‎61 cents an hour was too much

CJR:

Two years ago, Haiti unanimously passed a law sharply raising its minimum wage to 61 cents an hour. That doesn’t sound like much (and it isn’t), but it was two and a half times the then-minimum of 24 cents an hour.

This infuriated American corporations like Hanes and Levi Strauss that pay Haitians slave wages to sew their clothes. They said they would only fork over a seven-cent-an-hour increase, and they got the State Department involved. The U.S. ambassador put pressure on Haiti’s president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies (the U.S. minimum wage, which itself is very low, works out to $58 a day).

It's called humanitarian intervention and the US State Department is an expert, right?

"Remembering MLK and the rights of labor"

Leonard Pitts, writing in the Miami Herald, reminds us that, while Martin Luther King, Jr. is a giant of the struggles for civil right, in a sanitized MLK his fierce call for for the rights of labor is often forgotten (on purpose?). In fact, on the night before he was assassinated, Dr. King gave a speech in support of striking workers.

"...he warned that if America did not use its vast wealth to ensure its people “the basic necessities of life,” America was going to hell.

The Baptist preacher in him reared up then, and his voice sang thunder. For all the nation’s achievements, he roared, for all its mighty airplanes, submarines and bridges, ‘‘It seems that I can hear the God of the universe saying, ‘Even though you have done all that, I was hungry and you fed me not. I was naked and you clothed me not. The children of my sons and daughters were in need of economic security and you didn’t provide it for them.’ ”

"It will come as a surprise to some that the civil rights leader was also a labor leader, but he was. He had this in common with Asa Philip Randolph, who suffered long years of privation to establish the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. And with Walter Reuther, brutally beaten when he organized sitdown strikes that helped solidify the United Automobile Workers. And with Crystal Lee Sutton, inspiration for the movie Norma Rae, who lost her job for trying to unionize a textile plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

"These people and many others fought to win the rights now being taken away.

"Granted, those rights have sometimes been abused — used to shelter the incompetent or reward the greedy.

"But to whatever degree our workplaces are not filled with children working adult hours, to whatever degree an employer is required to provide a clean and safe workplace, break time, sick time or fair wages, that also reflects organized labor’s legacy."

Remember the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

March 25, 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York.

Many of the Triangle factory workers were women, some as young as 14 years old. They were, for the most part, recent Italian and European Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States with their families to seek a better life. Instead, they faced lives of grinding poverty and horrifying working conditions. As recent immigrants struggling with a new language and culture, the working poor were ready victims for the factory owners. For these workers, speaking out could end with the loss of desperately needed jobs, a prospect that forced them to endure personal indignities and severe exploitation. Some turned to labor unions to speak for them; many more struggled alone. The Triangle Factory was a non-union shop, although some of its workers had joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.

Doug Blanchard of Counterlight's Peculiars has a thoughtful post up with a series of photos. He writes,

As the right to bargain collectively is being effectively repealed in the United States, the memory of the Triangle Fire takes on a new dimension of meaning and pathos. Frances Perkins, the first Secretary of Labor, and a witness to the fire, always said that the New Deal began in the Triangle Fire. This catastrophe propelled the organization of wage earners for their safety as well as for better wages. Political leadership in New York City and state began taking a serious look at the issue of worker safety in the workplace for the first time.

All that was fought for in the fire's wake is now under threat of repeal. We forget that so many things that we take for granted in our jobs, like our safety in the workplace and workman's comp, were not the free gift of benevolent corporate autocrats, but had to be fought for over decades, and sometimes after terrible disasters like the Triangle Fire.

Democracy Now! has devoted today's broadcast to the fire and its impact on labor relations today.

WORKER SOLIDARITY IN WISCONSIN & OHIO

"... tens of thousands of workers and their supporters have flooded the Wisconsin and Ohio state capitols, pushing back on their newly-elected Republican Governors' attempts to revoke collective bargaining rights for public workers.



Other than the flashes of anger Ohio crowds showed when they were curiously shut out of their statehouse, the protests have been entirely peaceful, even jovial, with the Wisconsin capitol having an atmosphere similar to a pep rally..."

From New Left Media, the video below shows the struggle to be optimistic, even in reactionary times.



Please share with your friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter to help get the word out.

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Slave labor conditions in Holland

Eastern European workers - mainly Roma - are to The Netherlands what Hispanic or Asian laborers are in the United States: targets of exploitation and inhumane working conditions. The annual asparagus harvest in Holland has prompted the authorities to raid a farm.

