PeterWK's Periodical

Biden draws cheers at AFT convention

July 31 2012

tags: Teachers, unions, public education, schools, election, budget cuts

DETROIT - “Teachers are under fullblownassault,” declared Vice President Joe Biden, addressing the American Federation of Teachers convention here on Sunday. Vice President Biden, his wife Dr. Jill Biden - a longtime teacher, United Auto Workers President Bob King and noted educator and author Diane Ravitch all came to the AFT convention to pledge their support for our nation’s teachers.

The vice president was introduced by Jill Biden who taught for 13 years in a public high school and continues teaching full time at Northern Virginia Community College, even as she serves as the “Second Lady.” She told the audience, “Being a teacher is notwhatIdo, it’swhoIam.”

Vice President Biden spelled out the choices voters have in the November election.

Why does the Republican budget cut $900 million for K-12 education, cut Head Start and Pell grants, Biden asked, answering himself: “because they have to pay for their one trillion dollar, 600 million tax cut for the wealthy.”

The attitude of the “new” Republican Party, Biden said, is: “Government needs to keep its hands out of education.” He declared, “Don’t tell me you value education but then don’t invest in it.”

Biden noted that the middle class has been clobbered by the economic crisis, and attacked the Republican aid-the-rich, trickle-down approach. He said, “We think you rebuild the middle class from the ‘middle out,’ they think from the ‘top down.’” Addressing the teacher delegates, he said, “We don’t see you as the problem, we see you as the solution.”

A sea of 3,000 teachers and school workers, wearing AFT Obama-Biden blue T-shirts, cheered enthusiastically. Thought many disagree with some of Obama’s education policies, they saw the bigger picture, as outlined by UAW President Bob King.

Addressing the convention on Saturday, King cited two priorities in the coming period. Number one is the re-election of President Obama. We may not agree with all the president does, King said, but we “cannot allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. We will go back 50 years if Republicans win.”

Second, to achieve real progress, King said labor must recommit to rebuilding a social and economic justice movement when the elections are over.

He noted that when unions were stronger, “every measure of social justice” was stronger too. “Too many of our economists do not understand the core centrality to a fair and just society is a vibrant and strong labor movement,” King said. When union members advance, every worker in America benefits, he said, adding that labor is the “core of democracy” in any nation.

EducatorDianeRavitch tore apart the “big lie” of lagging test scores used by some education “reformers” to justify privatization. The American educational system is failing as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that test scores of American students are at their highest points ever, she said. She said increases have been steady and significant and they have been greatest for black and Hispanic students. “We should be thanking our nation’s teachers,” said Ravitch.

“Teachers need to work in a professional atmosphere where they are treated with respect and dignity,” Ravitch said. “Carrots and sticks are for donkeys, not professionals.”

She cited a number of reason students have difficulty in the classroom, from health issues to family stability but she said the “single biggest predictor of student progress is family income.” Thus, poverty and joblessness must be addressed to improve student learning.

Retired hearing specialist and past Chicago Teachers Union President Marilyn Stewart agreed. When an economic crisis hits the country, she said, “teachers feel it first in the classroom; stress from the home is carried into the classroom.”

Delegate Debbie Uribe, a 30-year early childhood educator in Los Angeles, said she feels her work with children builds the foundation for future success. She’s upset her school is getting an 8.5 percent cut in state funding.

Also bringing the crowd to its feet Saturday was Detroit NAACP President, Rev. Wendell Anthony. Reverend Anthony said if you are teaching in America you’re going through some kind of hell adding, “Love has got to kick in, because the money isn’t.” He asked what message are we sending when you can use your NRA card to vote (as in Texas) but can’t use your college ID. “Insanity is running wild,” he exclaimed.

The convention re-elected AFT President Randi Weingarten to another term.

Photo: Vice President Joe Biden greats teachers at the AFT Convention in Detroit, July 29. Courtesy AFT.

todayinlaborhistory:

Today in labor history, June 6, 1937:  A general strike by some 12,000 auto workers and others in Lansing, MI, shuts down the city for a month in what would become known as the city’s “Labor Holiday.”  The strike was precipitated by the arrest of nine workers, including the wife of the local union president.

(via iwwghq)

President Obama Addresses the UAW - Feb 28, 2012 in DC

When Obama saved the auto industry he saved my Father’s job, my Godmother’s job, my Godfather’s (and his family’s) pension and benefits, my mother’s retirement benefits (from 11 years in the shop), my uncle’s job, the pensions and benefits of several other extended family members (2nd cousins, great aunts/uncles, etc.),  and countless others jobs in the Midwest and across America. 

Obama may not be perfect, but I know he’s by far the best person out there for President.

