Labor Proposes Progressive Issues

Labor seeks more liberal, pro-union agenda after helping Obama win battleground states

By Associated Press, Published: November 10

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/labor-urges-more-liberal-pro-union-agenda-after-helping-obama-win-battleground-states/2012/11/10/9d956d8c-2b14-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html

WASHINGTON — After two years of getting pummeled in Wisconsin, Indiana and other battleground states, leaders of the nation’s big labor unions were beaming on election night.

Labor’s massive voter turnout effort played a major role in helping President Barack Obama win Ohio, Nevada and Wisconsin, according to exit polls, and its leaders are now looking for a more liberal, pro-union agenda from the White House.

“There are things the president can do, and we’ll be expecting that leadership from President Obama,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters after the election.

Topping labor’s wish list — for now — is a push to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and discouraging Obama from agreeing to any deal with Republicans over the looming “fiscal cliff” that cuts into Social Security and Medicare.

But unions are also pressing for new measures that might help boost their sagging membership rolls. New investment in infrastructure would bring construction jobs for trade unions. Immigration reform — and a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented Latino immigrants — would create a vast new pool of potential union members. And new regulations could remove some obstacles to union organizing.

Business groups that have vigorously opposed efforts to help unions draw new members say they will keep playing defense.

“My primary concern is in the regulations,” said Randel Johnson, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for labor issues. “We are afraid that on employment issues, the administration will stay firmly to the left and follow the lead of the unions.”

A new rule expected from the Labor Department would force companies to reveal relationships with so-called union-busting consulting companies even if the companies have no contact with workers. The National Labor Relations Board is expected to start work on a rule that would force businesses to turn over workers’ phone numbers, emails and shift times to union organizers.

The Obama administration might even consider a plan that would give an advantage in bidding on government contracts to companies that offer workers a higher living wage and generous benefits.

Unlike four years ago, unions have not made passage of card-check legislation a centerpiece of their agenda. The long-stalled measure that would require companies to recognize a union once more than half its eligible employees signed union cards instead of putting the question to a secret-ballot vote went nowhere in Obama’ first term, to the chagrin of many union activists.

Card check remains a dead end with Republicans in firm control of the House. Amy Dean, a former head of the AFL-CIO in California’s Silicon Valley, said unions are being more realistic about what they can get.

“They are all about strengthening the right to organize within the confines of what’s politically possible,” Dean said.

Unions showed they still wield considerable political muscle, despite declining membership and having to spend millions fighting efforts in dozens of state legislatures to curb their bargaining rights or limit their political clout. About 11.8 percent of all workers belong to a union; in the private sector union membership is only 6.9 percent.

Exit polls show Obama won 58 percent of voters from union households, compared with 40 percent for Republican Mitt Romney. That margin rose to 60 percent in Ohio and 66 percent in Wisconsin, where 1 of every 5 voters comes from a union household.

“We did deliver those states,” Trumka said. “Without organized labor, none of those would have been in the president’s column.”

Unions expected to spend big — more than $400 million — to help Obama and other union-friendly candidates at the federal, state and local levels. The country’s largest public workers union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, says it spent about $100 million while the Service Employees International Union says it spent $85 million.

But labor’s election success hinged in large part on its extensive ground game. Thousands of volunteers made millions of personal contacts with union and nonunion voters. Labor also took advantage of new rules on super-PACs, funneling at least $77 million to the groups, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

An analysis by the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks money in politics, found that unions and other Democratic-leaning groups were far more successful than outside conservative groups in targeting money toward winning House and Senate campaigns. The SEIU spent more than 70 percent of its funds on winners, for example, while Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and its nonprofit affiliate had only a 6 percent success rate.

In addition to measures that may help increase union numbers, labor leaders are also expecting the Obama administration to issue more regulations targeting workplace safety. Proposed rules to protect workers from cancer-causing and lung-damaging silica, often found in the dust at construction sites and glass manufacturing operations, have languished at the White House for more than a year. The administration also has delayed new standards for combustible dust that can cause explosions.

