Today In Labor History: April 7

April 7, 1919—A Workers Republic was declared in Bavaria by the anarchists in the fledgling soviet republic, against the wishes of the Communists in the government. The Socialists sent in troops, massacring over 700. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 7, 1933—Prohibition ended, allowing unions to once again freely organize workers in the bars and workers to once again drink freely. As Oscar Wilde said, “Work is the curse of the drinking class.”

April 7, 1947 - The National Federation of Telephone Workers (NFTW) launched the first nationwide strike against AT&T and Bell. As many as 300,000 telephone workers walked off the job. By mid-May 18, 37 of the 39 member unions had won new contracts with raises. NFTW became the Communications Workers of America later that year. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—November 14

November  14, 1903 – The National Women's Trade Union League formed in Boston. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 14, 1916 – Margaret Sanger was arrested for operating a birth control clinic. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 14, 1918 – Striker workers were gunned down in Granges, Switzerland. (From theDaily Bleed)

November 14, 1938 - The National Federation of Telephone Workers was founded in New Orleans, later becoming the Communications Workers of America, which is now one of the largest unions in the United States. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 14, 1942 – An attack on a man believed to be an informer at the Poston concentration camp and the subsequent arrest of two popular inmates led to a giant strike by interned Japanese Americans. A similar uprising took place at the Manzanar concentration camp the following month. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today In Labor History: April 7

April 7, 1919—A Workers Republic was declared in Bavaria by the anarchists in the fledgling soviet republic, against the wishes of the Communists in the government. The Socialists sent in troops, massacring over 700. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 7, 1933—Prohibition ended, allowing unions to once again freely organize workers in the bars and workers to once again drink freely. As Oscar Wilde said, “Work is the curse of the drinking class.”

April 7, 1947 - The National Federation of Telephone Workers (NFTW) launched the first nationwide strike against AT&T and Bell. As many as 300,000 telephone workers walked off the job. By mid-May 18, 37 of the 39 member unions had won new contracts with raises. NFTW became the Communications Workers of America later that year. (From Workday Minnesota)

Pacifica Hires Union-Busting Law Firm

Image from Flickr, by Rochelle, Just Rochelle)

The liberal Pacifica Foundation (parent of lefty radio stations like KPFA, in Berkeley, WBAI, in New York, and KPFK, in Los Angeles) has hired Jackson Lewis, a notorious anti-union law firm, according to Cal Labor Fed. The law firm, which the AFL-CIO has called “America’s number one union-buster,” advises bosses how to obstruct their employees from forming unions and how to undermine existing unions. They not only hold seminars to teach bosses how to maintain “union free environments,” they also advise employers on how to subvert the Americans with Disabilities Act.

KPFA’s employees, who are members of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9415, voted to demand that Pacifica’s National Board terminate its contract with Jackson Lewis. The board responded by symbolically flipping them the finger, choosing to leave their contract with Jackson Lewis intact.

Just a few years ago, Pacifica spent thousands of listeners’ donation dollars on a union-busting consultant to bust the KPFA union. They hired armed guards, fired many popular broadcasters, and eventually locked out the entire staff and temporarily shut down the station, enraging the station’s listeners.

The piece in Cal Labor Fed is asking for union members to seek a resolution by their unions “condemning Pacifica’s hire of one of the country’s top union-busters.” They are also asking individuals to sign this petition demanding that Pacifica drop Jackson Lewis immediately.  

Today in Labor History—November 14

November  14, 1903 – The National Women's Trade Union League formed in Boston. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 14, 1916 – Margaret Sanger was arrested for operating a birth control clinic. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 14, 1918 – Striker workers were gunned down in Granges, Switzerland. (From the Daily Bleed)

November 14, 1938 - The National Federation of Telephone Workers was founded in New Orleans, later becoming the Communications Workers of America, which is now one of the largest unions in the United States. (From Workday Minnesota)

November 14, 1942 – An attack on a man believed to be an informer at the Poston concentration camp and the subsequent arrest of two popular inmates led to a giant strike by interned Japanese Americans. A similar uprising took place at the Manzanar concentration camp the following month. (From the Daily Bleed)

The Great Strike Wave of 2011? (Part II)

In the Great Strike Wave of 2011 (Part I) I talked about the Verizon strike and the impending Southern California grocery strike, as well as the foreign exchange student strike at Hershey. Today I will discuss other recent and impending strikes and the implications for the labor movement.