The owner of an asparagus farm in the province of Brabant is being investigated by the Social Intelligence and Investigation Service (SIOD) to see if criminal charges can be brought against her after 50 East European workers were discovered to be living in "near-slavery" conditions.

The SIOD - a body of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment charged with criminal investigations - had been given the go-ahead to raid the farm on Friday because the sleeping quarters were in breach of fire regulations. It was then that the extent of the conditions came to light.

The 50 farmhands, many of them Romanian, were not allowed to leave the premises and were sleeping in a filthy room without a window. The workers were being paid less than the agreed wage.

The farm owner has already been fined five times by the labour inspectorate since 2005 for employing illegal immigrants, paying under the minimum wage and failure to report an on-site accident. The fines amounted to more than 500,000 euros.

UVM protests continue

University of Vermont student protests continued a 2nd day, this time with UVM workers unions supporting the students. Yesterday 31 students were arrested.

Although Thursday’s event was billed as a faculty rally and speak-out, only a few faculty and staff members attended, and fewer spoke. Most of those who addressed the rally were students.

“There is so much fear on this campus,” Katherine Nopper, a senior from Putney, told the crowd. “People are afraid if they speak out they will lose their jobs.”

Among the staff and faculty representatives who did speak were Carmyn Stanko, president of the union representing UVM maintenance and service workers, and David Shiman, president of the faculty union.

“We have known from the day that President Fogel was hired that his goal was to continue transforming UVM from a university to a business corporation,” Stanko said. “We will continue to fight for all workers who have been laid off, to return them to their rightful jobs.”

Shiman told the students his union was concerned about the impact of the cuts on the quality of education that UVM provides. He praised the students for using their constitutional rights to question the administration’s plans.

WHY DOESN'T IT HAPPEN HERE?

Over 1,000,000 strike in France, a protest over the Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis.

ARROGANCE FROM MONTPELIER

The Vermont Department of Labor's cavalier advice to unemployed Vermonters seeking departmental help to "keep trying" if no answer - hit redial, wait and try again - was brought to our attention last week.

A week later it is still the official policy of the department:

Try multiple times an hour versus once every few hours. Think of it like a radio contest and call multiple times. Hitting the "redial" button on your phone increases your chances of connecting as soon as a line becomes free

While Douglas and Obama policy makers piss on working class people, Michael Colby gives us much better advice.

A WARNING FROM BELOW

DENNIS PERRIN, writing from his home state of Michigan

The prospect of a GM or Chrysler collapse has added more tension to this part of Michigan, a place where working people are already being squeezed if not steamrolled by what passes for the economy. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I suspect it'll get worse. I hope not. I don't know how much more negative weight people around here can endure.

I've never considered myself a Marxist or a communist -- indeed, I've had many nasty fights with those who do. But looking around at the devastation, which isn't hard to find, I can see how one could succumb to the Marxist urge. I thought that the Army radicalized me, which it did, for a time, anyway; but this shit is something else. No wonder mainstream outlets like The Christian Science Monitor are calling on Obama to save capitalism. Being very class conscious, American elites understand how the unmasked face of capital can affect the desperate and powerless. The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago is a warning shot from below. The people above don't want to see more of that.

Let's see how serious Obama's proposed "public works" project ultimately is. I'm not sure where he'll get the money. Perhaps the Saudis and the Chinese can help rebuild parts of Detroit, without doubt the poorest, most decimated city I've ever been in. I've yet to visit Gaza, so my perspective is limited. But a drive through Detroit reveals some pretty ghastly images, and will shatter your car's suspension if you aren't meticulous behind the wheel. The vast number of craters and potholes makes it seem like someone went on a bombing spree, which, in a fiscal sense, is pretty much the case. If GM and Chrysler fold, the bombing will intensify, turning swaths of southeastern Michigan into an economic Afghanistan. Somehow, I doubt the locals will consider that a "good war."

SHADES OF THE 1930's

“This never happens — to take a company from the inside,” Ms. Mazon said. “But I’m fighting for my family, and we’re not going anywhere.”

This is encouraging. This kind of action can force the incoming administration to take a more radical action than it would like to.

In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide

The above headline is from the MSM paper of record, which has not usually been keen on reporting labour issues in a favourable light.

And the workers' action received tacit approval from Obama.

At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said the company should follow through on its commitments to its workers.

