Wear a white shirt to work tomorrow to both honor the contribution labor unions have made to society by creating the middle class and celebrate the end of the historic 1937 sit-down strike at General Motor's production complex in Flint that led to the United Auto Workers (UAW) recognition as the sole bargaining agent for GM workers.
Thursday, Feb. 11 will mark the anniversary of that historic day that led to the creation of the middle class. More than 60 years ago, workers had to endure tear gas, clubs and an assault by police to win their dignity, but even today the unions and workers are still under assault. The tactics are much more subtle than the outright attacks and violence used by the robber barons, but the only real difference is that the Republicans today are using sneaker methods and lies to try and bust the unions and kill the middle class.
The tradition of wearing a white shirt on Feb. 11 began in 1948 when Bert Christensen, a member of the UAW Local 598 Educational Committee, came up with the ideas of White Shirt Day to mark the end of the historic sit-down strike. He wanted workers to wear the white-collar attire traditionally worn by managers to show the company that blue-collars were just as important as management.
Anti-union activist Chet Zarko is appealing the Howell Public School E-mail case to the Michigan Supreme Court, according to radio station WHMI and his response to me.
We're all entitled to due process and the process on this issue hasn't ended, so nothing remains to be seen," he wrote on this blog on Jan. 28. "I'm (sic) you know the answer to whether I'll appeal."
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Jan. 27 on the case involving a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for some 5,500 emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between the leaders of the Howell Education Association (HEA) and their union members were not public record and therefore subject to public disclosure.
WHMI is reporting he is being represented by the National Right to Work Foundation, a union-busting "non-profit" with the mission of "providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by abuses of compulsory unionism." The mission of the group in this case, like Zarko's original mission, is to bust or at least embarrass the union.
Back in the spring of 2007, Zarko in cahoots with anti-union Howell school board member Wendy Day, filed a FOIA in a fishing expedition request for the emails of union leaders on their HPS account. Zarko alleges HEA leaders have "conducted a large amount of union business on public time, including trying to retain MEA (Michigan Education Association) affiliated MESSA health-insurance, and using parent-teacher conferences to recruit parents (to) their side of a collective-bargaining debate." Even though that was proven not to be the case, Zarko persisted in an effort just to find something embarrassing.
In October of 2008 Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille determined that the e-mails written by union leaders on school computers are public record, and subject to disclosure. The HEA appealed to stop the disclosure because both the district and the union agreed that they had a "recognized right" to use the email system.
That case was appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and oral briefs were taken by a three-judge panel at a hearing on Jan. 5. The court issues its ruling in favor of the union on Jan. 27, saying just because the 5,500 emails were captured by the school's servers does not mean they are public record. The ruling concluded "We believe this question is one that must be resolved by the Legislature, and we call upon the Legislature to address it, we conclude that under the FOIA statute the individual plaintiffs' personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system's digital memory,"
This is part of Republican's efforts to bust unions and make Michigan a "Right to Work for Less" state. Shortly after the ruling, the rightwing think tank Mackinac Center's Legal Foundation sent out a press release saying this ruling "undermines" FOIA, but their only interest, like Zarko's, is union busting. The rightwing think tank even filed a amicus curiae brief in the case.
During the Court of Appeals hearing on Jan. 5, HPS lawyers argued the case and Zarko sat in the back of the court room. Plus, the case is HEA Vs. "Howell Board of Education" and HPS. Zarko is listed as just a "Intervenor/Counter Plaintiff." It's unclear what role HPS will have in the case if it goes to the Michigan Supreme Court. I sure hope no tax dollars go to fund Zarko's union-busting witch hunt.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled today on the case involving a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for some 5,500 emails sent and received on Howell Public School computers between union members were not public record and therefore subject to public disclosure.
The three-Judge panel issued their ruling after taking oral briefs on Jan. 5, saying, "We believe this question is one that must be resolved by the Legislature, and we call upon the
Legislature to address it, we conclude that under the FOIA statute the individual plaintiffs' personal emails were not rendered public records solely because they were captured in the email system's digital memory."
The case came about when rightwing blogger and anti-union activist Chet Zarko went on a fishing expedition in May of 2007 when he submitted a FOIA request in cahoots with Howell school board member Wendy Day to find dirt to embarrass the union with. He accused the HEA of abusing taxpayer-funded resources to promote union causes, but the district said the union had a recognized right to use the computers and email.