Business groups have opposed the regulations, saying they overreach and would raise employers’ costs by millions of dollars.

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AP Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

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Follow Sam Hananel’s labor coverage at http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

Labor Campaign Smart and Effective

Labor Unions Claim Credit for Obama’s Victory

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/labor-unions-claim-credit-for-obamas-victory/

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

In a news conference Wednesday, Richard Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, said that without the huge push by the nation’s labor unions, Mr. Obama never would have won Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada — and their combined 34 electoral votes.

“We did deliver those states,” Mr. Trumka said. “Without organized labor, none of those states would have been in the president’s column.”

A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials said that during the last four days of the campaign, union members and their community partners contacted 800,000 voters in Ohio alone, as part of what they said were 10.7 million door knocks and phone calls made nationwide by the Federation’s 56 unions. Moreover, the Service Employees International Union said that its members alone knocked on 5 million doors, including 3.7 million in battleground states.

“We had 100,000 volunteers across the country in the final days,” said Mary Kay Henry, the S.E.I.U. president.

Sixty percent of voters from union households in Ohio voted for Mr. Obama, higher than the 50 percent that Mr. Obama received over all from Ohio voters, according to exit polls that had not been completed. Union households accounted for 22 percent of Ohio’s voters. In Wisconsin, voters from union households made up 21 percent of the electorate, and they voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney, 66 percent to 33 percent.

Fifty-eight percent of voters from union households nationwide backed Mr. Obama and 40 percent supported Mr. Romney, according to the exit polls.

Michael Podhorzer, the labor federation’s political director, said organized labor’s newfound ability – made possible by the Citizens United decision — to knock on the doors of not just union members, but also those of nonunion workers, went far to explain why a significantly higher percentage of white working-class voters in the battleground states where labor was most active voted for Mr. Obama than white working-class voters in nonbattleground states.

Some political experts say, however, that white working-class voters in the battleground states leaned toward Mr. Obama out of gratitude for the auto industry bailout and because of the many Obama campaign advertisements attacking Mitt Romney for Bain Capital’s closing plants and outsourcing jobs.

Lee Saunders, chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s political committee and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municpal Employees, said, this was the “the smartest, biggest and broadest effort we’ve ever run” in a political campaign.

Union leaders also hailed the victories of some of labor’s best friends on Capitol Hill, including Sherrod Brown, a Democratic Senator from Ohio.

In his news conference, Mr. Trumka stopped short of saying he expected any quid pro quo from Mr. Obama. But he made clear what organized labor hoped for, especially as the White House prepares to negotiate with Republicans on Capitol Hill on how to reduce the budget deficit.

“People don’t want cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” Mr. Trumka said. “Even people who voted for Mitt Romney don’t want that.”

He made clear that to help cut the deficit, Mr. Obama should push forward with his plan to raise taxes on the highest-earning 2 percent of Americans.

The nation’s labor unions are planning rallies in roughly 100 cities on Thursday to protest against cuts in Medicare, Social Security or other social insurance programs.

Mr. Trumka said he also wanted Mr. Obama to push more aggressively to create jobs – for instance, to invest more in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and to push Congress to pass the stalled American Jobs Act.

Ms. Henry of the service employees union and Mr. Trumka also made clear that they were eager for the president to push forward on immigration reform, saying that their organizations would strongly back him in such an effort. They join with many Hispanic groups in calling for a path to legalization for millions of unauthorized immigrants.

On Wednesday, labor leaders were celebrating a major victory in California: the defeat of Proposition 32, a ballot initiative backed by several wealthy conservatives, that would have gone far to cripple labor’s political efforts by largely banning unions from using their dues money for politics. That initiative was voted down by 56 percent to 44 percent.

Several conservatives had said that if they won that battle in California, they would push for similar ballot initiatives in other states.

