farmworkers live while they harvest tobacco to supply companies like RJ Reynolds, one of the richest corporations in U.S. agriculture—in fact, one of the largest tobacco corporations in the world, with annual profits of over $2 billion.
We what saw was never to be imagined. Read the rest of this entry »
Tobacco Workers Face a Range of Human Rights Abuses, Says Oxfam
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In North Carolina, the tobacco industry is running roughshod over workers’ rights—and their most fundamental human rights, according to a recent report, “State of Fear: Human Rights Abuses in North Carolina’s Tobacco Industry,” issued jointly by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and Oxfam, the global relief organization. FLOC represents more than 6,000 farm workers in the state.
Tobacco farm workers, researchers found, routinely work in blazingly hot fields without access to clean water and contract nicotine-related illnesses because of employers’ refusal to outfit them with the most basic of protective gear such a gloves. Many say they are forced to live in overcrowded facilities infested with rodents and devoid of working showers or toilets. The report traces the deterioration of working conditions for tobacco workers to a 2004 deregulatory law passed by Congress. One in four of the 103 workers interviewed by FLOC, under the guidance of Oxfam researchers, say they receive less than the legally required minimum wage for their labor.
Yet even in this atmosphere of Dickensian working conditions, workers are afraid to form unions. Why? Because nine out of 10 North Carolina tobacco workers are undocumented Read the rest of this entry »
Report: Tobacco Workers Denied Basic Human Rights
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Farm workers who toil in the tobacco fields of North Carolina often spend hours in the blistering sun and get paid less than the minimum wage. They are exposed to toxic chemicals just to do their jobs, according to a new report issued yesterday.
The report, “A State of Fear,” shows that one in four tobacco farm workers is paid less than the federal minimum wage. Many suffer from nicotine poisoning after absorbing nicotine through their bare skin. After a long day at work, they return to squalid living conditions such as overcrowded rooms with insect-infested mattresses and nonfunctioning toilets and showers.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and Oxfam America released the report at a rally in Dudley, N.C., where farm workers and community supporters gathered for a series of meetings.
“This is nothing short of an indictment of the tobacco industry,” said FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez, who spent a week in 2008 in the fields as a tobacco farm worker so he could see firsthand what the workers face.
It’s stunning what these workers have to go through. The tobacco companies need to step up and change this abhorrent system.
8 Signs Your Governor Has a Koch Problem
Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff describes the eight signs to look for to see if your governor is hooked on the Kochs.
The addiction of governors across the country to the Koch brothers’ agenda seems to be growing stronger every day. Here are some warning signs your governor might have a Koch problem:
1. Are they planning on attending the upcoming Koch brothers invitation-only strategy session in ritzy Vail, Colorado?
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has already confirmed his attendance. Just because your governor hasn’t announced his or her attendance doesn’t mean he or she is not planning on going. The Koch brothers hold biannual seminars but like to keep their strategy sessions secret so they don’t out their followers. If you have the opportunity, ask them!
2. Did your governor support attacks on collective bargaining rights for public service workers?
The Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity, pushed attacks on the collective bargaining rights of firefighters, teachers, nurses, police officers and other public service workers in Wisconsin and Ohio and other states. During the Wisconsin struggle, Gov. Scott Walker was recorded taking a call from a prank caller he thought was David Koch and openly discussed the assault on working families.
3. Is your governor pushing massive tax breaks that would benefit the Koch brothers and other corporate cronies?
Republicans Aiming to Take Away Voting Rights in 36 States
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More evidence that Republicans are determined to grab as much power as they can at the expense of everyone but the rich. Not satisfied with attacking the rights of workers, Republicans in 36 states are going after the most sacred American right—the right to vote. The We Party reports that through a myriad of proposals, they are trying to suppress the votes of traditionally Democratic voters, including minorities, the poor, people who live in rural areas, seniors and students.
Last week, the Wisconsin Senate added another chapter to its anti-democratic record by passing a voter ID bill that the non-partisan state Legislative Fiscal Bureau says would disenfranchise 20 percent of the state’s voters, especially in rural areas. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University estimates that 11 percent of voters nationwide do not have official IDs that would pass muster for these new and proposed state laws.
Workers Who Win South Can Change The Nation
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As we approach the massive One Nation Working Together march on Oct. 2, MaryBe McMillan, secretary-treasurer of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, says the road to an economy that works for all must first come through the South.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. realized the only way to win freedom for people of color everywhere was to win it first in the most difficult place—the segregated South. Union leaders must also direct their attention and resources to the South, where union membership is small and violent anti-union tactics are widespread.
In her Point of View column on the AFL-CIO website, McMillan says:
The southern United States is the center for exploitation of workers of all colors. Employees in the South have the lowest wages, the fewest worker protections and the least union representation. And nowhere are the harmful effects of globalization and flawed trade deals more evident than in the South.
800 Steelworkers at Kaiser Win Wage Increases—and More Bargaining News
Some 800 United Steelworkers members at Kaiser Aluminum negotiate a wage increase and signing bonus in their new five-year pact, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
USW, Kaiser Aluminum: 800 Kaiser Aluminum workers in Heath, Ohio, and Spokane, Wash., ratified a new five-year contract effective Oct. 1. The contract provides the United Steelworkers (USW) members a signing bonus and wage increases.
Today’s Health Care News
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Here’s the latest news from the battle for health care reform:
• While much of the media focuses on the Senate, the House bill is expected to be released tomorrow, with a vote coming soon. Call your members of Congress and ask them to support real reform.
• In the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson writes that a health care excise tax could hurt middle-class families because companies
have the power to impose health care costs and cutbacks on workers, who have little or no power to resist. if employers opt for cheaper policies to avoid the excise taxes on more expensive plans, their savings may not be passed on to workers as higher wages but simply kept by the employers. Out-of-pocket health costs for workers would rise, but into-pocket wage increases to cover those costs might not be forthcoming.
The senators’ version of health care finance assumes that workers will pocket the benefits of a cost-conscious system. The senators assume wrong.
