Teamsters 237 Rallies Against Bush's Housing Cuts

Update to: Stand with 500,000 New Yorker's, Teamsters and Housing Authority workers on 5-1-08, Rally at City Hall! (4/10/08)

From Joshing politics (5/1/08) :

Teamsters Local 237 was outside City Hall today on the Broadway side of the park. They had a nice sized rally with a great band to get the rhythm going. The issue at hand is the massive amount of cuts that the Bush Administration has handed the NYCHA and the hundreds of layoffs within the city agency. That dismantling of public housing in New York City is a serious detriment to those that can not afford the rents of five borough. Obviously George Bush doesn't care, but these spirited Teamsters do.

Free Trade's working victims #2, Haiti's Government fall's after people cannot afford to eat

"per capita income is just $480 a year"

Is Free Trade a Good Thing for Haiti? Deforested lands, farmers forced out to make "Free Trade" zones, no self-sufficiency, no sustainable agriculture, dependence on imports and a population growth that is estimated at 110% higher than world average and 174% higher than the United States.

Drastic food inflation causes riots

Amid riots and death's, UN forces, led by Brazilian peacekeeping forces and humanitarian food aid, Haiti has overthrow it's leader, in a country where most of it's workers make less than $2 a day. It's a simple fact, with worldwide food inflation, the people in Haiti cannot afford to eat.

When you wonder why we as labor should care, take note that many former US employers in the textile industry have opened up shop in this land, and many in Haiti itself, shut their doors when human rights organizations persisted in campaigns for these workers. These companies who contracted clothing for the likes of Nike and Disney, shut their Haitian factories and headed to countries with even lower regard for labor and human rights, such as China.

Read on and get an idea of the wonderful world of "Free Trade" and "Global" economy

Haiti Tosses Out It's Leader After Promise of Sustainable Agriculture on Barren Land

From Reuters (4/12/08):

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's government fell on Saturday when senators fired the prime minister after more than a week of riots over food prices, ignoring a plan presented by the president to slash the cost of rice.
(continued)
The clash with senators came after the president of the country of 9 million people -- most of whom earn less than $2 a day -- managed to persuade rioters to end a week of violence in which at least five people were killed.

Stone-throwing crowds began battling U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south on April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples.

The unrest spread this week to the capital, Port-au-Prince, bringing the sprawling and chaotic city to a halt as mobs took over the streets, smashing windows, looting shops, setting fire to cars and hurling rocks at motorists.

The Corporate Hands In Haiti

While in the late 90's Disney and Nike clothing contractor H.H. Cutler (a division of VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel companies), moved from Haiti to places in the world with even less human rights and lower pay, in the years since American companies such as Levi's have closed the doors here in the states and opened shop in the country. Workers in the country earn an average of less than $2 a day. A Cintas subcontractor, Haitian American Apparel Co. S.A. (or as workers call it, HAACOSA), has been alleged to have "Severe violation of Haitian Labor Codes and International Labor Standards", from the last link below:

"They lock the gates on us and sometimes put security guards out in front with rifles to prevent us from leaving, said Jacqueline, as she described the method her employer uses to force workers to work over 10 hours a day without compensation. The supervisors would yell and curse at us to finish our quota. My daily quota is sewing 90 dozen zippers on pants for 80 gourds (~$2 USD)."

The factory gets so hot it is like working in fire. Inside the air is so hot and full of dust that I can’t breathe, so I would put my handkerchief around my nose and continue working, she said. HAACOSA doe not have any purified water for us to drink. Instead, there is a tub of water that, I think, is rainwater or something because it is smelly and dirty. I think supervisors pee in the water because it smells so bad. When asked if she drinks the water, she responded, I have to, I don’t have money to buy water.

Life In Our Free Trade Neighbor


From The Associated Press (4/12/08) :

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti, where most people live on less than $2 a day, is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice.

Much of Haiti's once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil decimated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms. To make a profit, the farms that remain often price their crops sharply higher than imported American products, which benefit from generous U.S. government subsidies.

Some aid was on its way Friday. Brazil, which has about 1,200 peacekeepers serving in Haiti, sent an air force plane with 14 tons of food, including beans, sugar and cooking oil. France pledged food and other aid worth $1.6 million. The U.N. World Food Program, which had collected only 15 percent of its Haiti budget before the riots, appealed for donations to meet its $96 million goal.

But the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday that high food prices in the developing world are unlikely to subside anytime soon as price speculation and market failures counteract increases in food production.

This spells disaster in a nation where the World Bank says per capita income is just $480 a year.

Francois, gaunt and balding at 32, doesn't even have that much. Hired as a "transportation inspector" last year by the mayor of the nearby Cite Soleil slum, he has no salary — just an identification card that can be used in the slums to exact bribes or collect fees. His 25-year-old girlfriend also does not work. With no education or skills, their job prospects aren't good in a place where most eligible adults are unemployed.

Mostly, Francois depends on handouts from neighbors and friends. He begs in the street. If all else fails, he hunts for scraps in the garbage piles at the nearby La Saline market, in view of towering stacks of U.S.-produced rice he cannot afford.

Francois and Joseph weren't impressed by the much-anticipated national address of President Rene Preval on Wednesday, delivered as gunshots rang through the capital and protesters yelled for his resignation.

The U.S.-backed leader blamed soaring food costs on Haiti's dependence on foreign imports and a badly damaged infrastructure that makes shipping difficult. A trained agronomist, Preval also pledged to build up Haitian agriculture and make the country more self-sufficient, offering government loans to help farmers afford fertilizer.

His message was lost on this couple. Like thousands of urban poor in the capital, they fled the hopelessness of the countryside in their youth. At age 10, Francois was given away by his rural parents to a family in Port-au-Prince, who forced him to work as a servant until he turned 18.

For them, promises to grow more food in the increasingly barren countryside are meaningless.

"By the time rice grows here, we'll all be dead," Francois said. "Preval is a country man. He should go plant rice."

In Haitian slang, Francois and Joseph describe their hunger pangs as "eating Clorox" because of the burning sensation in their guts. Flashing a sheepish smile, Joseph said they sometimes resort to a traditional hunger palliative — cookies made of dirt, salt and butter.

More People and No Sustainable Agriculture

One of the biggest problem in Haiti is that most of it's food is imported, most of it's own farmers have, been run off their land for "Free Trade" areas or have abandoned their farms due to much cheaper US Subsidized Agriculture, another major player is the population growth figures, Haiti has had an increase of 2.45% in 2007, thats more than twice as high as the world average, and almost triple that of the United States. Obviously unaffordable food and more people is a deadly mix.

Heres the stats on Haiti,

The following diagram shows the levels of exports and imports of the country over the years.



The country became a member of the World Bank in the year 1953. The country is also a member of the trade organizations like WTO and CARICOM.