In October of 2008 Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille determined that the e-mails written by union leaders on school computers are public record, and subject to disclosure. The HEA filed suit in Livingston County Circuit to stop the disclosure because both the district and the union had a "recognized right" to use the email system. Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille determined that they should be released, prompting the HEA to appeal.
Although the suit was against HPS, Zarko was a party to the suit. It remains to be seen if he will appeal.
A new CBS MoneyWatch article confirms what Muskegon Critic pointed out the other day: Increased productivity does not translate into prosperity for average Americans.
In fact, MoneyWatch warns that a "combination of short-term factors and long-range changes may conspire to squeeze salaries for some time to come," and annual raises "could be in jeopardy."
So how did we get to this point? It turns out real wages have actually been flat for years.
Looking back, it turns out a decade's worth of easy credit and faux real estate wealth obscured the fact that incomes for the majority of workers weren't keeping up. After healthy salary growth of roughly 1.8 percent annually from 1995 to 2000, for example, inflation-adjusted, or real, wages for the median worker remained essentially flat from 2000 until 2007 when the recession started, according to government data (average wages increased roughly 2 percent, but that number is skewed by huge gains at the top). In fact, after the recovery in 2002, notes Shierholz, no real wage growth occurred at all for the median worker - despite an increase in productivity of 11 percent over the seven-year time frame. [emphasis added].
In other words, we've been working our tails off and have little to show for it. So who reaped the productivity gains?
Typically, companies and their shareholders.
And what do experts point to as the reason for our declining prosperity?
Shierholz and other economists attribute the disconnect between wages and output to declining unionization and the need to keep prices low in a competitive global environment.
The "kill the unions" and "outsource everything" crowd accomplished what they set out to do - drive wages down for average Americans. And the scenario for new jobs created doesn't look any rosier.
A 2009 analysis of figures from the U.S. Department of Labor showed that sectors that expanded through this decade have paid an average annual compensation of $55,300, compared with $65,100 for industries that are shrinking. This is partly because many of the newly-created positions are in service industries, which tend to be less organized and have less bargaining power. Think home healthcare and "green" jobs versus auto manufacturing and heavy industry.
There are steps Washington can take to start improving living standards for average Americans, but as long as people keep voting for anti-union, globalization embracing politicians, I don't see things changing.
LANSING -- The email case involving the Howell Education Association (HEA) representing the teachers and Howell Public Schools could set precedent and have far reaching effects.
The Michigan Court of Appeals took oral arguments today on the case involving a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) for some 5,500 emails sent and received on HPS computers between union members. The district contends that because they were using an email box owned by the school, they are public record and subject to FOIA.
The teacher's union contends that they are not subject to FOIA because they do not meet the scope of FOIA in that they do not affect the performance of a public body. The school district had said all along that the teachers have a recognized right to use the computers, but any written communications on a public computer is subject to public disclosure.
"Certainly, this does not do what the FOIA was intended to do,"said the attorney representing the HEA."Thousands of these emails are a personal and harmless as 'I'll meet you at McDonalds.'"
The hearing before the three judge panel was a lively debate on the future of technology and FOIA, and it may come down to defining how electronic communications and technology fits into FOIA. The issue was broached in the text messages scandal that brought down Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
"What you are telling me is that this is a question of technology," said Judge Douglas B. Shapiro. "Private communications are private if it's put in a mailbox, but it's not of it's in an email."
The case came about when rightwing blogger and anti-union activist Chet Zarko went on a fishing expedition in May of 2007 when he submitted a FOIA request in cahoots with Howell school board member Wendy Day to find dirt to embarrass the union with. He accused the HEA of abusing taxpayer-funded resources to promote union causes, but the district said the union had a recognized right to use the computers and email.
The HEA said the district's claim that just because they are on pubic computers maintained and owned by the district they are public record was faulty by comparing it to a student's locker. Student lockers are owned and maintained by the school district, but the written record by students - including love letters - are not public record. The HEA also said union members have used the old-fashioned office mailboxes in the school office to pass personal and union messages, but those are also not public record. Emails should not be either.
"For years the union has used the school mail box to send notes, letters and newsletters that are not subject to FOIA," said the attorney representing the HEA.
Under the school district's position, even emails sent from and to personal lap top computers would be subject to FOIA if they used the district Wi-Fi.
The Court took testimony and written briefs, but they did not rule on the issue.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wanted to pass along a few shopping tips before heading out to spend the holiday with family and friends.
