Workers in India, including children, will die young grinding gemstones for Valentine’s Day

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On the eve of Valentine’s Day, the National Labor Committee is releasing an explosive new report:  “Hearts of Darkness, Workers in India, including Children, will Die Young grinding gemstones for Valentine’s Day.”

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It's the holiday gift season again and if you are at a loss about what to buy your favorite union activist, we've got some suggestions. And if you are a union activist, maybe you've been scratching your head trying to come up with a union-themed gift for your son, daughter, niece or nephew. Or maybe, you want to avoid that awkward moment, when you open a gift and have to feign joy on receiving a sweat-shop gift. In that case, here's a list you can pass on to family and friends.

1. A coffee table book--Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters by Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher. $24.95, Cornell University Press, 2009. [For more book ideas, check out the unionized on-line Powell's Books or Union Communication Services' Online Book Catalog.]

2. A magazine subscription--The American Prospect or In These Times. There are lots of liberal/progressive magazines out there, but these are two of the finest and give more extensive coverage to labor and working life issues than most.

3. A gift membership in the Union Sportsmen's Alliance. The USA is a one-of-a-kind, hunting and fishing association of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and its trade union partners, exclusively for conservation-minded union members, retirees and their families that hunt, fish and appreciate the outdoors.

4. A labor history DVD--Rosemary Feuer amd Laura Vazquez's documentary on Mother Jones. It's just $10 plus $3 for shipping. At 24 minutes it is perfect for showing at union meetings or classrooms. And, as a bonus, there's a Spanish version. For more ideas, check out the DVD section at Labor Heritage. You can't go wrong with the classic The Inheritance or the made-for-HBO drama Ten Thousand Black Men Named George, the inspiring story of A. Philip Randolph and the formation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

5. An intellectual journal --New Labor Forum or Working USA, Dissent or New Politics. The first two are more labor-specific, the latter two have a broader agenda. Working USA and Dissent are quarterlies, New Labor Forum appears three times a year and New Politics twice. Looking for something not quite so heavy that comes out a little more often? Try Labor Notes (monthly) or Dollars and Sense (six times a year).

6. A CD--Smithsonian Folkways has many fine CDs of labor songs, we especially like Joe Glaser's I Will Win! Songs of the IWW, which includes a 1960 speech by "Solidarity Forever" composer Ralph Chaplin to a woodworkers convention and My Darling Party Line. Labor Heritage has an extensive selection that can be ordered on-line.

7. For your favorite clergy person who is vaguely pro-union, how about Blue Collar Jesus or make a contribution to Interfaith Worker Justice and sign them up for the quarterly Faith Works newsletter.

8. A calendar. A century ago, the IWW with its advocacy of industrial unionism, was a rival to the business unionism of the American Federation of Labor. Today, it isn't what it used to be, but it still produces an attractive labor history calendar every year. They are only $12.50 and $6.50 each for 5 or more.

9. A union-made hoodie from the AFL-CIO's Union Shop. We could have just listed the Union Shop as your one-stop solidarity gift headquarters, you'll find all sorts union gifts you can buy here--books, CDs, DVDs, things for kids, and lots more.

10. A contribution--LabourStart, Association for Union Democracy or Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. Still stumped? Check out Union Label or union shop. And, most international unions have gift shops. (For example, the American Federation of Teachers , United Farm Workers, and United Food and Commercial Workers

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Pittsburgh (Oct. 27, 2009)—The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. today announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker ownership model of “one worker, one vote.”

“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers, and support communities in the United States and Canada,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and shuttering plants. We need a new business model that invests in workers and invests in communities.”

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Nebraska Appleseed recenlty  released a major study of meatpacking worker health and safety. The report surveyed 455 workers in five communities across Nebraska -one of the country’s largest meat producers – to assess work conditions from the perspective of the workers who live it every day.

Almost ten years after Nebraska leadership created the Meatpacking Industry Workers Bill of Rights, workers describe crippling work speed, supervisor abuse, and still not being allowed to go to the bathroom. The report highlights the need for change and makes key recommendations that would improve safety conditions for the workers who bring food to our tables and who underpin  one of the state’s most important industries. Nebraska produces one of every four steaks and hamburgers in the country.