From CIA.gov

World

Population growth rate:	1.167% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	20.09 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	8.37 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

United States

Population growth rate:	0.894% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	14.16 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Haiti

Population growth rate:	2.453% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	35.87 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	10.4 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

In Conclusion

My quick conclusion, not being the expert on Foreign affairs and this travesty in Haiti, more education and less population growth would be a good start. Any true trade pact should have this type of thing involved in it, we simply cannot just rape a country dry without helping the people create their own sustainable environment, so, is Free Trade a good thing? When people come somewhere closer to the top, with actual human rights, with regulated monitoring. With Corporate investment into the communities they invade. Will that happen? I really don't know, in this world where you need consumers, it seems that the corps are killing their own businesses. Constantly fretting on this quarters bottom line and not foreseeing past that, the entire corporate structure is flawed in it's methods. When there were businessmen who wanted to achieve their dreams of highly sought after products, and the leading products in their respective fields amidst competition, they looked past a 3 month span. They invested in the future of their companies. In todays world we have a few CEO and board members who look to get the highest bonus and pay in very small sections of time. It's a losing proposition. Especially when no one can afford their products. Biofeul's using the food supply is a huge contributer to the food demand, but then again theres another story for another day...

Also read Part 1: "Free Trade's working victims, Bangladesh's workers cannot afford rice, John McCain on free trade"

Also: "The cost of food: facts and figures"

More links of Corporations in Haiti From Hartford Web Publishing

Disney/Nike Contractor Leaves Haiti for China

Campaign for Labor Rights, Action Alert, 8 August 1998. H.H. Cutler is planning to pull production out of Haiti to relocate to China. More than 2,000 badly needed jobs in Haiti could be lost. H.H. Cutler (a division of VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel companies) has sewn clothing in Haiti for the last several years under contract with the Walt Disney Company and Nike.

Disney/Haiti workers threatened

Labor Alerts, 26 October 1998. Concerning the Megatex factory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which produces clothing for the Disney company. The worker organization, Batay Ouvriye, reports that a factory supervicor threatened two union members at Megatex with firing and violence.

No work at Megatex; no answer from Disney

Campaign for Labor Rights, Labor Alerts, 16 May 1999. Megatex, a factory in Port-au-Prince which manufacturers clothing for Disney and other brands and which has been the focus of several previous labor alerts. The entire export production sector is spiraling down. Foreign capital is deserting the country. The company remains silent.

Haiti private sector decries ‘climate of terror’

By Michael Deibert, Reuters, 24 November 2002. In another blow to embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's largest private sector association blamed high authoritiesclimate of terror. The business group calls for the arrests of some government supporters. for allowing a

Betting on its brand name, Hilton sees a future in Haiti: Poor economy, protests fail to dim chain's vision

By Marika Lynch, The Miami Herald, Friday 20 December 2002. The walls are to be 15 feet tall in the planned Hilton D'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. The 196-unit, $52.5 million complex is shooting for a 2005 opening. The Hilton D'Haiti hopes to attract business people seeking to slip into the country and avoid the trek—and the safety risks—of heading downtown.

Farmers forced out as global brands build Haiti free-trade area

By Jacqui Goddard, Ouanaminthe, Haiti, The Sunday Times, 6 July 2003. The Maribahoux Plain is one of Haiti's most fertile agricultural regions. Located on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, it has a production capacity enough to feed half a million people. But under a scheme funded by the World Bank, 54 peasant farmers have been evicted to free up land for an industrial Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

Levi Strauss moving to Haiti; N. American plants closing in March

By Don Thomas, The Edmonton Journal, Saturday 4 October 2003. Levi Strauss closing its North American plants and ramping up production in Third World countries, including Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. With help from the World Bank, Grupo M, the Dominican Republic's largest employer, has opened a plant in a free trade zone in nearby Haiti.

Labor Abuses At CINTAS Producing Factory in Haiti

UNITE, [21] October 2003. The working conditions of the women garment workers at a Cintas subcontractor, Haitian American Apparel Co. S.A. (or as workers call it, HAACOSA). Severe violation of Haitian Labor Codes and International Labor Standards, as well as Cintas' own Code of Conduct.

Free Trade's working victims, Bangladesh's workers cannot afford rice, John McCain on free trade

I would call the price changes, which followed the high price of oil, as a crime against humanity - Dr Sajjad Zohir, Dhaka Economic Research Group

After 7 weeks, American Axle says the UAW offer to end the strike is not good enough, while it threatens to leave the USA for good.

Do you blame them if, thanks to "Free Trade", they can go to the lowest bidding country, where workers can not even afford to buy rice at $.40 a pound?

The American dream was sold out, at the end side of this article I add some information about Hillary's husband, her campaign strategist and John McCain's very ugly record's on protecting American workers.


Food lines have become longer as prices have gone up, Fights over food frequently break out in the queues

Bangladesh faces food crisis

From BBC (4/10/08) :

There is a simple enough way of judging how serious Bangladesh's food crisis has become this year - it is to count the changing number of people queuing up to buy government-subsidized rice each day.

As the weeks have passed and the sun above Dhaka has become stronger, so the queues are now forming earlier, and more and more people are joining them.

The shops are little more than bamboo and sheet-metal sheds set up on patches of waste ground, and the men working in them are soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles. This unit's normal job is to guard the country's borders. But for months now it has been helping preserve the country's stability by selling cheap food to the poor.

The rice they sell is three-quarters of the market price.

Originally the shops saw the poorer class of people, the rickshaw pullers and day laborers, but recently the higher paid, such as teachers, security guards and government workers are on the line waiting to get rice from the government subsidized shops. Bangladesh is known for it's garment factories, whose clothes are exported to such outfits as Levis and H&M among others, but factory owners are reluctant to raise wages due to stay competitive with China.

Now you might think that we are talking a lot of money for rice, but in fact the wages are so low in the country that the working class must stay in line, often fighting with other people to get the staple food in their country, rice, for 3/4 of the going rate.

So, what exactly is the going rate*?

Almost 2 lb's of rice sells for around $0.94 United States dollars.

Even if the family needed 40 pounds of rice, at the regular price, thats only $20

Working class people, who are making the products which were once made in the United states are so underpaid by these multi-national corporations that they cannot even afford rice.

The shoppers are no longer just rickshaw pullers and day-labourers, as they were in January, but government workers, security guards and teachers.

Instead of two orderly queues, one of men, the other of women, there are now often four queues, and a scrum of frustrated people at the front.

"The price rise has been really hard on the people of Bangladesh," Milon Das, a primary school teacher, said.

"Though I am a teacher, my salary is low, and I cannot afford rice at the normal markets. This is our country's biggest problem."

Social unrest has been predicted if the situation worsens, predicts a former government minister

"There will be chaos, there will be demonstrations, there will be muggings, there will be hijackings, there will be strikes," Mohammed Akhtar Hossein, who works as a security guard at a luxury block of flats, said.

"If people don't have food in their stomachs they will go out into the streets to take whatever they can because they have to survive."

This is the cost of Free Trade

The cost of Free Trade, it is destroying the entire planet. Almost 500 textile mills in the United States have closed their doors for good here in America since Bill Clinton slammed the Bush written NAFTA into law against Congress, Bush Jr. has been adding Free Trade agreements all along, Now Bush has been trying to slam the Colombian Free Trade Agreement through Legislature and with a mostly partisan Congressional vote to slow the Fast Track status of the agreement, he almost accomplished his task.

I'm not saying that this is a Dem/Rep thing, but you can tell who stands to gain by the agreement, or is too stupid to realize that extending Free Trade to the absolute worst country for a worker isn't a good idea, you can see them by their NO vote to slow down the fast track decision on the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. Take a look at the tally here, Republicans are in italic.

As a matter of fact Bill Clinton has made a lot of money speaking in favor of Colombia Free Trade and Hillary's campaign strategist has been at meetings lobbying for the agreement.

John McCain is no winner either, he has stated he is a "free trader", he also voted in favor of NAFTA, CAFTA and other bad trade deals.