If you're picking up a bottle of wine for your host or guests, consider buying Wine Spectator's 2009 Wine of the Year: Columbia Crest's Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Reserve 2005. According to FDL, members of the United Farm Workers helped pick the grapes. If you don't like red wine, check out these other labels that use UFW members (as well as other products like strawberries, dates, and almonds).
Moving beyond Thanksgiving to Black Friday, you can show your support for union workers by clicking here and checking out the box in the left upper corner to find union made products and services.
Or maybe you want to avoid naughty companies that force their employees to labor long hours under dangerous working conditions for poverty wages? Then Working in These Times advises you to read the "Shop With a Conscience Consumer Guide" from Sweat Free Communities, as well as this Sweatshop Hall of Shame 2010 report that highlights some of the big apparel and textile companies that use sweatshops in their global production. (Ikea, Abercrombie and Fitch, Wal-Mart, Hanes, L.L. Bean, and Kohl's among others.)
And from Michael Whitney at FDL comes this reminder about shipping your packages:
Finally, before heading out the door, you might want to check out Gizmodo, because no matter where it's made and who makes it, some "deals" really aren't deals at all!
(I'm so thankful my family likes gift certificates and cash. It makes life much simpler.)
On October 3, Local 386 members employed at Country Fresh Dairy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ratified a new contract. The new agreement increases wages and pension benefits, while protecting health care coverage and increases sickness and accident and life insurance coverage. [...]
The five-year contract contains wage increases totaling 11 percent over the course of the agreement, and the company's contributions to the employees' RWDSU pension will increase by $2 per week each year. By the last year of the contract, the company will be contributing $80 per week to the plan.
I've always liked and bought Country Fresh products, and now I have another reason to remain a loyal customer. Not only do I help the company's profits, but I help the 156 employees who overwhelmingly voted to ratify the contract.
The polar opposite of Country Fresh is Boeing. The company decided to put a new assembly line for the 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina. Boeing claims they chose right-to-work South Carolina in part "because of frustration with labor strife in Seattle, where four strikes in the past 20 years by the machinists union delayed deliveries." However, according to the Seattle PI, the union offered a 10-year, no-strike contract and was willing to discuss a longer agreement to get Boeing to commit to locating the second 787 line in Everett, Washington.
And this little tidbit from the same article will infuriate Muskegon Critic:
Boeing already took billions in tax credits and handouts... Now, the company is taking the jobs promised by the 787 program and leaving Washington workers and taxpayers high and dry.
What's the company getting from South Carolina? A package that eliminates income and other taxes for a decade and the state will provide low-interest construction bonds.
The problem with all these incentives according to this journalist is that they're a downward spiral on our race to the bottom.
Of course the problem isn't a lack of "commitment" to the aerospace industry in a region where generations of workers have devoted their lives to making Boeing planes. The problem is that people in Washington just don't come as cheap. We have this bad habit of paying people a decent wage, and providing good unemployment pay and benefits for people who are injured on the job--all things that apparently must change if we're to be competitive.
But then, if you consult the advocacy groups trying to insure the "competitiveness" of South Carolina, they say the same thing. "South Carolina's workers' compensation costs are the highest in the Southeast for small business" frets the South Carolina Civil Justice Coalition, a group that works to improve the business climate in Boeing's new home. They won't be satisfied until South Carolina's "climate" has been made as cheap as Georgia's, Tennessee's, and Virginia's.
And on down it spirals. It's not a winnable game, not if we want to keep any allegiance to our own values. In a few years, Boeing will be playing S.C. off Mississippi.
Boeing could learn a few things about values from Country Fresh.
Bobo says wage theft in America is the crime wave no one talks about, and she is right. Billions of dollars' worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. The scope of these abuses is as staggering as it is wrong - paying workers far less than the legal minimum wage, purposefully misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and illegally denying workers overtime pay. But now people are starting to take notice -- and it is my hope that they do so starting with this very good book.
Chapter 5: Organizing to Stop Wage Theft: Why Unions Matter, starts with a story of 39 year-old Mercedes Herrerra. She came to this country from Mexico, lives in Houston since 1994 and works as a janitor for staffing agencies cleaning buildings and sports facilities. Bobo says she was never paid for overtime!
Her employers would tell her, "There is no overtime. After 40 hours you work for someone else." (This is not legal).