Other Strikes and Potential Job Actions

UAW members working for Ford will soon be taking a strike vote as the deadline for their new contract approaches. However, considering the UAW’s disgraceful sellout to Chrysler and
GM, including agreeing to no-strike clauses, it is virtually guaranteed that the UAW will try to sell out Ford workers, too. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that workers will strike despite their union, which could add tens of thousands more to the total number of striking workers.

Last week, hundreds of cement workers walked off the job at the World Trade Center and other New York sites in protest of management’s demand that they accept a 20% pay cut. The walkout lasted three days, Working in These Times reported, and occurred despite the fact that they were working under a labor agreement that banned strikes and without support of their union leadership.

Around the same time, the 25,000-strong New York City District Council of Carpenters authorized a strike vote if an agreement could not reached on their contract, setting the stage for the first city-wide construction strike in 80 years. However, the cement workers cut a deal with employers this week, averting a major strike. The details of their agreement are not yet available, so it is difficult to tell how much, if anything, they conceded. The situation for carpenters, on the other hand, is still unresolved, with the deadline for resolving their contract recently being extended until August 26.

There have also been numerous smaller strikes this week, including one at the Boathouse Restaurant, in New York’s Central Park, and another by workers at a water pollution treatment facility in San Jose California. If we include the basketball and football strikes, the maritime strike on the Great Lakes, several west coast long shore work stoppages, numerous other smaller strikes, and the major protests in Wisconsin, 2011 has already surpassed 2009 and 2010 combined (the 2 lowest years on record) for the sheer number of strikes and far outstripped those years in the total number of striking workers.

None of this is any guarantee that 2011 or 2012 will see any major victories for labor, but it’s a good start. The greater the number of workers engaged in job actions at a given time, the greater the chances that some of them will win, particularly if they support each other’s actions to increase the overall pressure on the bosses. A major victory by grocery workers, for example, is in the interests of all working people as it could infuse the labor movement with new energy and inspire more workers to organize and fight back, leading to more victories and an increase in union membership and participation. It would also send a message to the bosses that labor is not dead and that any continued slashing and gutting will be costly and painful for them.

Workers’ Tough Row to Hoe

Unfortunately, CWA and IBEW officials have ordered their members back to work at Verizon, while the details of a contract get hammered out with the bosses. They have also accepted a 30-day cooling off period, where all strikes are off the table, thus taking the winds out of their sails and reducing the chances that they’ll be able to build up the strength and momentum of their recent 15-day strike. It also takes the pressure off the bosses, allowing them to return to their old tricks and to bargain in bad faith.

If workers hope to slow down the assault on their working and living conditions, let alone make any significant gains, they will have to fight not only their bosses, but their union bosses, as well, as demonstrated by the UAW and numerous other unions, particularly in Wisconsin, where the unions ordered their members back to work despite the fact that there were already thousands of angry workers skipping work and willing to risk getting arrested. Many wanted a general strike. Instead, union leaders argued for a political settlement that never come and that no potential to improve wages or benefits.

Workers also need to recognize that their fates depend on the fates of their fellow workers and be willing to take some risks and make some sacrifices on their behalves. Teachers, for example, should be organizing for a general strike, not only to halt budget cuts that threaten their livelihoods, but to halt the cuts that threaten their students’ families and support services for children. They need to be willing to take job actions to support their clerical and custodial colleagues, not only because school custodians and clerical workers make teachers’ work easier, but because they need reciprocal support when they strike. Teachers need to be willing to take job actions in opposition to NCLB, charter schools and vouchers, not only because it threatens their working conditions, but because they are big giveaways to corporate vultures who are not only raiding public education, but the entire public sector.

