Today in Labor History—January 27

January 27, 1850 – Samuel Gompers, president and founder of the American Federation of Labor was born on this date in London.  (From TWU and Workday Minnesota)

January 27, 1891 – A mine explosion in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania killed over 100 workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1920 – Kansas mine workers went on strike against compulsory arbitration. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1969 – A group of African-American auto workers in Detroit who were known as the Eldon Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement led a wildcat strike against racism poor working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1986 – Hormel workers were locked out for honoring an Ottumwa, Iowa picket line. (From the Daily Bleed)

Biggest Union Vote in 70 Years?

Healthcare has continued to be one of the more profitable sectors of the economy, even during the recession. In 2009, Kaiser Permanente made $6 billion in profits (see In These Times), but still demanded concessions and layoffs, something the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) readily gave up in exchange for insignificant promises to reduce corporate interference in union organizing.

Healthcare workers who were fed up with the autocracy, corruption and wimpiness of the SEIU, (and the expulsion of Sal Roselli as head of an SEIU affiliate in 2009), created an opposition union called the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). Led by Roselli, the NUHW took on the SEIU at Kaiser Permanent, California, in a decertification vote in 2010. They lost, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in July 2011 that Kaiser had colluded with SEIU and engaged in illegal campaigning and interference with NUHW organizing, thus invalidating the results of that vote.

After several failed appeal attempts by SEIU, it looks like a new decertification vote is set for early this year in what would be the largest private sector representation vote in the past 70 years.

There are several differences between 2010 and today, most notably that NUHW has formally affiliated with the California Nurses Association (CNA), one of the more “militant” unions in the state. Together, CNA and NUHW have already led two strikes against the concessions to Kaiser in the past 16 months, while CNA has engaged in numerous 1-3 day walkouts at other California hospitals. The alliance gives NUHW greater access to strike support (CNA has 85,000 members) and CNA resources to fund NUHW organizing. According to Roselli, the alliance also protects them against a forced merger with the SEIU.

The alliance between CNA and NUHW will likely inflame hostilities between CNA and SEIU, which had agreed to a truce after the 2009 ouster of Roselli. The truce was intended to facilitate organizing efforts at non-union hospitals nationwide. Yet many of the new union members were represented by SEIU, which has regularly cut lousy deals with the hospitals and sold out their members.

During the CNA-NUHW anti-concessions strikes in California, SEIU urged its members to cross the picket lines and tried (but failed) to get California legislators to weaken the state’s safe staffing laws. According to In These Times, CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called [SEIU President] Regan a management hack, possibly the “most despicable ‘labor leader’ that we have ever encountered” because of his collaboration with hospital owners. DeMoro also said that Regan called for nurses to give up their meals and breaks and the safety of their patients to help hospitals save $400 million because of the state budget crisis” While SEIU has always been a pro-corporate business union, these actions made it even more obvious which side they are on.

While the SEIU is clearly on the side of management, the CNA and NUHW are only “militant” in comparison. Their tactic of engaging in roving one- to two-day strikes is meant to minimize public hostility, as well as the organizing and discipline necessary to sustain a protracted full-scale strike—a strategy more indicative of trepidation and conciliation than militancy. It also leaves more funds for administrative salaries since the union can avoid paying out strike benefits. In 2012, CNA paid out $2.8 million in salaries for its leaders, according to the WSWS, while spending nothing on strike benefits for its members.

CNA’s commitment to solidarity is also questionable, as it abandoned NUHW in 2009 when its turf war with SEIU first began. In a 2012 struggle against Sutter Health, CNA jeopardized the bargaining power of its members at larger sites, like Berkeley’s Alta Bates Hospital, in exchange for easier settlements at smaller sites, according to the WSWS.

Teachers Struggles Around the World

Croatia has been cutting its spending in order to close its deficit and improve its credit rating as it prepares to enter the European Union. It has been doing this by slashing public services like education and healthcare. In response, teachers and nurses have been striking against government plans to cut their pay. 70% of Croatia’s education workforce took part in a strike last Thursday, according to the Teacher Solidarity website.

In the German state of Saxony, teachers have begun a series of “warning” strikes for “equitable education funding” (also from the Teacher Solidarity website). More than 20,000 people (75% of Saxony’s education workers) took part in a November 16^th strike, with thousands participating in rallies in Leipzig, Dresden and other cities. One of the strikers’ demands is a shorter work week for older teachers to ease their workload and provide more openings for younger teachers, who make up a minority of Saxony’s teaching staff.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, teachers have been participating in work-to-rule actions every Thursday in an attempt to roll back concessions imposed on them by their governor two years ago (from Labor Notes). The 2011 contract, which expires in 2013, included cuts to their pay and benefits. Their union negotiated a compromise contract, which included performance pay, evaluation reforms and a two-tiered compensation system for new hires. Not surprisingly, the teachers voted this contract down.