But organized labor suffered a major loss in Michigan on Tuesday. There the United Auto Workers  and several public employees unions had vigorously backed a ballot initiative that would have enshrined collective bargaining in the state constitution. Such a move would have prohibited the state’s Republican-dominated legislature from enacting a “right to work” law or passing legislation that, like the law in Wisconsin, curbed the ability of government workers to bargain collectively. Business leaders warned that this pro-labor measure would injure the state’s business climate and push up costs for cities and school districts.

Labor and business interests each spent more than $20 million in the fight, and the proposal was defeated 58 percent to 42 percent.

Several union leaders said that if they had won that battle in Michigan, they would have pushed for similar labor-friendly initiatives in other states.

Operating Engineers Union Sued on RICO

LA IUOE 501 Members Say Bosses Ran Union Like the Mob

By REBEKAH KEARN 

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/01/51871.htm

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     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Top bosses of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 501 embezzled "tens of millions of dollars" and ran the union "with the same disregard for others' rights as the mob," 10 members say in a federal RICO class action.
     Lead plaintiff Finn Pette and other members of Local 501 sued the International Union of Operating Engineers and 27 of its officers, including president James Callahan, former president Vince Giblin, and 13 vice presidents. Able Engineering Services and ABM Engineering Services are also named as defendants.
     "This action arises from years of illegal activity by the International Union of Operating Engineers and its controlling officers and co-conspirators," the complaint states. "Local 501, a local trade union, and its members, were victimized by those many years of illegal activity. The unlawful abuses suffered by Local 501 and its members takes three predominant forms. First, millions upon millions of dollars were withheld and/or embezzled from Local 501 and its membership. Second, Local 501 was prevented from expanding its membership; the employers violating their contracts with Local 501 were protected by defendants, who were receiving kickbacks for their protection. And third, the membership of Local 501 was denied the right to freely select its own officers, through fair and honest elections.
     "The conduct of defendants harkens back to the days of unrepentant racketeering by organized crime, which makes some sense here. The International Union of Operating Engineers conducts its affairs with the same disregard for others' rights as the mob. Not surprisingly, the International Union of Operating Engineers has a long history of ties to organized crime families in New York and New Jersey, and they have apparently learned their techniques from the very best of those crime syndicates."
     The 400,000-member union represents "heavy equipment operators, mechanics, and surveyors in the construction industry, and stationary engineers, who work in operations and maintenance in building and industrial complexes, and in the service industries. IUOE also represents nurses and other health industry workers, a significant number of public employees engaged in a wide variety of occupations, as well as a number of job classifications in the petrochemical industry," according to the complaint.
     The union, founded in 1896, has 123 locals throughout the United States and Canada and is the 10th largest union in the AFL-CIO, members say.
     Many of the plaintiffs were union officers, including James McLaughlin, who was the Local 501's business manager and a vice president for more than years, until he was "forced to resign in 2009," according to the complaint.
     The plaintiffs claim former General President Vince Giblin, a defendant, told officers in Local 501 that "if they wanted to serve as an officer, they had no choice but to contribute to the President's Club, in amounts ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars."
     They claim that defendant Dennis Lundy, director of the Local 501 Apprenticeship Trust Account, embezzled money. The plaintiffs say Lundy forged McLaughlin's signature on checks and charged "many thousands of dollars in lunches to the fund, though the lunches were not for any Fund business purposes. Instead, Mr. Lundy was having an affair with [defendant] Cynthia Escanuelas, an employee of Local 501."
     After Giblin promoted Lundy to Western Regional Director, McLaughlin reviewed the fund's financial statements and discovered "a number of improper, personal charges related to food, beverage, and travel purchases," the complaint states.
     McLaughlin says he recruited Finn Pette, Local 501's former financial secretary, and plaintiff Daniel Himmelberg, a former assistant business manager, to investigate the alleged embezzlement. He also hired an outside accounting firm for an audit, McLaughlin says.
     "An outside auditor concluded that of $56,670.51 charged to the Apprenticeship Trust Fund by Lundy from January 2007 to July 2007, $13,087.19 constituted meals and entertainment, $13,223.70 constituted travel and lodging, and $16,810.45 constituted books and equipment. Many of Lundy's charges were for nothing more than expensive lunches with his mistress," the complaint states.
     The plaintiffs say the auditor found that Lundy made other extravagant charges to the company credit cards during 2006.
     "During that time, of $84,352 charged, $20,635.05 constituted meals and entertainment, $24,397.52 constituted travel and lodging, and $30,380.11 constituted books and equipment," the complaint states.
     The auditor found another $28,981.54 in unsupported charges, according to the complaint.
     "It is believed that some of the unsupported charges were false submissions used to embezzle funds for a cosmetic breast augmentation procedure Lundy obtained for Cynthia Escanuelas," the complaint states.