“Not only the data, but workers’ hundreds of written comments are overwhelming,” said Darcy Tromanhauser, Director of the Immigrant Integration and Civic Participation Program.

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With membership rising and pressure increasing, management at Spirit AeroSystems today presented a new and improved contract offer to 783 engineers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001.

If ratified by a union member vote, the new 3 ½-year contract will provide a 3 percent bonus, annual salary increases and ensure engineers are compensated for all overtime hours above the regular 40-hour workweek. Employees will see medical premiums increase from 10 to 15 percent, for the life of the contract.

Union negotiators are unanimously recommending engineers accept the offer.

http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Action/2009-34/2009-34.html

n one of his first actions as the new president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka put the muscle of the world’s most powerful labor organization behind efforts to secure a contract that respects the contributions of 784 engineers to the success of Spirit AeroSystems.

Negotiators for employees in the Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, return to Main Table negotiations with Spirit AeroSystems on Tuesday (Sept. 22). A federal mediator will assist as management continues to push employees toward a strike.

Engineers rejected the first Spirit offer by 91% and a second offer by 93%. The regressive second offer would have required four hours of free work before employees earned overtime pay and doubled employee contributions for medical coverage. Last month, 92% of union members voted to give their negotiation team authority to call a strike.

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Read the letter here.

Despite years of strong profits and the highest level of service by employees, Kansas Gas Service continues to ask workers in Kansas and Oklahoma to sacrifice pay, health care coverage and pension benefits.

Contract negotiations have broken off between the company, whose parent’s earnings total nearly $1.5 billion over the last four years, and the United Steelworkers, which represents 380 Kansas Gas Service employees in the two states. No new talks have been scheduled.

Workers at USW Local 12561 in Overland Park and Topeka, Kansas; Local 13417 in Wichita and Hutchinson, Kansas, and Local 14228 in Pittsburg Kansas and Bartlesville, Oklahoma have extended the current collective bargaining agreement twice since the original expiration of June 30th and are now working day to day. MORE

In case you missed them, Talking Union had an outstanding set of articles on Labor Day 

Jake Blumgart "The Quiet War on American Workers"

Today, labor struggles are generally less gory, but workers still pay a terrible price for America’s backwards labor laws and preferential treatment of big business. A report released last week made it clear that there is still a quiet war being waged against workers that denies millions of workers a living wage and union representation. [Jake is a staff writer for Campus Progress]  by

Julie Sly "Labor Day: Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacremento"

Bishop Jaime Soto cites challenges of global economy at Sacramento religious, labor eventAn exmaple of the important, but little noticed cooperation betweeen labor and the religious communities.

Bill Barry, "Labor Day Lesson: courage, organization, and vision"

{Barry is a labor educator in Baltimore and author of Union Strategies for Hard Times]

Steve Early and Rand Wilson "A Labor Day Reminder of CREDO's Own Credibility Gap"

the socially conscious long-distance provider use non-union phone companies

David Knuttunen has interesting blog on Talking Union discussing the protests about Whole Foods, the nascent 'boycott' movement.  He looks at how UFCW and Change to Win have gotten involved, but without apparently calling for a boycott.

Read it here.

(Aug 27, 2009) WICHITA – Engineers rejected Spirit AeroSystems’ second contract offer by 93% and authorized their Negotiation Team to call a strike if necessary. Ballots were counted Thursday, Aug. 27, after an all-member meeting. speaa-logo“This offer was even worse than the one members rejected by 91 % in July,” said Bob Brewer, Midwest director for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001.

“The members said enough is enough – no more takeaways on pay, benefits and job security.” With 85% of the SPEEA members casting ballots, 309 (93%) voted to reject the offer and 304 (92%) voted yes to approve strike authorization – giving the team leverage to bring in a federal mediator to negotiate with Spirit

“The members have spoken very loudly – twice,” said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director. “My hope is that the company will start listening.”

SPEEA’s Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team recommended the members reject the contract offer which doubles medical premiums, eliminates minimum wage increases, takes away overtime pay for the first four hours and shields temporary workers during periods of layoffs and shortened workweeks.

“We want to go back to the table to get this done right,” said Brewer. “The company needs to respect key contributors to their workforce.” SPEEA started negotiations with Spirit in March on behalf of 775 engineers in the bargaining unit.