And yes, the GOP nominees positions on the bailout did effect how I voted today.  Although I despise Rick Santorum and think he’s a theocrat, I crossed over and voted in the GOP primary for him just to screw Mitt Romney.  Both of them didn’t want the auto bailout, but Romney continues to flout it even when he was here in Michigan.  I love our open primary state, what a great way to screw the GOP overall, dragging on this absurd primary season and making the nominees run further and further to the right.

Freep: Democrats, UAW want to ensure Romney's defeat in Michigan

Website: UAW behind protests

Says union to train 100K for ‘99%’ campaign

A conservative-leaning news website says it has obtained documents from the United Auto Workers’ Internet server that show the union is behind a new, nationwide campaign to train 100,000 Americans for “sustained non-violent direct action” on behalf of “the 99 percent.”

The Daily Caller says the documents show the UAW is helping to organize a coalition of 43 organizations calling itself “The 99% Spring.”

The documents, which it says were downloaded from an “unprotected area of the UAW’s Web server,” include press releases, social media plans and a list of talking points.

But a source told The Detroit News that they were “posted by accident” to the union’s website. That person said the UAW is part of the coalition, but not its “mastermind.”

The UAW would not comment on the document leak.

Executive Editor David Martosko acknowledged that his group learned about the documents from a hacker.

“We downloaded the material and connected it back to their website,” he said. “It shouldn’t surprise anybody that a labor union is behind the latest iteration of the Occupy campaign.”

On its own website, The 99% Spring identifies itself as an outgrowth of the Occupy Wall Street movement that took over city squares and newspaper headlines last fall.

“This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts,” the group says on its own website.

“We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.”

UAW President Bob King has made no secret of his support for the Occupy movement or its latest, more confrontational evolution.

“In April, we’re going to be part of a broad coalition that’s going to be training our membership and anybody who cares about justice in this society in nonviolent direct action,” King told union members in Flint earlier this month at a rally marking the 75th anniversary of the Flint Sit-Down Strike that led to the recognition of the UAW.

King said their first target would be the General Electric Co. shareholders meeting in Detroit on April 25.

“It is morally wrong — it is absolutely wrong — that they make billions and billions and billions of dollars and pay not a single penny in taxes,” King said of GE. “Enough is enough. We’re the 99 percent who want 100 percent fairness for everyone.”

But Martosko said the $168,073 in salary and benefits he says UAW documents show King earns annually puts him in the other camp.

“He is the 1 percent,” Martosko said. “I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve it, but he shouldn’t act like he’s a pauper.”

The Daily Caller was started by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, an aide to former vice president Dick Cheney.

bhoffman@detnews.com

(313) 222-2443

Romney op-ed: U.S. autos bailout 'was crony capitalism on a grand scale'

@MittRomney  You’re completely out of touch with the residents of Michigan, and that’s why your name and money can’t even buy you this primary.

——

You’re no son of Detroit, and this article is one of the biggest bunches of bullshit I’ve ever read.  You’re a classic upper class-never-worked-a-day-in-your-life jackass from the uber rich parts of suburban Detroit. 

I grew up drinking Vernors and seeing games at Tigers Stadium too, I just did so in my dad’s old UAW shirts half the time.  See, you and I are both from Michigan, but we’re nothing alike.  You’ve had everything handed to you.  You had a blank check and your father’s name to ride on, whereas my family has had the strength of the UAW and the sales of GM to determine if we sink or float.  I despise Rick Santorum, but I may cross over and actually vote in the Republican primary just to totally screw you in the State of Michigan. 

You’ve got to be the biggest idiot on the planet, you’re dissing the United Auto Workers and General Motors and think that will actually help your campaign in this State.  I’m never sure if you’re just vastly out of touch, or just stupid as fuck.

With no bailout and going chapter 11, no one would have given GM or Chrysler loans, and they would have been bought up by the Big 3 Chinese auto companies (the PRC gave their big 3 money to buy as much as they could in the event of that happening).  My father would have lost his job, and we would probably have lost our house, along with most of people in the rural area about 40 miles away from Lansing where I grew up.  I still would have been able to finish school with my massive heap of student loan debt, but it certainly would have been a lot worse. 

Now that you’re all about bringing up how capitalism is totally corrupt, why don’t you mention the Bush bailouts more often?  Or how Bain Capital ravaged businesses and gutted them for massive profits? Or how the entire

I bet you drive a foreign car don’t you?  Asshole.

Oh, and Happy Valentines Day, no one in Michigan loves you.

——-

By: Williard “Mitt the assclown” Romney

I am a son of Detroit. I was born in Harper Hospital and lived in the city until my family moved to Oakland County. (newsflash, the OC is NOT Detroit, jackass)

I grew up drinking Vernors and watching ballgames at Michigan & Trumbull. Cars got in my bones early. And not just any cars, American cars.