     When Giblin learned about the audits, the plaintiffs say, he threatened McLaughlin and ordered him to stop the investigation.
     When McLaughlin refused, Giblin threatened his life, and the lives of Pette and Himmelberg, according to the complaint.
     The threats came during a March 10, 2010 phone call to plaintiff Robert Fox, previous business manager for Local 501 and a friend of Giblin's father, the complaint states: "When Mr. Fox advised Mr. Giblin that he did not want Giblin to take action against Jim McLaughlin, Dan Himmelberg and Finn Pette, the conversation became even more confrontational and Mr. Giblin stated that he would kill or have these three union officers killed."
     The complaint continues: "Mr. Fox believed the threats from Mr. Giblin to be genuine. Mr. Fox believed that Vince Giblin had the ability to order the deaths of Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Himmelberg, and Mr. Pette because of Mr. Giblin's connection to organized crime in New Jersey, Vince Giblin's home territory.
     "In direct response to the death threat made by Giblin against three of the union officers of Local 501, Mr. Fox contacted these three individuals and strongly suggested they purchase guns to protect themselves. Mr. Fox refused to discuss anything over the phone because he knew Giblin had a penchant for wiretapping and eavesdropping on calls and Mr. Fox feared his own phone was tapped by Giblin. Moreover, he refused to meet the subjects of the death threats at his home for his safety, his wife's safety, and the safety of the union officers.
     "In fact, for the past several years, IUOE has exercised total control over Local 501, all for the purpose of preventing any discovery or disruption of the many kickback schemes in place that divert tens of millions of dollars from Local 501 and its members to leaders of the IUOE, including past IUOE General President Vince Giblin, the current General President, Callahan, high ranking IUOE employees of headquarters and the past and current vice presidents that do the bidding of the IUOE General President."
     The plaintiffs say Giblin forced McLaughlin to resign as a senior vice president in June 2009, by threatening to fire Pette and Himmelberg and to place Local 501 under trusteeship.
     In a previous call from Giblin, on June 9, 2009, Giblin told Fox: "'I told that fat fuck [James McLaughlin] to make that Lundy thing disappear and he never did. That lazy fat fuck has got to go!' Mr. Fox was a trusted confidant of Mr. McLaughlin and knew about the Lundy reference, having already heard from Mr. McLaughlin that Mr. Lundy had embezzled funds from the Apprenticeship Trust at Local 501," according to the complaint. (Brackets in complaint.)
     Giblin ordered McLaughlin's replacement, defendant Chris Brown, to fire Pette and Himmelberg later that year, according to the complaint.
     The plaintiffs claim that the defendants rigged union elections by, among other things, forcing a slate of Local 501 candidates trying to "restore control of Local 501 to Local 501 members" to register as individuals instead of a slate; banning Pette and Himmelberg from running for office by bringing false charges against them; and changing signature collection rules several times "in an effort to prevent resistance members from qualifying for the ballot."
     The plaintiffs claim that defendants ABM and Able "conspired with the IUOE to divert or withhold millions of dollars from numerous member benefit funds."
     Able Engineering Services is a San Francisco-based janitorial and maintenance services provider. ABM Engineering Services has offices throughout the country and overseas, and offers services such as electricity, landscaping and security, according to company websites.
     Able controls about 25 percent of "all stationary engineering positions in the state of California," and ABM controls about 70 percent of them, according to the complaint. 93-94
     During the audit of the Apprenticeship Fund, the plaintiffs say, Pette discovered that ABM and Able had shorted the Apprenticeship Fund $180,000 and $280,000, respectively. Pette says he also discovered that the companies had underfunded the Health & Welfare Fund "by millions of dollars over the class period" by failing to report employee work hours.
     "The under-reporting of hours resulted in a staggering cascade of other harm to Local 501 and its members. First, the under-reporting of hours deprived Local 501 of much-needed administrative operating contributions that would have been much higher had the correct number of hours been reported. This harmed Local 501's ability to operate. Second, Able and ABM were under-funding their contributions to the General Pension Fund, which contributions also depend on the number of hours worked," the complaint states.
     The plaintiffs say the defendants conspired to engage in racketeering against Local 501, threatened people to hide their "kickback schemes" and control elections, took kickbacks from Able and ABM, and embezzled money from local.
     "The fraudulent, unlawful and improper activities of the defendants threatens to continue. Based upon the past pattern of activity, other local unions either have or will likely be defrauded by the defendants. Based upon the past pattern of activity, the defendants will likely continue to defraud Local Unions like Local 501. Furthermore, the defendants are able, based upon their managerial and controlling positions, to replace management in local unions, which should thereafter be defrauded and looted without consequence in a similar manner to the schemes and artifices outlined herein," the complaint states.
     The plaintiffs seek compensatory, treble, and exemplary damages of at least $7.5 million for RICO violations, violations of the Labor Management Disclosure Act, and aiding and abetting. They seek disgorgement of the allegedly embezzled money, and appointment of a receiver to "operate defendant IUOE in a lawful manner, to assure the cessation of its illegal acts and to assure the proper handling of income and payments."
     They are represented by Ira Spiro with Spiro Moore.

