On The Road

Truly.

The master class starts wars. The lower classes fight it. Governments lie. The voice of the government is often not the voice of the people.

Speak up, act out! Silence is complicity. Be the gadfly of the state and also its firefly. And if you have two loaves of bread, do as the Greeks did: sell one with the coin of the realm, and with the coin of the realm buy sunflowers.

Wake up! The world’s on fire!

Have a nice day!

Labor Day 2007

Hope you're having a great day.

Not So Sweet

Y'all ought to think twice about buying any Hershey products for awhile.

“We just don’t accept the fact that the company is going to throw people out in the street without justification,” said , Hemi Mitic assistant to Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove.

“It is just free enterprise at its worst,” said Mr. Mitic.

Amen to that, brother. Yes, he is a brother, I looked up Hemi & it is a man's name. Although here in the states, we refer to it as an engine in a Chrysler product. This is a pic of Hemi:

America, America

Let's not forget, as I've said before, that weekends are the creation of unions, of people getting together for their own benefit, & in the long run, the benefit of the society in which they live. Working people have been in rough shape the last 27 years. They have been disrespected by the leaders of both parties, frankly, & actually it's a wonder that anyone is still organized. Here's something to read & to think about. & again, no bullshit about corrupt union leaders, blah, blah, blah. Remember, it's so Jimmy Hoffa.

Recounting his experience during last week’s House subcommittee hearings on the Employee Free Choice Act, Camilo broke down as he described devoting 35 years to his employer, only to have Blue Diamond treat him as if he were a disposable, inanimate machine part.
....
Among the witnesses at the hearings was Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon, who has studied how the NLRB union representation election process really works. Lafer also gave a briefing to Hill staffers in which he said the so-called NLRB election process resembles what happens in rogue regimes abroad rather than anything we call American.

Even though the process ends in a secret ballot, it is not fair, Lafer said. He compared what happens in union representation elections to the standards the United States sets for what is “free and fair” in foreign elections and says “every aspect of the NLRB process violates U.S. standards of free and fair.” In a report for American Rights at Work, Lafer compares U.S. standards for foreign and domestic elections with the union representation election—get the list here.

In fact, employer interference in the management-controlled election process by which workers currently are forced to form unions is off the charts. Every 23 minutes a person is fired or discriminated against for supporting a union.

Call. write, email, fax your Representative & Senators urging them to support the Employee Free Choice Act. It's the least we can do in America, for America.

Union, Yes!

This is a good post from FDL newcomer Tula Connell. It's worth the read.

Some 60 million workers say they would join a union if they could—but our labor laws, dating back to the 1930s, are skewed in favor of corporate giants who spend big bucks to harass and intimidate workers. And it works—after all, how many people want to lose their jobs? (Although, as I noted, it’s illegal to fire workers for forming unions, management does it anyway, counting on the fact that it often takes years for a worker’s appeal to wind its way through the regional and national labor boards and even the courts.)

A few years ago, we in the union movement began pushing for a bill called the Employee Free Choice Act that would level the playing field for workers and help rebuild America’s middle class and restore the freedom of workers to choose a union. (Get the details of the act here.)

Even in the unpleasant 109th Congress, we got 215 co-sponsors in the House and 44 in the Senate. But with a new, worker-friendly Congress, we now have 231 House co-sponsors—and the bill, H.R. 800, was introduced Monday night!

Then over at Digby's Place, we get some quotes from Ben Bernanke, the new Fed chair.

Finally, changes in the institutions that have shaped the labor market over the past few decades may also have been associated with some increase in wage inequality. For example, unions tend to compress the dispersion of pay for jobs in the middle of the skill distribution. Thus, the decline in private-sector union membership over the post-World War II period -- particularly the sharp drop in the 1980s -- has been associated with an increased dispersion of pay among workers with intermediate levels of skill. The sources of the decline in union membership are much debated, and certainly long-run structural changes in the economy, such as the decline in manufacturing employment, have played a role.

& then the obvious:

No mention of Ronald Reagan. No mention of PATCO. No mention of a decades-long effort to throttle unions until they constitute just 7.4 percent of employees of private companies.

Now, you should go & find out if your congressman/woman has signed on as a co-sponsor. Dave Obey, my guy, has. If they haven't, you need to contact them to urge them to do so. If it wasn't for unions, we wouldn't have much of a weekend, now would we? & then decline of the middle class in America can be directly correlated, IMO, to the forced decline in union membership/representation. Please, no "corrupt union leaders, blah, blah, blah...." That's just way too easy &, clearly, just too Jimmy Hoffa.

Ashland, Wisconsin Ought To Do Something Great

Like this. & it's a trifecta.

Had Enough?

Will this finally be the wake-up call Wal-Mart workers will answer? I sure hope so. Wal-Mart is a great example of the evil side of a market economy. & yet Wall Street approves & cheers them on.

But some Wal-Mart workers say the changes are further reducing their already modest incomes and putting a serious strain on their child-rearing and personal lives. Current and former Wal-Mart workers say some managers have insisted that they make themselves available around the clock, and assert that the company is making changes with an eye to forcing out longtime higher-wage workers to make way for lower-wage part-time employees.

Investment analysts and store managers say Wal-Mart executives have told them the company wants to transform its work force to 40 percent part-time from 20 percent. Wal-Mart denies it has a goal of 40 percent part-time workers, although company officials say that part-timers now make up 25 percent to 30 percent of workers, up from 20 percent last October.

The Black Men of Labor

These men organized & handled the Ray Charles' memorial jazz funeral the the kid & son-in-law & Mrs. coldH2O & I attended. It was an event I won't forget.

The Black Men of Labor marched along St. Claude Ave.
Sunday during their annual Labor Day parade.

Slow Monday

Not much today. Went up to town this a.m. & sat around on sidewalk at the Hit or Miss Cafe. Drank coffee with six friends while the roadkill porcupine attracted flies in the back of the pickup. Another story, another time. Cleaned up some old lathe tools at the Sidekick's, bought some food & came home. Back here I did a little work on the deck, put some cross supports in for the joists. Thought about The Twins, the shortening days, & my motorcycle, among other things. I'm going back north to have a burger & chips with some friends this p.m. Later.