Strikes are risky. We lose wages and risk losing our jobs when we go on strike. However, by not striking the losses are guaranteed: declining wages, slashed benefits, increased workloads, and emboldened bosses who constantly want more and know they can get it.

The Great Strike Wave of 2011? (Part I)

The recent Verizon strike, which involved 45,000 workers, was the largest labor struggle to hit the U.S. in years. (For a recent update, see here, here, here and here). It is also just the beginning. 62,000 grocery workers in southern California are now on the verge of going on strike.

In April, baggers, checkers and butchers voted to strike against Vons, Albertson’s and Ralph’s. After months of fruitless negotiations, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) are poised to carry out their threat. The corporate chains are so worried that they are advertising for scabs to replace their employees when they walk out (and then get locked out).

The three corporate chains posted profits of $4.5 billion in 2009, while their CEOs made over $10 million each. Yet they are demanding that employees pay more out of pocket for their health insurance, eliminating their HMOs, slashing pension benefits, and abolishing overtime pay, according to the WSWS.

Despite the egregious assault on their members’ pay and benefits, the UCFW leadership has been doing everything in their power to prevent a strike. Ricardo Icaza, President of UFCW local 770, said he thought the days of strikes were in the past, while Mickey Kasparian, President of local 135, said this was not a time when workers should defend their wages and benefits (see the WSWS article).

A strike by this number of workers could be explosive and quickly spread to other sectors, as workers across the country are being squeezed brutally by greedy bosses hoping to take advantage of the weak economy and even weaker unions. If successful, the grocery workers could inject new hope and confidence in the labor movement and facilitate organizing efforts in other industries. However, the union bosses are not to be trusted and will likely undermine workers’ efforts, even to the extent of crushing a strike, should one break out.

Consider the 2003 grocery strike in Southern California, which last for 5 months, before UFCW leadership caved in to corporate demands. During the strike, UFCW leadership pulled workers from the picket line and made little effort to organize solidarity actions, thus weakening their bargaining power and setting them up for failure.

If the grocery workers hope to be successful this time around, they will need solidarity in the form of consumer boycotts, help on the picket line, and solidarity actions by other workers, such as teamsters refusing to make deliveries and long shore workers refusing to load cargo destined for these chains.

A Victory For One Is A Victory For All

Speaking of solidarity and underdogs, foreign exchange students have walked off the job at Hershey, claiming exploitation and abuse. Several hundred foreign students taking part in a special State Department cultural exchange program have gone on strike, claiming their wages don’t even cover the costs of their visas, according to Democracy Now.

The program is supposed to introduce foreign students to the “American Way of Life” in hopes that it will improve U.S. relations with their home countries. They certainly are getting a heavy dose of the “American Way of Life” by being forced to work long hours at low wages under physically abusive conditions. Other students participating in the J-1 visa program have been forced to work in strip clubs, live in overcrowded conditions or accept wages of only $1 per hour, according to Bloomberg Business Week.

They are also getting a good practice at organizing and fighting for justice. Approximately 400 students did a sit-in at Hershey Chocolates last week. Harika Ozer, a Turkish medical student taking part in the strike, was interviewed on Free Speech Radio News. She said that they were not just fighting against their own abusive conditions, but for local workers, who are also being screwed and who will continue to be there fighting for their own working conditions long after the students return home. She also claimed that Hershey was exploiting children in some of its plants. (Listen to the 6:44 minute interview here)

Read more tomorrow in “The Great Strike Wave of 2011 (Part II)

Verizon Workers Turn Away Customers and Chase Scabs

Verizon workers have been picketing at Verizon stores in the Northeast, successfully turning away customers and eating into corporate profits. However, Verizon is seeking injunctions to end this practice, according to Labor Notes. Union employees are also engaging in mobile pickets to block scab technicians from reaching their clients.

45,000 members of the Communications Workers (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are striking the Eastern Seaboard, from Massachusetts to Virginia. Workers are resisting Verizon’s attempts to eliminate pensions, limit raises and impose large health care costs on current workers and retirees. Overall, the concessions would take away $1 billion from workers.