[1]McCain Has Voted for Every Other Bad Trade Agreement That Has Come Up. McCain votes in support of any and all trade agreements regardless of their negative impacts on U.S. workers. He voted for trade agreements with Oman, Singapore, Chile and Morocco, among others, as well as for Fast Track bills to make it easier for the president to enact trade agreements without strong worker protections.[2]

McCain in 1999: “I Would Negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Almost Any Country.” “If I were president, I would negotiate a free trade agreement with almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us.” [3]

And John McCain has not protected workers from the ill affects of these agreements

McCain Supported President Bush’s Outsourcing Efforts. McCain voted to allow overseas outsourcing of government contracts after President Bush’s economic advisers released a report saying America should outsource its jobs. [4]

McCain Voted Against Limiting Tax Breaks to Companies That Re-Import Foreign Manufactured Goods. He voted against a bill to tax multinational companies on income from foreign factories when goods are shipped back to the United States and to require companies to notify employees and give a reason before they move their jobs overseas. [5]

McCain Supported Waiving and Weakening Buy American Laws. McCain voted to allow the Secretary of Defense to waive Buy American laws for defense systems and place our defense manufacturing industry in jeopardy. He also voted to exempt defense goods from six European countries from Buy American requirements that traditionally have required most military equipment and defense systems to be manufactured in the United States. [6]

McCain Voted to Allow Unsafe Foreign Trucks on U.S. Roads. McCain voted against an amendment to prohibit Mexican trucks from operating beyond a limited border zone because they are not held to the same safety standards as U.S. trucks. [7]

McCain Abstained from Voting to Protect Steel Jobs. McCain abstained from a vote to filibuster a bill to protect steelworker jobs from illegal dumping after 10,000 steelworkers lost their jobs. [8]

McCain Voted Against Providing Health Insurance for Employees and Retirees of Bankrupt Steel Companies. McCain voted against a measure that provided temporary health insurance assistance to retirees of bankrupt steel companies. [9]

The EPI (Economic Policy Institute), states in part "since China entered the WTO in 2001, job loss has increased to an average of 353,000 per year. U.S. jobs"[1]

NAFTA was the beginning of the Global adjustment which we are all now seeing with our own eyes. Current administration bullying our jobs away with henchmen on both sides are doing everything in their power to make it worse.

---

Notes: *from the above article "The price of a kilogram of coarse rice, the staple food of Bangladesh's poor, has more than doubled over the past 12 months, to about $0.60 (30p)."
.60 Euros = 0.94938 U.S. dollars
1 kilogram = 35.2739619 ounces
[1] John McCain Revealed [2] S. 33569, Vote #190, 6/29/06; H.R. 2739, Vote #318, 7/31/03; H.R. 2738, Vote #319, 7/31/03; H.R. 434, Vote #353, 11/3/99; H.R. 3009, Vote #115, 5/16/02, Vote #117, 5/21/02, Vote #207, 8/1/02; S. 1269, Vote #292, 11/4/97 [3] (Speech to the National Press Club, 5/20/99) [4] S.1637, Vote #32, 3/4/04 [5] S.1637, Vote #83, 5/5/04 [6] S. 2400, Vote #135, 6/22/04; S. 1050, Vote #191, 5/21/03 [7] H.R. 2299, Vote #252, 7/26/01 [8] H.R. 975, Vote #178, 6/22/99 [9] S.Amdt. 3433, Vote #117, 5/21/02

Stand with 500,000 New Yorker's, Teamsters and Housing Authority workers on 5-1-08, Rally at City Hall!

Local 237/NYCHA members are stretched to the point of collapse, and residents of public housing – 500,000 citizens of NYC – are threatened with destruction of core services.

From Central Labor Council e-update
Teamsters Local 237 Rally at City Hall to Stop NYCHA Cuts – Thursday, May 1st, 12:00pm at City Hall. During the last eight years, the Bush administration has slashed the budget for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) by $611 million. As a result of the latest cuts announced by Bush, NYCHA has now announced it may be forced to lay off 190 more employees. Local 237/NYCHA members are stretched to the point of collapse, and residents of public housing – 500,000 citizens of NYC – are threatened with destruction of core services. Teamsters Local 237, representing 8,000 employees of NYCHA, has called a rally to spotlight the Bush destruction of public housing in NYC. Show your solidarity by supporting our Local 237 brothers and sisters at this rally!

From Teamster Local 237's website:

The layoffs, scheduled for mid-April, include only one of the 8,000 Local 237 members who work for NYCHA, but lacking support staff, “Members will have to work even harder,” President Gregory Floyd was quoted in The Chief Leader as saying. About 1,500 of our members both live and work at HA facilities. “I hope the residents of public housing who have been silent and who need these services desperately begin to speak out.”

At press time, NYCHA was planning to send a caravan of 20 buses to Albany filled with public housing tenants, tenant advocates and labor union representatives to lobby for increased state funding for NYCHA.
Read More

Jimmy Hoffa, on campaign through PA. stops for an interview on Free Trade

Thanks to Kevin at Union Review for pointing this out, and Richard who wrote about this yesterday

Hundreds of Union Members Will Lose Their Jobs When Hershey Moves to Mexico. Hoffa will speak to these workers tomorrow

04/08/2008 - 3:05pm

Richard

Hundreds of workers will be out of work once Hershey closes one of its plants in Reading, Pa and moves on off to Mexico.

In an effort to raise awareness of how horrible it is for this to be happening (because of NAFTA), Teamster President Hoffa will be in Reading tomorrow at noon to talk with the workers and the press. If you are there or near, you will want to read this to know where to go.
(continued)
For more than six months, we have covered the news that the Hershey plant in Reading, Pa. would be closing and heading to Mexico. Aside from the insult of making America's favorite food in another country, hundreds of Teamster jobs will be eliminated. (Someone wake me up when NAFTA helps American workers).

You might have heard that the Teamsters Union is on a road trip through Pennsylvenia to talk to members about jobs, the economy, this country's failed trade policies and Senator Barack Obama's positions on these and other issues affecting working families.

For more information about the Hershey workers and the decision to move the Pepperment Patty plant to Mexico, check out these stories:

http://unionreview.com/hershey-foods

http://unionreview.com/hersheys-fiesta-when-does-worker-beating-stop

http://unionreview.com/hershey-close-reading-plant

http://unionreview.com/teamsters-hit-road%21

http://unionreview.com/hershey-learns-mexico-and-now-sells-candy-spiffy-new-drug-packets

From (4/9/08) :

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Teamsters leader stumps for Obama in Reading (with video) Move of Peppermint Patty plant example of bad trade policy, says James P. Hoffa.
By Mary Young, Reading Eagle

Berks County, PA - A mint wrapped in chocolate and dressed in silver and blue is the best example of the failings of the national trade policy, the leader of the country’s most powerful labor union said Wednesday.

James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the Hershey plant that makes York Peppermint Patties would not be moving to Mexico from Reading at the end of the year if the United States had balanced trade laws.

Companies are moving operations to foreign countries because labor is cheaper, but America is getting nothing in return, he said.

The North American Free Trade Agreement and others based on it should be scrapped and replaced with a policy that says the United States will buy products only from countries that buy products from the United States, he said.

If the balance gets out of whack, America should follow the lead of European countries and impose duties and tariffs, Hoffa said today in an exclusive interview with the Reading Eagle.