The story continues that after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the worker was hired by a cleaning firm contracted to clean the Reliance Center. She was in charge of keeping the bathrooms clean. Her staffing agency charged her $100 per week for her shoes, gloves, masks, cleaning supplies, and shuttle rides to the Center. She wasn't told when she was hired that such charges would be taken from her paycheck. As a result, her hourly wage fell significantly below minimum wage. (This is not legal).
The lower paid workers in our country are treated like crap. Union activists have been saying this for a long time. Some claim we blow it out of proportion or distort the reality -- for Herrerra, according to Bobo, worse than the wages stolen was her ill treatment. Managers would scream at her and her colleagues. Some would tell workers they were old and worthless.
You can read more here and here. Ted Kennedy has said the book offers "bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America."
USW President Leo Gerard is a soft-spoken man, but he has some blunt words about General Motors restructuring plans:
The proposition General Motors has presented to the United Auto Workers and American taxpayers in its latest restructuring plan is simple: You must pay for your own execution.
GM, which already took $15.4 billion in bailout money, wants another $11.6 billion and is offering in return this deal: It will close 16 of its American manufacturing plants, terminate 21,000 of its factory workers and double the cars it builds in low-wage Mexico, China and South Korea and ships back to the U.S. to sell.
There it is: GM is demanding that Americans pay to send their own jobs overseas.
In the world where corporate executives live, the one in which boards of directors grant CEOs multi-million dollar bonuses even after companies tank, maybe that's not a perverse proposition.
But in the world where real Americans live, we've had enough of this crap. Decades of foolish tax and other federal policies that encouraged American manufacturing firms to throw Americans out of work and expatriate were bad enough. To expect American taxpayers to bankroll GM's plans to layoff American workers and move their jobs overseas goes too far.
Gerard goes on to point out that this isn't just about the UAW or GM. This is about American manufacturing and the millions of people in good-paying jobs who depend on the auto industry - steelworkers, rubber workers, glass workers, healthcare, education, retail - a total of more than 7 million people.
What will we be left with if manufacturing dies? "America is in danger of attempting to subsist on an economy based on nothing more than amorphous derivatives, credit default swaps and Ponzi schemes." Manufacturing jobs helped millions of people achieve the American Dream and that dream is now under assault.
In just the past eight months of this recession, caused in huge part by recklessness on Wall Street, this country has lost 1.2 million manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. GM cannot take tax dollars to slash more. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich agrees. Here's what he told the Washington Post, ". . . it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?"
Gerard says, "We have no intention of buying our own noose. We intend to win this fight." He's being joined in that fight by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover and Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, as well as the USW, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition, among others. They're conducting an 11-state, 32-city protest bus tour: "Keep it Made in America." The idea is simple. If we buy it here, we should build it here, which Gerard points out is not impossible for a U.S. auto company to do.
Ford Motor Co., which is not taking any bailout money, is investing $500 million in retooling its Michigan Truck plant outside Detroit so that it can make small cars that it will sell worldwide, including its next-generation, battery-electric Focus. And Chrysler, which is getting bailout money, has made a deal with Fiat under which the Italian car company will manufacture a small car in one of Chrysler's U.S. assembly facilities, which, along with other long-term commitments, will eventually create 4,000 U.S. jobs.
At each stop along the tour, people are being asked to sign their petition supporting "Buy it here; build it here." Please click over and add your name too. They'll present the petitions at a teach-in conference in Washington, D.C. on May 19 when they'll explain to elected officials why GM's plan fails America and why they must require GM to submit a new plan supporting American jobs.
While reading some messages on a local board I noticed an ad for the group "Lakeshore Union Free," yet another cowardly front group with slick website loaded with stock photography and propaganda about unions (particularly about the Employee Free Choice Act).
How do the right-to-work cheerleaders explain this? Using the February numbers, five of the 10 states with the biggest growth in unemployment are in the South.
State and percent increase in jobless rate since recession began (with current unemployment rate in parentheses)
This suggests that, as many other studies have found, unemployment rises and falls due to a vast array of changes in the economy -- and can't be pinned on unions.
The SEIU is calling for Tim Geithner to fire Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis.
I have a story for you.
Two CEOs lead two large public companies that start sinking, putting thousands out of work and toppling the American economy. Both CEOs accepted billions in taxpayer dollars to sustain their companies, but both failed to stop their companies' downward spirals.