Verizon argues that the concessions are necessary for it to keep up with nonunion competitors. Yet the company made nearly $20 billion during the last four years.

Solidarity in Action

On Wednesday I reposted an update from Education Notes Online that teachers in New York have joined Verizon workers on the picket line. Labor Notes reports that operating Engineers, crane operators, and other construction and building-service workers in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts have refused to cross picket lines, while teamsters at UPS have refused to deliver to Verizon offices, denying the company wireless and fiber-optic equipment. They have also double-parked their trucks so as to box in scabs and managers. At least 20 scabs have driven their vehicles into picketers, sending at least two to the hospital.

Ruling Class Solidarity With Verizon

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered police to follow Verizon vehicles around to “protect” them from striking workers, according to Labor Notes. This luxury is subsidized by taxpayers at a time when Bloomberg has been slashing social services and education. It is also a gratuitous gift to a company that not only paid no federal taxes in 2009-10, but actually claimed a $1.3 billion refund.

Teachers and other workers could learn a lot by reading the complete Labor Notes piece which discusses several novel tactics being used by Verizon workers, as well as the various tactics management is using to try and stop them.

Biggest U.S. Strike in 4 Years

Image by LLLEV

45,000 unionized workers at Verizon entered the fourth day of their strike today. Negotiations between Verizon and two unions representing the workers, Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, broke down, leading to the work stoppage. Verizon is trying to cut health and pension benefits for workers and make it easier to fire them, according to Democracy Now. CWA says that Verizon’s concession demands, worth $1 billion, will result in losses of $20,000 per worker. It will do away with pension accruals, eliminate job security and shift the cost of health care to employees. They also want to reduce sick days and paid holidays and shift more work out of the country.

The strike is the largest the country has seen in four years. In that same period, Verizon made $19 billion in profits, Labor Notes reported. in the last four years. The company has been so profitable that it recently announced that its wireless unit would pay a special $10 billion dividend to shareholders.

As is typical, Verizon executives claim that union members must take some hits to bring labor costs into line with non-union competitors. They also point out that their wireless employees are almost all non-union, implying that the unionized “landline” employees have an obsolete job and are expendable. In reality, the workers currently on strike are responsible for maintaining the fiber optic cables that make wireless communications possible. Nevertheless, unionized Verizon workers would be much more powerful if they had the support of their colleagues in the wireless division.

In 2000, Verizon’s “landline” employees struck for 18 days. As part of the settlement, Labor Notes reports, Verizon signed a neutrality agreement in which they promised to allow the unions to organize the wireless division—but the company immediately violated the agreement. As a result, only 50 Verizon wireless workers have a union.

While not completely replaceable, some of the work done by the striking workers can be outsourced, necessitating creative tactics. The unions are picketing Verizon wireless stores, trying to turn away customers and deny the company its most profitable source of revenue.

This is What Solidarity Looks Like

Teacher Solidarity With Verizon Workers
Yesterday afternoon Norm, from Education Notes Online, joined a bunch of GEMers and teachers from other UFT activist groups at the Verizon picket line on West St. in the shadow of the World Trade Center site.

From Education Notes Online: “the imbalance of wealth and corporate control is due to a large part to the lack of a counter force. And labor is the only real potential force out there. But labor union leaders have continually played footsie and made sure to dampen any militancy that might arise among workers. The cuts to social programs in this country will lead to London calling on our shores real soon.”

Today In Labor History: April 7

April 7, 1919—A Workers Republic was declared in Bavaria by the anarchists in the fledgling soviet republic, against the wishes of the Communists in the government. The Socialists sent in troops, massacring over 700. (From the Daily Bleed)

April 7, 1933—Prohibition ended, allowing unions to once again freely organize workers in the bars and workers to once again drink freely. As Oscar Wilde said, “Work is the curse of the drinking class.”

April 7, 1947 - The National Federation of Telephone Workers (NFTW) launched the first nationwide strike against AT&T and Bell. As many as 300,000 telephone workers walked off the job. By mid-May 18, 37 of the 39 member unions had won new contracts with raises. NFTW became the Communications Workers of America later that year. (From Workday Minnesota)