---

WATCH: James P. Hoffa discusses why he is supporting Barack Obama

WATCH: Hoffa talks about his personal life

DISCUSS: Presidential Campaign Forum

---

“We don’t want to build a wall around America,” he said. “We want fair trade.”

Hoffa, son of the most famous Teamster in history, Jimmy Hoffa, arrived in Berks County in a convoy of four trucks driven by Teamsters.

He talked to about 300 workers at Associated Wholesalers Inc. in Robesonia and 50 workers at the Hershey plant on North Eighth Street.

The message he delivered is that Teamsters should vote for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in Pennsylvania’s primary election April 22.

Obama of Illinois and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York are in a tight race for the Democratic nomination.
“I believe he will change this country,” Hoffa said. “I don’t think Hillary is going to change. Hillary is basically the 1990s. We need new ideas.

“He said he will change NAFTA. We’ll take out all of those benefits and subsidies. There would be incentives for companies to stay here.”

Hoffa said he recalls President Clinton saying NAFTA would be wonderful for the country.

“Just the absolute opposite happened,” he said. “It was like a nightmare.”

Job losses, such as the 250 expected at Hershey, hurt the workers and the community in which they pay taxes and buy the necessities, Hoffa said.

“It’s an epidemic,” he said. “It’s got to stop.”

Obama has pledged to create jobs, and one way he would do it would be investing in development of alternative energy sources, Hoffa said.

Instead of making candy, American workers may be manufacturing windmills or generators, he said.

“There are no simple answers to this,” he said. “We could say that there’s no hope, and no matter what we do we’re doomed. I don’t believe that.”

The Teamsters can make a difference in setting policy and the outcome of an election because the union has a membership of more than 1.4 million, including 23,000 workers added in the last 10 months, Hoffa said.

More Teamsters are registered to vote and actually vote than the rest of the population, he said.

“They (candidates) listen to the union,” he said. “We have a major impact on every race.”

Barrie N. Higo Jr. of Maidencreek Township, the head union steward at Hershey, said Hoffa was 100 percent correct.
“You have these companies moving to Mexico and taking our jobs there,” he said. “Are you getting a reduction in candy prices? Absolutely not.

“There’s going to be 250 good jobs leaving Pennsylvania. We’re mad as hell about it. This is what NAFTA has done to this country.”
Contact reporter Mary Young at 610-478-6292 or myoung@readingeagle.com.

Theres a lot more of the interview at that site. Yes, we have been writing about the Hershey's move for quite some time, I would also suggest you watch the Carpenters release about "Globalization" entitled "Carpenters video release: Globalization, who's next? A must see for all US construction workers"

TX, MO: Western Union screwing 640 CWA union workers in favor of non-union, Mexican and overseas operations

"Western Union is an American icon. Today, it has turned its back on the very employees who built the company into a multinational enterprise,"

A corporation is legally bound by law to show a profit to its investors at any cost. Western Union is now joining the group of corporate scum who are moving operations to the lowest bidder, who have subverted U.S. and/or Canadian wages, in favor of areas and countries with lower or almost absent labor conditions, this group includes Carhartt, Red Wing boots, Hersheys, Mens Wearhouse and so many others.

Found this on CWA Local 6377 website (3/21/08):

CWA Slams Western Union Plan to Close U.S. Facilities

CWA is condemning Western Union Financial Services Inc., for its announced plans to close three facilities in Missouri and Texas and shift that work to non-union and overseas operations.

Some 640 workers in Dallas, Texas, and Bridgeton and St. Charles, Missouri, members of CWA Locals 6377 and 6178, were told they will lose their jobs over the next five months.

"It's apparent to me that Western Union has determined that it would prefer to operate as a union-free enterprise," said District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn.

"CWA will do everything legally possible to stop these centers from closing and stop Western Union from moving our work to non-union operations, both in the United States and overseas," said CWA Staff Representative Mike Neumann, who heads the Western Union bargaining team.

Last month, CWA Local 6377 filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Western Union, charging that company managers have tried to coerce union members and subvert the bargaining process. The local also charged that earlier layoffs announced by Western Union – of 150 workers in Bridgeton and Dallas – were an act of retaliation against the workers and the union for refusing to engage in concessionary early bargaining.

Western Union said it plans to transfer the work to non-union locations including Denver and offshore facilities in Costa Rica, Manila, Mexico City and Mexicali, Mexico.

"Western Union is an American icon. Today, it has turned its back on the very employees who built the company into a multinational enterprise," said Earline Jones, president of CWA Local 6377.

Olivia Espinosa, president of CWA Local 6178 in Dallas, said "Western Union is a greedy, profitable company that doesn't seem to care about the excellent customer service our CWA members now provide. And that's bad news for customers."

Thats bad news for American Workers

Take a look at the Men’s Wearhouse workers who will lose their job.

Update to->Montreal, Ca : Men's Waerhouse closing factory for higher profits and turning it's back on 600 workers, tell the CEO how you feel (3/17/08)

From the link above:

Continuing the displacement of good jobs here in North America to countries of lower labor standards, Men's Wearhouse, who also owns Canadian retail chain Moores and had a reported revenue of $1.9 billion last year, is closing it's factory in Montreal in order to "remain competitive” in the words of CEO George Zimmer. You can tell Mr. Zimmer how disgusted you are thanks to a E-Action campaign sponsored by UNITE-HERE, which can be found at Tell George Zimmer: Our Jobs Matter!

Now the union representing these worker has created a new blog site, which among other things, lets you 'get to know' the workers who will be displaced, this is another in a long line of travesties which have occured since the inception of "Free Trade" and "Global" economy.

The North American industry that has helped workers to have a career is not only going South, it's going to the lowest possible labor standard nations. When does this madness end? We are now bowing down to conditions of third world nations. Heres some clippings from the new Blog site Our Job's Matter

This March, Men’s Wearhouse announced that it is shutting down a factory with highly-skilled, productive workers to move its production overseas - even though the company has seen its profits rise each year. By moving its clothing production to countries where low pay is the norm, we suspect that Men’s Wearhouse executives think that they can cut their costs and pocket larger profits at the cost of the jobs and futures of the 600 employees who make the suits here in North America.

Golden Brand factory was founded in 1961 in Montreal. Since then, workers at the factory have been making quality suits, helping to build the reputation of Moores Clothing for Men and its parent company, Men’s Wearhouse. Among these workers you will find 21 different nationalities, single mothers, and generations of family members working together. For many of these workers, Golden Brand is like a second home. To meet some of these workers and hear their stories, check out our Worker Stories below.

Vicky Marashlian

Vicky has been working at Golden Brand for 24 years and has been a union delegate for even longer - 30 years - since she worked at other shops before starting at Golden Brand in 1984.

Vicky immigrated to Montreal from Romania and has sponsored many of her family members to come to Canada. She makes the pockets you see on the suits you wear.

The announcement of the closure is very painful for her.
“I would give anything to support the people here. We came here as immigrants looking to make a better living and we gave so much to this company – now look what’s happening.”

Vicky wants to keep this factory open and is willing to fight with her brothers and sisters at Golden Brand. “If one door is closed, there is an open window elsewhere. When there is a will, there is a way!”

Manuel Fontes

Manuel has been working at Golden Brand for the last 6 years, but he has worked in the Montreal garment manufacturing industry for over 30 years.