One CEO -- GM's Rick Wagoner -- got his pink slip from President Obama this morning. The other -- Bank of America's Ken Lewis -- accepted bailout funds while continuing to fleece consumers and taxpayers.
It's time for the Obama Administration to show the door to CEO Ken Lewis in order for real reform to take hold at Bank of America.
Sign our petition to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner calling for Ken Lewis to be replaced as Bank of America CEO. Click here to take action:
Firing GM's CEO is a positive step towards restructuring this critical American industry. But the Obama Administration needs to apply the same lesson to the financial sector: replace failed leadership and shepherd the industry into a new era.
Why should Ken Lewis be fired? Here's their list of reasons:
$45 billion bailout for more of the same. Ken Lewis' Bank of America has yet to change its core business practices that ran our economy into the ground in the first place.
$5 billion in bonuses met with blind eye. CEO Ken Lewis turned a blind eye when one of his new acquisitions gave out an estimated $5 billion in bonuses right before the company got a $10 billion bailout.
$120 million in CEO pay. Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis took home more than $120 million dollars in the last several years, more than 4,000 times what his average employee makes. The era of excess is over.
247,000 forgotten employees. Ken Lewis' Bank of America is actively fighting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing for its employees. In some states, Bank of America employees take up large portions of public health care because they don't earn enough money.
Heh, I'm on board with this idea. What's good for the blue collar industry goose is good for the robber barons gander.
You know when the Auto Makers needed help, all the GOP saw was "now we can get the Unions". For the far right it's always about Big Business and screwing the little guy. Just the other night I saw Glenn Beck on 'Fake (Fox) News' comparing the Unions to Nazi's and Communist regimes that killed millions of people. This folks is the propaganda of the far right. However in the real world, we know why we need Unions.
I have a friend who is very loyal to her job, but she is disgusted on how her job treats people. The new thing is firing people for coloring their hair, according to her boss "You have to have your natural hair color". I hope that prick never goes grey, no wait I actually hope he does, and than he has to color it and fire himself! The other thing is firing people when you tell them they have the day off, and than you fire them for not showing up. It's crazy, and I really feel for her.
I never worked for a Union, but I do know that Union's go to bat for the average person. What you have is Big Corporations wanting to make the average worker, work for slum wages, and treat them like slaves. Without Unions these people have no one to turn to, sure maybe they can sue, but what happens in the time when they lose their home or car?
The far right might hate Unions, but I can say without a doubt I hate anyone who would belittle people, and treat them like slaves. While people like Glenn Beck defend AIG, Unions defend the people who are just trying to feed their families. The far right and Glenn Beck need to check their priorites, and their humanity, providing they have any.
Getting the EFCA passed in the near future looks a little less hopeful thanks to Republican Arlen Specter, who announced he'll now oppose it, despite co-sponsoring the bill in the past. A lot depends on business friendly ConservaDems and their support. They may have to go in 2010, along with more Republicans, if voters hope to see it passed.
Nine years after a handful of meat cutters at a Texas Wal-Mart store voted for union representation, the company and the union are at the bargaining table.
Rather than negotiating over pay and benefit issues, though, the two sides are discussing the effects on workers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s subsequent decision to eliminate in-store meat cutters and move to prepackaged meats.
And the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, hopes to make the nearly decade-long dispute with Wal-Mart a feature of the national debate over the proposed Employee Free Choice Act pending in Congress, which would make it easier for unions to form collective bargaining units. ...
The 12-member Jacksonville Wal-Mart meat-cutters unit voted 7-3 for union representation on Feb. 17, 2000. In September that year, Wal-Mart said the workers lost their right to union representation because the skilled meat-cutting jobs were replaced by the prepackaged meat program.
According to Tasini, it gets even worse:
...after eliminating the meat cutters position in that one store, The Beast proceeded to close down meat-cutting departments in whole southern region to make sure the "virus" of unionism could not spread. Talk about justice delayed is justice denied: one person out of that 12-member group has died since the vote, and only one remains at the store.
The Employee Free Choice Act would make sure that people get a fair hearing in a timely fashion. And I agree with Tasini's opinion that Democrats who undermine EFCA should face primary challenges. If people have the courage to stand up to a company and vote for union representation, they deserve to be protected from corporate game playing that drags the process on for years.
FedEx could cancel contracts for $10 billion in American-made planes if Congress makes it easier for unions to organize the delivery giant's workers.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the Memphis-based company disclosed that purchases of Boeing 777s are contingent on FedEx Express' continued coverage by the National Railway Labor Act.