     Here are the defendants: International Union of Operating Engineers, James Callahan, Brian Hickey, William Waggoner, Patrick Sink, Jerry Kalmar, Russell Burns, Rodger Kaminska, James Sweeney, Robert Heenan, Daniel McGraw, Daren Konopaski, Michael Gallagher, Greg Lalevee, Terrance McGowan, Louis Rasetta, Vince Giblin, James Van Dyke, Richard Griffin, Chris Brown, Lewis Levy, Randy Henningfield, Paul Bensi, Sandra Acosta, Cornell Sneaks, Jim Scranton, Dennis Lundy, Cynthia Escanuelas, Able Engineering Services, and ABM Engineering Services. 

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Call for Labor Action Nov. 7, 2012

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Dear Dorothy,   Election Day is next week. We need you now. Take the pledge: No More Stolen Elections! And forward this email to everyone you know.   ~ PLEDGE OF ACTION: No More Stolen Elections! ~   WE REMEMBER Florida 2000, Ohio 2004, and Wisconsin 2011, and are willing to act this year if the right to free and fair elections is denied again.   WE SUPPORT efforts to protect the right to vote leading up to Election Day.   IF NECESSARY, WE PLEDGE to join nationwide pro-democracy protests starting on the next day, either in my community, in key states where fraud occurred, or in Washington, D.C., and if necessary, to demand a recount, investigation, and criminal prosecutions of those responsible.   CLICK HERE TO JOIN US:   Sign the Pledge of Action   Initial signatories* . . .  Noam Chomsky, professor, MIT Thom Hartmann, author and journalist Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODE PINK Jill Stein & Cheri Honkala, presidential ticket, Green Party Rocky Anderson, presidential nominee, Justice Party Tim Carpenter, Progressive Democrats of America David Cobb, initiator, 2004 Ohio Recount Ben Manski, founder, Liberty Tree Foundation Margaret Flowers & Kevin Zeese, It's Our Economy Laura Bonham, Justice Party USA Tom Hayden, co-founder, Students for a Democratic Society Nancy Price, co-founder, Alliance for Democracy Jerome Scott, co-founder, U.S. Social Forum Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, co-founder, Move to Amend Bill Fletcher, co-founder, Rainbow Coalition John Matthews, Exec. Director, Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI) Daniel Wayne Lee, Occupy LA Mimi Kennedy, actress Lee Camp, comedian Daniel Ellsberg, The Pentagon Papers Karen Dolan, Cities for Progress Sarah Manski & Adam Porton, co-founders, Wisconsin Wave David Swanson, author, War is a Crime John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies Jim & Rebecca Goodman, Family Farm Defenders George Martin, former co-chair, United for Peace and Justice Frances Fox Piven, professor, CUNY * all affiliations for ID purposes only   CLICK HERE TO JOIN US:   Sign the Pledge of Action