His Portuguese roots represent one of the 21 nationalities working in this factory and he himself can carry on a conversation in at least 4 languages. Manuel is not interested in finding a job in another industry. “This industry is my background. I love the work I do.”

Since the announcement of the planned closure, Manuel is motivating his brothers and sisters at Golden Brand to stay strong. “Our lives and our work should never be sacrificed for imports and greater profit. It is through our work that we gain our dignity and create our path as active citizens. I will do whatever it legally takes to keep Golden Brand Open!”

Claudia Martinez

Claudia is 39 years old and has worked at Golden Brand for 20 years – more than half of her life. Born in El Salvador, Claudia came to Montreal to escape civil war in her homeland and to seek better opportunities for herself and her family. She has two children whom she supports with her job.

“It hurts to hear this news,” says Claudia. “To be kicked out after giving twenty years to this company – it’s very hard. An American company has come in and is doing whatever it wants to make money. Without good jobs like these, how will we take care of our children and give them the opportunities and education that we didn’t have? We will do whatever we can to keep this place open.”

Check out the site and and don't forget to Tell George Zimmer: Our Jobs Matter!

Scab truck driver and local police lead to arrest of 3 American Axle picketers and the BIG 3 not meeting the needs of our future mandatory vehicle

GM stands to gain in hard fought strike, "When its plants began to shut down because of parts shortages, the auto giant gave its full support to AAM’s decision to inflict a decisive defeat on its workers."

Video Above(please check site if video isn't showing via E-Mail)Several striking auto workers in Detroit were arrested on the picket line at American Axle and Manufacturing on Friday morning, March 14, as the company moved a number of semis through the picket lines. Local police and the local media outlets had been mobilized in force in an obvious, orchestrated effort to provoke a confrontation and force an end to the strike. For more information visit www.wsws.org.

From: World Socialist Web Site 3-15-08

Auto workers on strike at American Axle and Manufacturing (AAM) in Detroit and New York are facing a sharp escalation of attacks in their struggle to prevent the company from carrying through a brutal two-thirds reduction in their wages and benefits. The 3,650 AAM workers organized in the United Auto Workers union walked out more than two weeks ago.

On Friday morning, March 14, the company executed what appeared to be a carefully orchestrated effort at the company’s main production facility in Detroit, involving local police and news media to provoke a confrontation and force an end to the strike.

Approximately a dozen squad cars and twice as many uniformed officers accompanied by vans and plain-clothes cops were mobilized when the company moved large semi-trailers through the St. Aubin Street gate of the huge American Axle complex. Three picketers were arrested, charged with disorderly conduct, handcuffed and taken away in police vans.

Soon after the arrests, reporters from the World Socialist Web Site visited the picket lines and interviewed strikers. A witness to the incident reported that one of the truck drivers got out of his vehicle and approached the pickets in an apparent deliberate effort to cause a provocation.

The police then escorted the scab back to his truck while other officers arrested and handcuffed three of the pickets. As the witness reported, “They didn’t take him to jail, but they took three of our guys to jail that were just standing in the way. Now what’s up with that?” he asked. “To me, that’s illegal.”

Local media outlets responded with breaking-news reports of violence and arrests on the picket lines and video images of strikers being hauled away in handcuffs. As an example, in a story headlined “Strikers Handcuffed During Scuffle,” the web site for Channel 4, the local NBC affiliate, wrote, “Detroit police were called to the St. Aubin strike location Friday morning to control a situation that turned violent.”

According to eyewitnesses, the only violence was carried out by a lone scab truck driver supported by a large number of police. The provocative character of the incident and the inflated and inflammatory response to it in the local media are aimed at intimidating the strikers in preparation for the UAW’s move to end the strike.

As the union has become increasingly integrated into the financial and management structure of the corporations where its members work, it has become common practice for the UAW to move to shut down a strike at the very moment when the workers’ struggle begins to exercise its greatest economic impact. Such is the current danger at American Axle.

General Motors, AAM’s principal client receiving 80 percent of parts produced by company, has a large stake in the current conflict. When its plants began to shut down because of parts shortages, the auto giant gave its full support to AAM’s decision to inflict a decisive defeat on its workers. Presumably, short-term losses were seen as a necessary sacrifice to insure the extension of the auto industry pattern of brutal cuts in wages and benefits.

However, the published reports this week of a statement by GM Chairman Rick Wagoner that the strike will hurt GM’s first-quarter financial results is a sign that pressure is building in corporate boardrooms to bring the strike to a speedy end. Parts shortages from the strike have forced GM to close all or part of 28 plants, affecting more than 37,000 hourly workers.

In line with these demands, the UAW international union has now taken control of negotiations in the strike in an effort to impose a contract on striking workers. The Associated Press reported on Friday that the international dismissed local union representatives from negotiations on Monday, while declaring that the company had not shifted its demands for sweeping concessions in wages and benefits.

“The union sent its local bargainers back to their factories on Monday and reported that the company wasn’t budging from its earlier proposals,” wrote Tom Krisher for the AP, who went on to report that talks resumed Thursday with “top negotiators for American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. and the United Auto Workers.”

Workers on the picket lines explained the decisive character of their struggle and their dismay at the conduct of the union. “It’s all about looking good on Wall Street,” said Lia. “I may never walk in these doors again if the contract involves cuts.”

Scott said, “The UAW is supposed to be democratic, but we can’t even vote for our own president. Our pay scale has been incorporated into an international contract. They know if we vote the contract down here at this plant, then there are four other plants—some of which are threatened with closure—that they can pressure to accept the deal.”

“I started working here 14 years ago, after leaving the military,” said Steve. “We started at $12.55 an hour. We have had pay increases since then. Now they want to send us back to $14.50? After inflation, that would mean that we would be earning less than we made when we started. This is all about greed, corporate greed. They want to make more money.”
Read Full Story

From Future Of The Unions 3-15-08

Police said the picketers were blocking the path of trucks trying to enter an American Axle plant on the company’s campus. They were arrested at around 10 a.m. at the intersection of St. Aubin and Denton on the Hamtramck-Detroit border, police said.

The company said Friday that during the work stoppage, it has had parts trucked to customers out of its plants. Some of those parts come from the company’s inventory made before the strike and some are being made by salaried workers, Rogers said. “We are trying to meet our customers’ needs to the best of our ability,” she said. “We are doing this in order to help us retain business and the jobs that business provides.”

Adrian King, president of UAW Local 235, said he suspects that the trucks were brought in to rile up strikers.

The incident was the strikers’ first significant confrontation with police since the strike started nearly three weeks ago. “We have been peaceful,” King said. “We have been getting positive feedback from the community and the public.”

Where's my American made Hybrid? Continued downward spiral expected if the BIG 3 don't start making dependable, "mandatory hybrid vehicles"

But what of GM, who has in it's own right, dropped the ball on the American car, failing to see the need of Hybrid vehicles, GM has a few but has hardly advertised them at all. Now, allegedly, workers in Texas are going to lose their jobs. All this while GM is still being trumpeted as huge victors of the 2007 UAW/GM strike. Why bother to build a safe, working hybrid, which is actually a mandated vehicle in New York for all Taxi's by 2012. Where's my American made Hybrid? Not all the workers affected are union members, and the American Axle strike is screwing them too.