The teachers are arriving just before classes start and leaving immediately at the end of classes, temporarily ending after school tutoring, club supervision, lesson planning and grading papers. In lieu of their normal unpaid labor before and after school, the teachers have waving signs to passersby to promote their cause. They are hoping to bring up wages (starting salaries for Hawaiian teachers are only $31,000) and resist pressure to accept performance pay.

As in many states, Hawaiian teachers are barred from striking until after negotiations have resulted in impasse. Rather than waiting until then, when it would be harder to mobilize teachers, as well as public support, they have begun their protests and outreach early. So far, teachers are saying that students and parents are supporting their actions. The key will be to maintain both high participation rates in their actions, as well as public support, until their demands are met.

NFL Fans and Players are a Bunch of Crybabies

By now everyone who follows football has heard about the terrible call that gave Seattle an undeserved victory over Green Bay on Monday. Some are calling it the worst call ever, which it wasn’t. But it was made by a scab referee who is part of the army of scab referees that have been hired by the NFL owners to ensure that the games go on in spite of the referees’ strike and that they can continue to bring in billions of dollars in profits.

Yes, the strike is terrible for the players, whose credibility, salability and post-season bonuses depend on their won-lost record, which could be undermined by the plethora of bad calls that have been made this season by the scab refs. Several of them have been complaining publicly in interviews and tweets. Sure, it is frustrating for fans, who depend on their team’s victories (or noble struggles and defeats) to provide excitement and entertainment to their otherwise stressed our lives. And it is expensive for the gamblers who are losing millions because of the bad calls. (The Seattle-Green Bay call is said to have altered $150-$250 million in bets).

Yet the players are union members. By continuing to play during a referees’ strike they are crossing a theoretical picket line. If they don’t like the bad calls and the amateurish refs, they can (and should) walk off and refuse to play. Without the stars, there would be fewer viewers, thus weakening the owners’ bottom line and their resolve to quash the referees’ strike.

If fans want the strike to end they can refuse to watch the games and refuse to buy tickets. Season ticket owners could demand a refund. This would also weaken the owners’ bottom line and willingness to ignore the referees’ demands.

As for the gamblers, perhaps they should just put more money on the underdogs and pray for bad calls in their favor.

Today in Labor History—September 19

Alexander Berkman, 1892

September 19, 1892 – Alexander Berkman was convicted for attempting to assassinate Henry Frick and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Berkman tried to kill Frick in retaliation for Frick’s role in suppressing the Homestead strike and massacring workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 19, 1981 - Over 400,000 union members marched in the first Solidarity Day demonstration in Washington, D.C., to protest Reagan’s firing of striking PATCO air traffic controllers. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—September 7

September 7, 1977 – Workers in Ghaziabad, India, burned a factory and lynched two finks, with 40,000 going on strike in solidarity with insurgents. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 7, 1992 – Troops opened fire on thousands of nonviolent African National Congress demonstrators, in the Ciskei "homeland" South Africa, murdering 28. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—August 31

August 31, 1909—Francisco Ferrer, the Spanish anarchist educator and creator of the first Modern Schools (Escuelas Modernas), was charged as “author in chief” of the uprising known as the “Tragic Week.” He was executed on October 13, 1909, leading to worldwide condemnation. Hundreds of thousands of people participated in the protests that followed, while supporters created new Modern Schools throughout the world, including dozens in the U.S.

John Reed

August 31, 1919 – The Communist Labor Party of America was formed in Chicago by John Reed and others. The party evolved into the American Communist Party. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1929 – The Trade Union Unity League was founded by 690 delegates from 18 states fleeing the conservative American Federation of Labor. The League, a wing of the Communist Party, pushed for organizing workers along industrial lines, rather than by craft, like the AFL, with all workers in a given industry together in one big union. At its peak, the League had 125,000 members and, in 1930, led a protest of nearly a million jobless workers in a dozen cities to demand relief and unemployment insurance. The league fell apart in the late 1930s due to competition from the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which had launched a wave of successful organizing drives. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1933 – Italian American labor organizer, Giovanni Pippan was murdered during his campaign to organize the Italian bread wagon drivers of Chicago. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1939 – Nearly all 430 workers at the California Sanitary Canning Company participated in a massive walkout. The majority of the workers were Mexican-American women. They were demand union recognition for their affiliation with the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, & Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). They eventually won a union contract and wage increase. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1968 -- Canadian elementary school students near Montreal occupied their school, demanding reforms. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1980 – Solidarnosc forced the Polish dictatorship to sign a 21 point bill of rights allowing workers to organize in independent unions. The agreement came after two months of crippling strikes that began at the shipyards of Gdansk. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1983 – Polish police used tear gas and water cannons on 10,000 Solidarity demonstrators. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 31, 1991 – The second Solidarity Day demonstration occurred in Washington, D.C., with over 350,000 union members demanding workplace fairness and health care reform. The first Solidarity Day took place 10 years earlier in the wake of the PATCO firings. (From Workday Minnesota)

Today in Labor History—August 24

August 24, 1827-- The Mechanics Gazette, America's first labor newspaper, was published in Philadelphia. (From Workday Minnesota)