General Strike Called in Europe and U.K.

UK TUC march dominated by calls for a General Strike

 

Published on Oct 26, 2012 by ReelNews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJkWrpEsQkU&feature=g-u-u

London, 20.10.12: over 150,000 march against austerity. Many if them were demanding a General Strike, a call echoed at the rally by the general secretaries of PCS, RMT and the biggest union in Britain, UNITE. Now we just need to make it happen.
November 14th will see a coordinated European General Strike against austerity, the first such strike in history. At the very least we need protests and demonstrations in Britain - if we could get walkouts too that would be a great start to building the resistance.

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First Workers' Warehouse Action in 3 Decades

Riot Police Called In To Arrest Peaceful Protesters Outside Walmart Warehouse

BY DAVID MOBERG

Members of Chicago's southwest suburbs' 'mobile force team' arrested peaceful protesters outside a Walmart warehouse yesterday.   (Courtesy of Pat Barcas)

Several hundred supporters of strikers at a giant Walmart warehouse near Chicago converged on the tiny town of Elwood, IL, on Monday, effectively shutting down this key hub of the big retailer's distribution center for most of the day.

 "Today's CPH—zero," cheered warehouse worker Phil Bailey, using the managers' abbreviation of "cartons per hour," the dreaded standard for the seemingly always more intensified pace of work in the warehouse. Warehouse Workers For Justice (WWFJ), an organization launched and supported by the United Electrical Workers (UE) to raise standards for the industry, reported that managers had sent the day's workforce home early.

Union and community organization members, clergy, Walmart retail workers, and civic leaders rallied in a nearby parking lot and marched around the two big buildings, before 17 leaders from the supportive constituencies sat down in the late afternoon across Centerpoint Drive, outside the main gate

A couple dozen police officers, clad in heavy black helmets and riot gear, and backed by military-style vehicles, assembled on Walmart's property. Their equipment—which seemed like overkill for a protest negotiated in advance—had all been purchased with money from the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, specifically for this "mobile force team" jointly operated by a consortium of local police forces, according to Elwood police Chief Fred W. Hayes.

The riot police marched trough the main gate of the warehouse, then handcuffed and arrested the non-violent sit-down protestors on minor traffic obstruction charges, as both they and other demonstrators sang, "We shall not be moved."

On September 15 a small group of workers walked out of the non-union facility after management fired—then later changed tactics and "suspended"—some key leaders, including Bailey. He is one of four named plaintiffs in a class action suit that lawyers working with WWFJ filed two days earlier. Workers charged their immediate employer, Roadlink Workforce Solutions, with committing wide-ranging wage theft and related violations of state and federal employment law.

Although Walmart owns the warehouse, it contracts with Schneider Logistics to manage operations, including the further subcontracting of actually providing workers to temporary employment firms like Roadlink, which employs about 125 people at Elwood.

In a situation made more chaotic by management's actions, more workers were fired or suspended on September 15 when they tried to present a petition about their grievances to management. About 30 Roadlink workers initially, now up to 38, said they were striking over unfair labor practices—management penalties for engaging in legally protected collective action—as well as the issues in the lawsuit and petition.

This may be the first warehouse strike in the huge warehousing operations that have grown rapidly over the past three decades in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, which according to World Business Chicago is the world's third-largest intermodal transportation hub.