The disclosure serves as a warning shot to lawmakers seeking to put FedEx Express workers under the National Labor Relations Act, a move seen as helping the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
"It's FedEx political hardball at its finest," said analyst Donald Broughton with Avondale Partners. In a research note Monday, he wrote: "We see FedEx's action as a deft political move that aligns the interests of Boeing and GE with FedEx, and pits the interests of the Teamsters against the interests of the machinist and several other trade unions."
FedEx is threatening to buy French-made Airbuses to upgrade its fleet instead. Why does corporate America hate our country and its workers?
UPDATE: FedEx isn't the only corporation that likes to play hardball. Via Washington Monthly comes information about a recent WSJ article. It basically says banks sent the following message to President Obama after Congress moved to tax their bonuses:
When administration officials began calling them to talk about the next phase of the bailout, the bankers turned the tables. They used the calls to lobby against the antibonus legislation, Wall Street executives say. Several big firms called Treasury and White House officials to urge a more reasonable approach, both sides say. The banks' message: If you want our help to get credit flowing again to consumers and businesses, stop the rush to penalize our bonuses.
Real patriotic, huh? These bankers ruined our economy, put people out of work and literally on the street, and they still want to call the shots. And they wonder why Main Street is so outraged.
The latest Gallup Poll shows that 53 percent of respondents favor a new law that would "make it easier for labor unions to organize workers" versus 39 percent of respondents who oppose such a law. This is amazing support considering the efforts big business is taking to fight it.
Citibank, BOA, Wal-Mart, Burger King, and a couple hundred other U.S. Chamber of Commerce companies are prepared to spend $200 million on advertising and lobbying to block the Employee Free Choice Act. They're also saying some pretty strange things in the process, according to economist Dean Baker.
Recently, they have sought to promote the argument that unions lead to higher unemployment. To help push this case they have been circulating a study that examines differences in unionization rates and unemployment among Canadian provinces. This study purports to find that a 3 percentage point increase in unionization rates leads to a 1 percentage point increase in unemployment. Based on this study, the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act argue that any resulting increase in unionization will cost millions of jobs.
This propaganda is actually being pushed by "something called the Alliance to Save Main Street Jobs" - an alliance that happens to include that bastion of "Main Street," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."
Baker questions their reasoning:
Of course the immediate response might be to ask, if this study's findings are accurate, why Canada's unemployment rate isn't 7 percentage points higher than the U.S. rate? Canada's unionization rate is about 20 percentage points higher than in the U.S., yet its unemployment rate is somewhat lower.
He also goes on to point out that there's a large body of research on this topic, and the most recent research finds no link between unemployment and unionization rates.
UAW members signed a giant card letting Sen. Bob Corker know what they thought of his union-posting tactics last year, and then they held a rally at the state capitol in Tennessee and delivered it to his office.
These are a couple of the comments from people who either work at the GM plant in Spring Hill or retired from the company:
"[Corker] needs to stop his prejudice against the UAW, hard working men and women of the UAW helped build the middle class, we wont take his prejudice lying down," said Dale Bradford, a 30-year GM worker as he signed a huge Valentine for the senator.
"How can they keep sending jobs overseas? Sooner or later it is going to catch up with and obviously it has," said Duane Charleton, another retired Spring Hill GM worker.
What was Corker's response? His office issued the following statement:
"Times are tough and we certainly understand the high level of emotions and frustration that many are feeling, but the union's focus on Senator Corker is misguided. I can assure you that any malicious feelings are not mutual and that Sen. Corker, a former union member, construction worker, and self-made businessman, will continue working every day to get credit flowing and our economy back on track."
Yeah, right, that's why he voted NO on the stimulus package. Heckuva job, Corker.
Michigan's Republicans voted NO on creating jobs too. Our economy is drowning and they wouldn't even hand us a lifeline. Heckuva job.
There's been a huge shift in power in recent years from labor to capital: corporate profits have been rising much faster than wages for some time now. It makes sense that capital would make use of its newfound power to reduce labor costs in a deflationary environment of rising unemployment. During the boom, companies laid off workers because those workers demanded, and cost, too much money. Now that workers have lost their negotiating leverage, we might start seeing more across-the-board pay cuts.
Drum summed it up perfectly: Heads I win, tails you lose! In boom times you get laid off, in slack times you get your pay cut.