 

August 24, 1930 – Two were killed in Indochina in riots commemorating the third anniversary of the Sacco and Vanzetti execution. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 24, 1970 – The UFW (United Farm Workers) lettuce strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 24, 1979 – A strike began in the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, which lasted for three weeks. 13,000 men participated despite the fact that their official trade unions did not. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 24, 1980 – The Solidarnosc trade union movement was founded in Gdansk, Poland. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—August 9

Jacques Bertaux - Prise du palais des Tuileries - 1793

August 9, 1792 – The revolutionary Commune is established in Paris leading to the French Revolution and the end of the Bourbon monarchy. (From the Daily Bleed)

August 9, 1920 – British labor organizations appointed a Council of Action to set up a General Strike if Britain declared war on the USSR. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bockscar and crew, which dropped the "Big Man" bomb on Nagasaki

 August 9, 1945 – Americans bombed Nagasaki killing approximately 70,000 civilians instantly. (From the Daily Bleed)

Compound 19, Long Kesh Prison (Image by Patrick McAleer)

 August 9, 1971 – Britain reintroduced internment without trial to Northern Ireland. They began arresting suspected leaders of the IRA. By December, over 1,500 people were imprisoned. During a demonstration in Derry against the arrests, British troops shot 13 civilians. (From the Daily Bleed)

Bogside, Derry (Image by Ardfern)

August 9, 1998 – 73,000 telephone workers at NYC-based Bell Atlantic began a strike. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—January 27

January 27, 1850 – Samuel Gompers, president and founder of the American Federation of Labor was born on this date in London.  (From TWU and Workday Minnesota)

January 27, 1891 – A mine explosion in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania killed over 100 workers. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1920 – Kansas mine workers went on strike against compulsory arbitration. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1969 – A group of African-American auto workers in Detroit who were known as the Eldon Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement led a wildcat strike against racism poor working conditions. (From the Daily Bleed)

January 27, 1986 – Hormel workers were locked out for honoring an Ottumwa, Iowa picket line. (From the Daily Bleed)

Labor Standing With (A Safe Distance From) Occupy Oakland

Labor continues to assert that it is standing with the Occupy movement. They have even thrown their support behind the November 2 General Strike, sort of. The Alameda Labor Council and the California Labor Federation are encouraging members to participate in noon-time work site actions and a 5 pm mobilization, according to the UFO-CIA Blog. Additionally, the Peralta teachers union and the ILWU have publicly stated they won't call for a strike on November 2, according to the Atlantic Wire.

In other words: no General Strike, no work stoppage, and no risk.

Many workers are entitled to duty-free lunches and can picket, march, meet, or rally during their lunches without risk of retaliatory actions. Workers whose day officially ends at 5:00 should likewise be able to participate without reprisals, theoretically.

However, none of this makes a General Strike, which requires the majority of businesses to be shut down completely, and can only happen if the majority of workers refuse to do any work at all.

So Why So Much Theoretical Solidarity, And So Little Actual Solidarity?

It is illegal for unions to join in solidarity strikes under the Taft-Hartley Act, which was enacted after America's last great General Strike, which occurred coincidentally in Oakland, in 1946. Officially supporting the General Strike could result in millions of dollars in fines and legal expenses to the unions. 

However, even before Taft-Hartley, trade unions were serving as Capital’s occupation police, helping the bosses to keep the rabble in line by resisting, weakening and limiting strikes and job actions and through compromises with the bosses that water down contract protections, benefits and pay. Leaders of the big unions typically earn six-figure salaries, but only so long as they and their members remain subservient to the bosses. It is a relationship that keeps the workers working and earning, even if at a perpetually declining rate. As long as the workers are working, and especially if they are doing it more efficiently and productivity is increasing, the corporate bosses are happy and will reaffirm their compact with the labor bosses.

General Strikes place this relationship at risk. General Strikes have the potential to radicalize workers. Historically, General Strikes have empowered and emboldened workers to increase their demands. When workers recognize their power through a General Strike, especially one opposed or unsupported by their union leadership, they may move toward dumping the union bosses off their backs.

What remains to be seen is whether workers will ignore their wimpy union leaders and engage in a wildcat General Strike or, if they do not, how this will affect the Occupy Movement. By calling for a General Strike, the movement hoped to send a strong message to the police and the ruling elite that they are powerful. They are, after all, the 99% and, therefore, the larger army—much, much larger army.

If the 99% wanted to, they could shut down the entire capitalist system, dismantle the class relations that exist, redistribute the wealth, and create a new system free of wages, bosses, landlords, capital accumulation, speculation, and elite power.

By threatening a General Strike, they laid their cards on the table: "This is who we are and what we are capable of doing." However, if a General Strike does not occur or is not effective, they send the message that they are disorganized, weak and do not really have the support of the 99%, at least not in action. Without the actions to back up the demands (or non-demands), the ruling elite, the 1%, the politicians, bosses and police, will likely  continue to ignore, ridicule, arrest and/or dismantle the Occupation encampments.