“The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned,” Mr. Obama said, “I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”

Encouraging, mebbe. But I ain't getting my hopes up. CounterPunch Diary has an updated list of "Honeymoans from the Left".

UNILEVER STRIKE

24oranges - Hema’s famous smoked sausage is made by Unox in Oss, a disgruntled Unilever (Unox is owned by Unilever) employee told the Brabants Dagblad during the strike. Unilever ["Ons beleid is niet te spreken over onze klanten"] and Hema ["Wij doen nooit uitspraken over onze leveranciers"] have refused to comment on the comment.

Some 1,000 employees have come together in Rotterdam to try and get more say about Unilever’s future and want better working conditions, etc. All six manufacturing plants are on strike. And if the management pisses them off some more, who knows what culinary or cosmetic secrets will come out next.

COMMENT: I gotta admit that I love HEMA products; the store is the Dutch equivalent of Target. But these Dutch capitalist giants are acting like attorneys or doctors; neither will talk about or against the other - they protect their "own." So much for Unilever's claim that it is a "responsible business."

Time off to make babies at KLM

24oranges -- KLM international flight crews can now get 'ovulation leave.'

New York & Philly Taxis on Strike

Here's a round-up about yesterday's stoppage. The strike is about the use of GPS technology in cabs, paying fares by credit card. Hizzoner Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of Gotham, claims that "consumers" will like it, and the use of GPS has nothing to do with the privacy rights of hacks or the customers who ride in the cabs. NPR, in it's reports I heard yesterday, just focused on the economics and profits; nowt about the potential misuse of these machines. What's next? CCTV cameras?

NLRB refuses to negotiate with its workers

WORKERS INDEPENDENT NEWS: -
National Labor Relations Board is Refusing To Negotiate With Its Employee Union - 08/23/07 - An ironic battle between the NLRB and the NLRBU union continues to unfold... Last week members of the union representing workers for the National labor Relations Board began calls for the resignation of NLRB General Counsel, Ronald Meisburg. Meisburg has refused to bargain with the union representing 1000 NLRB employees. This week the NLRBU received support in the form of an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The FLRA serves a similar function as the NLRB as it governs labor relations between the Federal government and employees. In the complaint the FLRA alleges that the NLRB has violated federal labor law by not bargaining with the FLRA certified union.

Workers unite!

As it happens, when I was in NYC recently, my friends and I talked with some of the striking workers as we walked uptown from Greenwich Village.

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Danger and exhaustion came with the job in the decade Chen Tianyun spent as a restaurant delivery man in Manhattan.

Traffic threatened to squash his scooter like a dumpling. He survived an armed robbery. Most weeks, he toiled 70 hours so he could send money to his family in China.

And for his effort, he said he was paid a salary of $550 per month -- about $1.81 per hour.

Live on your tips, his bosses told him.

Stories like Chen's are a dime a dozen in New York City, where immigrants make up nearly half the work force and employers who ignore labor laws have long been able to count on a complicit silence from laborers thankful for a job.[...]

Chen and fellow delivery workers at the Saigon Grill, a small chain of Vietnamese cafes, filed a lawsuit seeking back pay in March. More than a dozen New York restaurants have seen similar claims in the past few months.

The injustice reeking under our noses

Garret Keizer Burlington Free Press - Let's hear it for the UVM 12

The UVM 12 are in a whole different league. Thank God, they aren't on a whole different planet. That's where middle-class activism tends to go these days, especially when it's hoping to get off on the cheap. Let's talk about polar bears in the Arctic or lamas in Tibet, anything but the injustice reeking under our noses -- anything that won't raise the taxes or put a crimp in the fun.

And I want the UVM administration to make good on its promise to study their issue further. What the strikers demanded is exemplary for any institution that calls itself the University of Vermont: exemplary of what Vermont as a whole must do if it wants to be worthy of its constant self-congratulation; exemplary of what it means, in the best sense, to be an educated human being.

Background story on the strike

COTS workers vote against union

Workers at the Committee on Temporary Shelter in Burlington, VT voted yesterday against forming a union. Ugh. It was organised by the National Labor Relations Board, which is loaded with Bush appointees and anti-worker, making it an oxymoronic group of captitalist, pro-corporate scum.

The Dems' throw the workers a bone: New Standard - Congress Challenges Labor Board Anti-Union Definitions. Keep in mind the Asses are just as pro-corporation as the Pachiderms.

Vermont Workers Center