Labor may finally be gaining an ally in Washington. Rep. Hilda Solis of California will be nominated as labor secretary by President-elect Barack Obama. Solis co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act in the 110th Congress and earned a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO last year.
Solis is 100 percent in labor's camp, and she won't need training wheels to get up-to-speed. What we don't know yet is how big a voice she will have when it comes to going toe-to-toe with the Commerce, Treasury and other Administration voices for business.
She'd better have a huge voice capable of shouting down the likes of Rick Berman and the "Center for Union Facts." Berman runs his own lobbying shop and said he expects to raise almost $30 million for an anti-labor coalition hoping to kill the Employee Free Choice Act.
Solis appears to have the passion and fight though. SEIU president Andy Stern said:
"She probably will be the labor secretary that has been on more picket lines and rallied more in support of workers rights than potentially anyone in American history."
And former Michigan Rep. David Bonior said Solis is "a terrific leader who I know first hand will work tirelessly on behalf of America's working families."
Solis sounds like a good fit. You can read more about her here.
Tom Walsh has a very thoughtful column at the Free Press that reminds certain GOP senators of the Big 3's response after Hurricane Katrina:
...the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the Gulf Coast should have been better prepared.
They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.[...]
Between them, the three Detroit auto companies gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.
That's just one example. Detroit's Big 3 are known for their charity and generosity in communities across our country. Now its their turn to ask for help. Before you just brush them off and say no, consider what else Walsh had to say:
If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for awhile about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a lifebuoy and ask questions later?
That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.
You can do nothing and watch them die, senators.
Or you can rush in immediately with emergency aid - as GM, Ford and Chrysler did in the case of Hurricane Katrina, and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, and during countless other disasters.
And you can hold their feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to make sure they do what's needed to withstand future shocks.
Millions of lives are hanging in the balance, senators, including those of children, seniors and others who rely on the workers for their incomes. Please consider them when you make your decision. This is about more than unions or poorly managed companies. This is about families. They don't deserve to have their feet held to the fire.
"The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest, It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." - William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.
Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the Flint Journal observed it by telling the story of one man who survived the attack, Staff Sgt. Ward Anderson of Chesaning.
It was 7:55 a.m., Dec 7, 1941 and Anderson and some friends had just left church and were thinking about going to the PX for breakfast.
Suddenly planes appeared overhead, flying low and loud. The men didn't pay much attention at first.
"We thought it was probably Navy maneuvers," said Anderson, then 20.
Then they noticed "big red suns" painted on the planes' wingtips: The Rising Sun emblem of Japan.
"I said, 'Oh, hell,'" Anderson said. "Or probably something worse."
Anderson counts himself lucky to have survived the first foreign attack on U.S. soil, which claimed the lives of more than 2,000 and pulled America into the second World War -- 67 years ago today.
His service to our country does not go unnoticed. Anderson wears his "Pearl Harbor Survivor" hat while out in his community and he's often approached by grateful people, rightly so, but we shouldn't let this day pass by without recognizing the sacrifice and service of an industry that has been maligned quite a bit lately - the Big 3. The Detroit News stepped up and recognized them in an editorial today: Remember the Arsenal of Democracy
We note with considerable irony that today, as the fate of Detroit's automakers rests in the hands of Congress, the nation marks the 67th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
In the days after that attack, as the nation geared up for war, the federal government turned to Detroit's automotive industry and asked it to convert its factories to produce military hardware.
In a matter of weeks, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and the other automakers of the time were churning out tanks, planes, Jeeps and other machinery of war. They stopped making passenger cars and turned their full energies toward defending the nation, and agreed to only a minimal profit for their work.
When America's survival was on the line, Detroit didn't ask questions; it pitched in with all its industrial might to save the country. The Big Three's survival is now on the line. We hope Congress remembers the sacrifice the auto industry has made for America and considers carefully whether it would ever want to go into a war of that magnitude again without the Arsenal of Democracy.
I hope Congress also remembers the survivors of WWII, who came home after the war and worked in factories across the country to build a better future for their children and grandchildren. Unionization grew to one-third of the workforce, every income group grew (incomes grew fastest for the lowest-income Americans) and most middle-class Americans had good health care and could look forward to a secure retirement.
The "Greatest Generation" fought in WWII because it was the right thing to do, and they came home and fought for shared prosperity and better living standards for everyone because that was the right thing to do too. As Americans, we honor them by fighting to protect what they worked so hard to give our country.