From the E-Mail

Even here everything seems to be "Slanted" , take the newest stories talking about the "thousands of GM workers laid-off a because of American Axle". Screw GM what about the hundred thousand or so non-GM workers that are laid-off, at least the "Real" GM workers can draw strike benefits. The rest of us are panicking over how to pay bills on the grossly inadequate unemployment payments.

To make matters worse some of us (Including me) will be permanently laid-off next month due to GM's "De-rate" . Which I can't understand at all, yes sales are dropping but I've seen only two ads for the Tahoe Hybrid both are as weak as the anti-worker ads GM ran just before the contact talks and are rarely played on TV anyhow . You have to really look hard and online for any info on the new GMC truck Hybrid. Half the people I work with had no idea they're making one. My point is these and the "Gas" Tahoe are all made at the Texas plant, but the Janesville plant only makes "Gas" models let people know they can still have the over sized useless monsters who's headlights blind anyone not driving one themselves, and get almost good gas mileage. I'm sure they'll sell and the de-rate can be put off at least until the gas hits $4.00 a gallon. And no one needs to be "kicked to the curb" with "Oops sorry, guess you have find a new job". And yes that pathetic reply was what I was told by my UAW rep when I asked why they weren't doing anything to fight this.

GM, it's not the union workers that are screwing the American car industry, with failure to reinvent the American automobile into a high gas mileage alternative in which many jurisdictions are mandating, the only blame for this mess lies in the mirrors of the upper management. Be completive, create what is wanted to be purchased. This strike is killing a lot of workers here in North America. American Axle's hard line in these negotiations is a major reason. GM not being creative and innovative to the needs of the Governing bodies and that of the people is their own mess, which will hurt everyone in the long run.

Even when I was looking for a US/Canada union made vehicle, I was horrified by the selection. Only Saturn had a hybrid, and the only car which I wanted that was fabricated here with 90% of US parts in the engine and transmission, which had decent gas mileage was what I got, a Chevy Impala. Everything else was the lowest grade car or some monster SUV thing. What a disaster. Also I noticed that New York Taxi's which were predominantly Ford's, Chrysler's and Chevy's are now being restocked as Toyota's. Shame on Ford, GM and Chrysler. Continually blaming the over-priced workers, when in fact their short-sightedness and lower quality designs are to blame for the mess they are in now. The future is bleak to say the least.

Latest News from Google on "American Axle strike"

Montreal, Ca : Men's Waerhouse closing factory for higher profits and turning it's back on 600 workers, tell the CEO how you feel

“I don’t know what I’ll do without this job,” she explains. “The company is forgetting about the workers who have given years of their lives to make the company strong.”

Continuing the displacement of good jobs here in North America to countries of lower labor standards, Men's Wearhouse, who also owns Canadian retail chain Moores and had a reported revenue of $1.9 billion last year, is closing it's factory in Montreal in order to "remain competitive” in the words of CEO George Zimmer. You can tell Mr. Zimmer how disgusted you are thanks to a E-Action campaign sponsored by UNITE-HERE, which can be found at Tell George Zimmer: Our Jobs Matter!

This February, Texas-based men’s apparel giant Men’s Wearhouse – which owns Canadian retail chain Moores as well as MW Tux – announced it will close its Montréal factory where suits for the company are made, leaving 600 workers out in the cold.

Men’s Wearhouse CEO George Zimmer claims they have no choice but to close the factory in order to “remain competitive” – this from a company that reported revenue of $1.9 billion last year. From the same company that has seen its net income more than double between 2005 and 2007 – something doesn’t add up!

Tell me more

Talking Points

By moving its clothing production to countries where low pay is the norm, we suspect that Men’s Wearhouse executives think they can cut costs and pocket larger profits.

Since 1961, workers at Golden Brand factory in Montreal have been making quality suits, helping to build the reputation of Moores and later its parent company, Men’s Wearhouse – and this is how they’re repaid.

You can help workers like Nelia Tavares, who has worked at Golden Brand as a machine operator for 16 years, and her husband who is also employed there.

“I don’t know what I’ll do without this job,” she explains. “The company is forgetting about the workers who have given years of their lives to make the company strong.”

So get E-Active, support your brothers and sisters in Montreal, it's an easy thing to do, send the E-Mail. Click the image below.

Follow up to 'E-Activism can help our returning vets to become workers, not homeless. Help fix the insufficient GI Bill.

Regardless of your views on the war, our returning troops need to get the help they deserve from their former employer, the US government. The last thing we need is more homelessness.

This is a follow up story to: E-Activism can help our returning vets to become workers, not homeless. Help fix the insufficient GI Bill.

Dear Joseph, Our push for a new GI Bill is really picking up steam. This morning, the Today Show on NBC ran a great segment featuring Todd Bowers, IAVA's Director of Government Affairs. Todd served with the Marines in Iraq and was injured in Fallujah. When he came home, he couldn't afford to finish his education, and he was forced to drop out. Take a minute now to watch the clip: It's becoming clear that we're at a critical moment in this process. New Senators and Representatives are signing on to the legislation (bill number S.22 / H.R.2702) almost every day, and the media is taking notice. But there's still work to do. We're going to keep pushing until this generation of vets has a GI Bill that lets them go to college. And your support is crucial in that fight. Please consider contributing to help us keep the pressure on. Sincerely, Paul Rieckhoff Iraq Veteran Executive Director Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

Lets help our returning vets, Get E-Active

As Seen On TV with HBO's The Wire, Tribune Co. drops 120 staff members from NY Newsday.

Critical journalism heading towards extinction
with all due respect to Not for Nothing at The Pheonix.com for the "Life Imitates Art" headline

Scene from HBO's The Wire click the pic to get more info from IMDb

I have pointed working people towards NY Newsday in the past, as it seems to be the only paper to write about local labor issues. It would seem that the owner, Tribune Co., who 2 weeks ago reduced it's staff by 300 workers at its other publications, have decided to cut the NY Newsday staff by 5%, thats 120 staff members.

Examples of local labor stories in which only NY Newsday wrote about, and which myself and Richard from UnionReview.com have covered are as follows:
HIP replaces 186 Downtown, NY jobs, breaking a massive promise
NY: Waldbaum's and A&P screwing 400 local employees and moving to nonunion facilities

The first of the two stories was rejected by the other 3 big papers in NY, according to my source The NY Times stated that it wasn't worldly enough. The second just wasn't news I guess. Funny, I would think that 400 long term, persons who held the jobs getting screwed, would be noteworthy to the larger publications, but those giants focus on such things as India making manhole covers (NY Times-ex. NY Times blows the lid off of Made In India manhole covers in New York) and the outright bashing of union workers (Rupert Murdoch's NY Post- ex. NY Post spin-doctoring and the IATSE Stagehands). There are so many other issues that Newsday has revealed about labor, but that gets me too far from the point.

Tribune Co., the corporate owner of NY Newsday, has recently been at a war of words with the HBO show The Wire, which this season has highlighted one of its publications, The Baltimore Sun, in taking a long hard look at the troubles and tribulations behind the scenes when the local papers have to answer to the corporate ownership and the price the employees and the readers pay in answering those demands. The Baltimore Sun has downplayed the popularity of the series to the point of taking shots at the show in it's critics corner. The Baltimore Sun's critic sites the low ratings of the show and blames it on the newspaper storyline, but even as the writer points out, the On Demand viewership, which gets a person the ability to watch the show a week earlier, cannot be counted. I myself am one of those viewers and so are many of my co-worker's.