When the president of American Motors died suddenly in 1954, my dad, George Romney, was asked to take his place. I was 7 and got my love of cars and chrome and fins and roaring motors from him. I grew up around the industry and watched it flourish. Years later, I watched with sadness as it floundered.

Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry. The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama’s management of the American economy are evident in what he did.

Instead of doing the right thing and standing up to union bosses,Obama rewarded them.

A labor union that had contributed millions to Democrats and his election campaign was granted an ownership share of Chrysler and a major stake in GM, two flagships of the industry.The U.S. Department of Treasury — American taxpayers — was asked to become a majority stockholder of GM. And a politically connected and ethically challenged Obama-campaign contributor, the financier Steven Rattner, was asked to preside over all this as auto czar.

This was crony capitalism on a grand scale. The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.

My view at the time — and I set it out plainly in an op-ed in the New York Times — was that “the American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing.” Instead of a bailout, I favored “managed bankruptcy” as the way forward.

Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell. But in fact, it is a way for a troubled company to restructure itself rapidly, entering and leaving the courtroom sometimes in weeks or months instead of years, and then returning to profitable operation.

In the case of Chrysler and GM, that was precisely what the companies needed. Both were saddled with an accumulation of labor, pension, and real estate costs that made them unsustainable. Health and retirement benefits alone amounted to an extra $2,000 baked into the price of every car they produced.

Shorn of those excess costs, and shorn of the bungling management that had driven them into a deep rut, they could re-emerge as vibrant and competitive companies. Ultimately, that is what happened. The course I recommended was eventually followed. GM entered managed bankruptcy in June 2009 and exited it a month later in July.

The Chrysler timeline was similarly swift. But something else happened along the way that was truly egregious. Before the companies were allowed to enter and exit bankruptcy, the U.S. government swept in with an $85 billion sweetheart deal disguised as a rescue plan.

By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style.

Thus, the outcome of the managed bankruptcy proceedings was dictated by the terms of the bailout. Chrysler’s “secured creditors,” who in the normal course of affairs should have been first in line for compensation, were given short shrift, while at the same time, the UAWs’ union-boss-controlled trust fund received a 55 percent stake in the firm.

The pensions of union workers and retirees at Delphi, GM’s parts supplier, were left untouched, while some 21,000 non-union salaried employees saw their pensions slashed and lost their life and health insurance. And so on and so forth across the industry.

While a lot of workers and investors got the short end of the stick, Obama’s union allies — and his major campaign contributors — reaped reward upon reward, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” is what Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, said as the economy went into free-fall. The auto bailout is a case study of Emanuel’s maxim in operation. American taxpayers have been left on the hook for billions to benefit unions and the union bosses who contributed millions to Barack Obama’s election campaign. Such a state of affairs is intolerable, and as president I would not tolerate it. The Obama administration needs to act now to divest itself of its ownership position in GM.

The shares need to be sold in a responsible fashion and the proceeds turned over to the nation’s taxpayers.

We should not be back on a road like the one that brought us Freddie Mac and the housing crisis. It is a road with endless hazards. It is not the American way of making cars.

The dream of the Motor City is and always has been one of ideas, innovation, enterprise, and opportunity. It started with Henry Ford and continued with visionaries like William Durant, Walter Chrysler, and the Dodge Brothers. These giants never envisioned a role for government in their business, but relied on the hard work and commitment of private individuals.

Their dream is alive in all of us who have ever called Detroit home. And with a Detroiter in the White House, that dream can be realized once again.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a Republican candidate for president.

A tale of two systems: German Automakers and German Labor Law vs. American Automakers and US Labor Law.

A great article comparing US and German automakers. In Germany union density is higher, wages are higher, production is higher, and profits are higher. In Germany, companies are mandated to deal with workers (union or not) in “works councils” over various issues related to work life. The article also goes on to talk about how Germany automakers act completely different when operating in the “right to work” (for less) South, and take advantage of the US ideals on labor law by completely ignoring it.

The article also talks about how German automakers would probably not be as cooperative in Germany if the government allowed them to run all over workers.

This is a clear distinction between a big business country, and a country that has some aspects of democratic socialism. The government has a constitutional amendment that creates workers councils where workers and management work out issues in the workplace. The law also backs up unions from being busted by big companies. Because of these workers councils, strikes are rare.

Simply put, this is government actually looking out for the working class, and extending democracy into the work place. Councils like those in Germany are the type of thing that paves the way for workers democracy, and in turn, paves the way for socialism.