This isn't the kind of 'kid with a dunce cap in the corner journalism' I want to read, but if you must, and I made a comment which I hope will appear there, you can check it out at Ratings for HBO's "The Wire" -- more bad news

A bit of history, the writer of The Wire, David Simon, is a former reporter who worked at The Baltimore Sun. From Newsday (1-06-08):

To Simon, finishing "The Wire" with a riff on journalism was obligatory. "Newspapers, which for the duration of the American experiment have been the primary means of monitoring government and other imposed authority, are being eviscerated," he said. "The people who once held us all to some basic account are being laid off, bought out and 'attrited' from newsrooms. Newspaper managers ... tell us they're going to do more with less. You do less with less. That's why they call it less."

Simon nonetheless persuaded the Baltimore Sun's top editor-managers to let him use the paper's actual name - rather than an alias - as well as the name of its parent, the Tribune Company (which also owns Newsday). He agreed to their condition that he not use the names of actual reporters and editors, but he did cast several former Sun reporters and editors in minor roles.

What "Wire" watchers get as a result is Clark Johnson (of Simon's earlier Baltimore-based police series, the celebrated "Homicide: Life on the Street"), as city editor Augustus "Gus" Haynes, Simon's surrogate voice.

Like Simon, Haynes believes newspaper executives are hastening their papers' demise when they retire seasoned veterans in favor of younger, cheaper personnel - if they replace them at all - and emphasize "user-friendly" topics over serious reporting and risky cage-rattling. Simon's Sun includes an executive editor who favors feel-good fluff over depressing dispatches from Baltimore's underbelly and a young reporter so determined to make a marketable name for himself that he doesn't hesitate to invent quotes or, for that matter, sources.

Life imitates art
From ThePheonix.com (1-21-08):

The Los Angeles Times Editor James O'Shea was fired by publisher David D. Hiller for refusing to impose four million U.S. dollars in budget cuts ordered by the publisher, the newspaper confirmed Sunday.

It's the second time in 15 months that a Times editor has been fired for refusing to make budget cuts ordered by the publisher, and comes a month after the closing of an 8.2-billion-dollar buyout of Tribune Co., The Times' parent company, by an employee stock plan and Chicago real estate tycoon Sam Zell.

O'Shea came from the Chicago Tribune in November 2006, a week after Hiller fired Editor Dean Baquet in another dispute over budget cuts, The Times reported.

Hiller, who had been the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, took over as Times publisher in October 2006, succeeding Jeffrey M. Johnson, who had also been fired by executives at Tribune's Chicago headquarters over the same issue of budget cuts, The Times reported.

Life imitates art Redux
A little over a month afterwards, life has imitated art once again, our reporters and staff here in New York, at the paper I read most often, the loudest if not the only voice of local labor struggles, is to lose 5% of it's staff, thats 120 workers, thats less coverage, and thats a real shame. From NY Newsday, in excerpted fashion: Newsday is cutting 120 jobs (2-28-08) By Keiko Morris

Newsday publisher Tim Knight Thursday announced that the newspaper will be cutting about 120 jobs throughout the company, citing declining sales and the "soft advertising revenue environment."

The reduction in Newsday's workforce -- about 5 percent -- comes as many news organizations nationwide have been cutting jobs to survive an already tough and competitive marketplace made more difficult by a slowing economy. Two weeks ago, several other news organizations owned by Newsday's parent company Tribune Co. -- Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant and the Chicago Tribune Media Group -- announced staff reductions affecting about 300 employees.
(continued)

The company did not disclose how many management jobs will be eliminated. Of the union positions, at least 25 of those reductions will take place in the newsroom on top of 13 vacant positions that have gone unfilled. The pressroom will be reduced by at least 24 union positions and the transportation bargaining unit will be reduced by at least five drivers, according to Zachary Dowdy, vice president of the Editorial Unit of Local 406.

The company will reduce the number of union positions through voluntary buyout offers and, if necessary, involuntary layoffs.

Dennis Grabhorn, president Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference/International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said he did not agree with the constant cuts, noting that it has been only a year and a half since the last contract was signed and a substantial job reduction made. "Really all of this paper is doing now is getting rid of more Indians and keeping the chiefs," Grabhorn said.

"I just don't understand how a newspaper being the only daily newspaper on an island with more than 3 million people can have a circulation of less than 400,000 readers," Grabhorn later added. "I find that hard to accept. I don't understand why Newsday cannot sell on this island and that just tells me that Newsday is not putting effort into growing circulation." (continued at site)

I hope that the paper can still have enough reporters to continue it's local labor coverage. I actually look forward to reading it every chance I can and I always hand it off to another person who may not read it often, with the expectation that they too can see the variety of real life issues it has within it's pages and become a buyer also. Tim Knight, don't destroy Newsday, I depend on it.

Reminder: Help give our vets a chance of a secure future of employment. Get E-Active!

There are so many ways we can help our recently returning veterans. The easiest is to send an e-mail via the IAVA: The Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran's of America in support of their 2008 Legislative Agenda. Which I wrote about last week in the story: E-Activism can help our returning vets to become workers, not homeless. Help fix the insufficient GI Bill.

Click below to see proposals.

And a recent video: Storm The Hill day 1

As I stated last week:

The last thing our country needs is more homeless veterans.

You can help, send an E-Active E-Mail to congress asking for them to adopt the IAVA recommendations on rewriting the GI Bill and while your at it put your name on the petition called Drowning Pool, for better Mental Health Care for our vets.

E-Activism can help our returning vets to become workers, not homeless. Help fix the insufficient GI Bill.

Regardless of your views on the war, our returning troops need to get the help they deserve from their former employer, the US government. The last thing we need is more homelessness.

(1)Strained by war, recently discharged veterans are having a harder time finding civilian jobs and are more likely to earn lower wages for years due partly to employer concerns about their mental health and overall skills, a government study says.

The Veterans Affairs Department report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, points to continuing problems with the Bush administration's efforts to help 4.4 million troops who have been discharged from active duty since 1990.

The 2007 study by the consulting firm Abt Associates Inc. found that 18 percent of the veterans who sought jobs within one to three years of discharge were unemployed, while one out of four who did find jobs earned less than $21,840 a year. Many had taken advantage of government programs such as the GI Bill to boost job prospects, but there was little evidence that education benefits yielded higher pay or better advancement.

While there are great mostly independently resources such as Helmets to Hardhats, Hire A Hero, VetJobs and for getting them into the workforce once they return. While the health care isn't horrible, it's just not speedily available, the VA cannot adequately help the most severely injured and the veterans must rely on independent groups such as the Wounded Warrior Project, who I featured in an article in Union Review about a retired Fireman and 638 Steamfitter who go to extreme lengths to help the most severely injured to get the medical attention that our own government fails to. How? They go job to job and sell FDNY, NYPD and Union Construction Workers "Support Our Troops" T-shirts. They aren't alone there are hundreds if not thousands who help the WWP, think of all the good an organization like that could do if the government had kept their end of the bargain, and if Congress doesn't step up to the plate, we are going to have quite a few thousand new homeless veterans in this country.

How can you help our returning vets? Take a look at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America who has made Congressional recommendations in five key areas to assist our new veterans:

(2)mental health, homecoming, health care and benefits, military readiness and government accountability. From these areas, they have chosen six IAVA Legislative Priorities: for 2008.

These men and women who risked their lives for this war need our help. The GI bill needs updating. They need better Mental Health Care.