——

On a side note, when I was talking to my cousin about how Germany had curbed massive unemployment during the worldwide recession by having some cut to 1/2 time or 3/4 time rather than a chunk of people being unemployed.  His response was “well that’s because they’re socialist”.  This of course was a negative by his views.  I don’t think Germany and Europe are truly socialist (social democratic is the better term), but they do have laws that help protect workers unlike the US where the law is weak and workers are crushed by corporate behemoths.

The fact that there is a constitutional law that mandates workers councils is pretty fucking awesome.  Ich liebe Deutschland!

Click the title link for the article.

socialismartnature:

Revolutionary Black Auto Worker Explains Capitalism & Racism (1970s) 

A clip from the film “Finally Got The News” which features Black autoworkers involved in the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM).

10 Ways Companies and Governments Bust Unions

From: http://www.laborrights.org/

Freedom at Work to organize in the workplace and bargain collectively gives workers a voice on the job and the opportunity to strive towards a better life. Workers around the world face systematic barriers to organizing including egregious acts of violence and intimidation.

Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are part of the four core labor standards recognized by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights yet these rights are frequently violated.  View ILRF’s Freedom at Work Toolkit here.
 
The following outlines common tactics used by governments and employers worldwide:
10 Ways Companies and Governments Bust Unions

1. Hiring paramilitary groups or colluding with local police or military forces to perform violent acts of intimidation against union leaders, activists and their families. These acts include assassinations, death threats, false arrests and physical and verbal harassment. According to the International Trade Union Confederation’s Annual Survey, 76 unionists were killed in 2008. Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place to be a union leader and the Philippine military systematically commits acts of violence and intimidation against unionists.
2. Contracting workers out to temporary employment agencies, labor “cooperatives,” or moving them to short-term contracts to disable them from joining unions and bargaining collectively. Even when contract workers can legally unionize, they are less likely to risk being fired for unionizing when their jobs are so precarious. Learn about Pakistani Lipton workers’ struggle to organize and become permanent employees.
3. Firing workers who are organizing or workers who are already union members. In countries where it is illegal to fire workers without “just cause,” firings are often under the guise of “layoffs” where many workers are told to leave but only non-union members are hired back. Learn about Turkish workers’ who were fired for trying to unionize.
4. Blacklisting workers who were fired for organizing throughout a particular region or industry, sending an even stronger message that employers will not allow workers to form organizations of their choice. Learn about pineapple workers who were blacklisted for unionizing in Costa Rica.
5. Benefiting from Export Processing Zones (EPZs) which are often exempt from laws establishing freedom of association, the right to bargain collectively and other labor laws. It is almost always illegal to strike in EPZs, so when workers protest the conditions – which are often some of the worst in the country — they can be arrested, or subjected to violence. An estimated 63 million people are employed in EPZs worldwide. Over 53 million are accounted for in Asia with China alone accounting for 40 million. Learn about violence against workers in EPZs in the Philippines.
6. Factory and farm closings, reorganizations and relocations that are specifically designed to eliminate union presence or send a message that “unions force factories to close.” The same facility often reopens with new non-union employees miles away. Learn about Russell workers in Honduras.
7. Replacing independent unions with company-dominated unions or company run “committees” comprised of workers chosen by management. Certain countries allow companies to negotiate “pacts” or other non-binding “agreements” meant to replace legally binding collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). They are rarely democratically negotiated by workers. These tactics are often promoted by employer-funded anti-union schools meant to spread discriminatory messages about unions to workers starting at a young age. Learn about Dole cut-flower workers’ struggle in Colombia to battle a company dominated union and the Liberian Firestone workers’ independent union.
8. Interfering in the union registration or collective bargaining process and manipulating workers into revoking their union memberships. Interference in the union process often occurs at the government labor department level. It is also common for companies to refuse to bargain a contract (CBA) with workers for years on end, even if their union is legally registered. This frustrates workers and weakens the union. Learn about truckers in the U.S. who are being denied the right to collectively bargain.
9. Exploiting migrants and children and recruiting them to replace union workers or serve as “strikebreakers” are common tactics used by companies to create xenophobic resentment and decrease solidarity amongst workers. Migrants are sometimes legally barred from unionizing and employers often threaten to deport migrant workers who try to organize. Children are also illegally employed as another tactic to undermine adult union organizing efforts.
10. Criminalizing labor activists through defamation charges, false arrests, arrests of striking or protesting workers or illegal detentions. In countries where counter-terrorism efforts targeting rebel groups are strong, military forces have accused union activists of being terrorists. Learn about criminalization of unionists in the Philippines.

If your union is facing repression or violence because of your organizing, please contact ILRF at laborrrights@ilrf.org.