(2)Rates of psychological injuries among new veterans are high and rising. At least 30 to 40% of Iraq veterans, or about half a million people, will face a serious psychological wound, including depression, anxiety, or PTSD. Multiple tours and inadequate time at home between deployments increase rates of combat stress by 50%.

In addition, when troops are near an exploding mortar or roadside bomb, the blast can damage their brains without visible injury. Traumatic Brain Injury can lead to emotional problems; vision, hearing, or speech problems; dizziness; sleep disorders; or memory loss. Between 150,000 and 300,000 of the 1.5 million Americans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have traumatic brain injuries.

The ramifications of psychological injuries are clear. Untreated mental health problems can and do lead to unemployment, domestic violence, substance abuse, homelessness and suicide. Twenty percent of married troops in Iraq say they are planning a divorce. At least 40,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been treated at a VA hospital for substance abuse. The current Army suicide rate is the highest it has been in 26 years.

and they need better education.

(2)President Roosevelt spoke more simply:

“[The GI Bill] gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”

Today, 1.5 million troops are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to a very different future than the one FDR made possible for the Greatest Generation. The current educational benefits offered to veterans are far lower than the original GI Bill, covering only 60–70% of the average cost of four years at a public college or university, or less than two years at a typical private college. National Guardsmen and Reservists, “citizen soldiers” who leave behind civilian lives to serve alongside active-duty troops, receive even lower education benefits, and are inadequately protected against job discrimination. And Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are already swelling the ranks of the unemployed and the homeless. Nearly 200,000 veterans of all generations are homeless on any given night.

The last thing our country needs is more homeless veterans, they risked their lives for our country.

You can help, send an E-Active E-Mail to congress asking for them to adopt the IAVA recommendations on rewriting the GI Bill and while your at it put your name on the petition called Drowning Pool, for better Mental Health Care for our vets.

Sources: (1) Associated press (2-7-08) (2) IAVA

NY: Waldbaum's and A&P screwing 400 local employees and moving to nonunion facilities

Great Atlantic & Pacific takes our money, then turns it's back on NY workers.

With annual sales of $9.4 billion, Great Atlantic & Pacific operates 456 stores under the A&P, Waldbaum's, A&P Super Foodmart, The Food Emporium, Super Fresh, Pathmark and Food Basics banners. They have plenty of stores here in the NY metro area, they like to take our hard earned, but they don't want us to have good jobs.

This is a story very dear to my heart, I worked as a Teamster here in Brooklyn in Key Foods warehouse 15 years ago, the company moved half the operation to New Jersey and "bought out" half of the union employees. I was one of those who were bought out. While the contract helped the process the New Jersey warehouse got organized. So the remaining employees in New Jersey and the new union employees were all finally without a job within a few years when Key Foods operations finally moved into some New England state where there wasn't a union at all. Last I heard the employees get paid by the piece. So much for good local jobs. I have never stepped foot into a Key Food since. Now I read in NY Newsday that quite a similar situation is happening once again, with the employees out in Central Islip, Long Island, NY. While in conversation with a coworker at the end of the day opened my eyes to the fact that the Central Islip facility has been losing union employees for quite some time, this coworker's mother worked in the clerical division which were union employees at the time, that division was moved out about 10 years ago. The A&P group has also recently closed their Bronx, NY and Edison, NJ warehouses in 2005 when they were bought out by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a Keene, N.H.-based company. Their entire operation will now be moved to nonunion facilities in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. From NY Newsday

The facility, which initially operated decades ago as a Waldbaum's warehouse, employs approximately 400 people, said Kevin McCaffrey, president of Teamsters Local 707, which represents 220 warehouse workers. Another 90 unionized workers, including truck drivers, and about 80 non-union management and support staff also will be affected, he said.
Representatives of A&P and C&S did not return numerous calls seeking comment.

McCaffrey said C&S officials notified workers and the union last week of the plan to shutter the Central Islip warehouse, saying it would save the company some $7 million annually. The unions and C&S had been negotiating a new contract.

One long-time employee said workers took the news hard. "We were in shock," said Joe Mullady of Holtsville, who has worked at the facility for 27 years, most recently as an inventory checker. Mullady said he will retire, but most co-workers "are scrambling to find jobs in a dying industry."

I feel you brother, I remember well. Good luck guys, hope you and your families can make it through. Unfortunately, warehousing isn't a dying industry, it has just become another sweatshop industry here in the state, according to Alex from IWW (Industrial Workers of the World):

Brooklyn, NY, July 2007 - They work 115 hours a week, earning under $4 dollars an hour. In New York City, where minimum wage is $7.15 and a studio apartment may cost $900 a month or more, workers at HWH Trading Company work in conditions that are closer to slavery than anything else.

Here is a blatant case of our losing community, there is absolutely no winner to this story, except a small handful of wealthy individuals at the top.

Who's gonna lose a house? Who's not gonna get paid because these people are trying to make ends meet? This is just another reason that 400 more New Yorkers and all American working people shouldn't vote for anyone who is involved in this:

The economic stimulus package is stalled in the U.S. Senate. Senate Republican leaders—backed by the Bush White House—threatened a filibuster against efforts by Senate Democrats to extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for the millions of jobless workers who will run out of benefits in the next several months.

Shame on the union leaders for the continued lack of rank-and-file and intra-union-communication!

We have absolutely zero boycotting ability, we do not stick together, we collectively give employers zero fear as a unified voice, we stand divided and I don't blame that on the workers in the field.
I will put this to the test in about a week, when I ask the next Teamster I come across about what he thinks about the warehouse closing in Long Island and I'm almost certain will get the curious look of bewilderment that I have come to expect from the average rank and file union member.

Shame on the Federations for not openly supporting one another!

Give us something to believe in. Fight for us! Hire more communication staff! Do it before we're all on the unemployment line! I would say that 98% of the union workforce in the country hasn't a clue that the next truck they will unload has a high probability of having a Mexican driver who has driven it directly from Mexico if the Bush administration has it's way, why isn't the entire country getting prepared to be joining hands and blocking the border together? Why isn't this an infomercial?

More introduction to computers classes for our members, more public relations, more advertising, more community outreach, more presence in the curriculum of the Public schools.

We need to get into the hearts and minds of the youth in America, the future voters and union members. We need to give the public a reason to believe in us once again. We need to equalize the media bombardment of the anti-union lobbyists. My Google ads are 100% anti-union sites, wheres our paid advertising? Defeat lies with truth. When we educate John and Jane Public as to what unions fight for, when they truly believe in us, then we will have more of a right to ask them to vote for our candidates.

Shame on us for being so fucking complacent!

We keep buying the NY Post, who vehemently hates organized labor, we buy Carhartt clothes, who turned it's back on union construction workers who made them famous and has now removed their final 5 Made in the USA items from it's website and we buy Red Wing shoes without checking the label while they are quietly moving their operations to China. We invest against our own interests, we still shop in Wal-Mart, we showed that we didn't give a shit if it was made here, we don't care if a child made it, we don't care if it poisons our children. We bitch about our union leaders and don't make an effort for change. We made our bed.

40 years ago there would be a massive boycott of all their stores in the New York area, now we all just bend over and take it up the...

Like I said before, I took this story personal. My old warehouse job in Brooklyn which paid $700+ for 40 hours, is now being done for $460 for 115 hours (with no taxes being paid)

Yeah I'm mad, and you should be too