The Walmart warehouse is located in a logistics business park, in an isolated and largely rural spot, connected to the nearby interstate highway by roads jammed with trucks even on a day when Walmart was not operating. Yet people, let alone protests, are rarely visible.

"I was like, 'Wow!' on Monday when I saw people picketing, and I joined in," Mike Patton, 45, said. "I couldn't believe someone was taking a stand. It's nice to see people came around to doing what's right. You work like a dog in there—faster and faster, and then they cut your hours."

Many workers complain about the unpredictable hours as well as the low pay--$10 an hour with no prospect of a raise—for heavy work in harsh temperatures. Striker Mike Compton told the solidarity rally that managers routinely referred to workers as "bodies" that were deployed in an endless quest for a higher CPH, deprived of breaks, and exposed to dangers.

"The carts we use are suppose to have brakes, but they're broken," he said. "All of us have bruises on our legs that never heal. ... What we asked for is some basic rights. When they illegally fired some of us, we started picketing. We'd had enough."

The demonstration of solidarity included relatively large groups from unions such as SEIU (Service Employees) and UFCW (Food and Commercial Workers), supporters from the OUR Walmart organization of retail workers and from Action Now, a Chicago community group, and an elected commissioner of the Will County Board, the county's governing body. "I believe elected officials should stand up to corporate power for our constituents," Jacki Traznere said as she sat in front of the warehouse awaiting arrest.

There was also one representative from the Sensata factory in northwest Illinois. Bain Capital, formerly led by Mitt Romney, owns Sensata and is in the process of closing the plant and outsourcing the factory's well-paid jobs to China.

"Your present is our future," Sensata worker Ted Gaulrap told the strikers, "crappy jobs and no benefits. But remember that working people standing together can do anything."

But the complex subcontracting and high turnover in the warehouse industry makes it harder for workers to pursue the obvious path of forming a union. UE national director of organizing Bob Kingsley says Warehouse Workers for Justice is trying to "develop a model" that will work in the industry.

It will involve, he says, "straight-up organizing" of temp and permanent employees but will probably require changes in labor laws as well. UE strongly emphasizes relying on the warehouse workers themselves in making decisions and "leading the struggle," he says. Much as UE did decades ago in organizing at General Electric, he says, workers may form organizations that function as unofficial unions for long periods before seeking formal recognition.

But "we have got to have some breakthroughs to engage and empower warehouse workers," Kingsley says, expressing pleasure with the size and diversity of the turnout. "That's why what's happening here is so important."

UK Fire Union Chief Calls to Nationalize the Banks

UK Fire Union Leader Calls For Nationalization Of Banks

By Matt Wrack (General Secretary FBU)

Friday, 19 October 2012

On Sat Oct 20, thousands of workers, pensioners, unemployed and youth will march in London, Glasgow and Belfast against the attacks of this Tory-led government. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, sends a special message through the pages of Socialist Appeal to all those marching for a better future: The economy staggers from crisis to crisis. Overly optimistic government predictions are refuted by the harsh reality of a double-dip recession. The crisis has devastated the lives of workers in Britain and across the world. Austerity measures mean real wages cut, unemployment, pensions destroyed and public services slashed. They are on a scale not seen before. The aim is to make working people pay for a crisis we did not cause. We need to set out clearly what lies behind the crisis. The Con-Dem coalition argues that further privatisation and deregulation is the route out of recession but it was the deregulated private finance sector that sparked the crisis. The government's arguments need to be challenged. The banks cannot be allowed to carry on the way they've done before. We need a sharp break with the practices of the past. Service The Labour movement should place on the agenda the call for a publicly owned finance industry which would provide a public service to industry and working people. Taking over the banks will enable the state to plan investment. Instead of investment bankers gambling with money in financial markets, funds could be switched to creating millions of sustainable jobs and investing in the housing, public services and infrastructure we need. The privately owned banking system created a huge credit bubble that burst and triggered the biggest economic slump in Britain for generations. When the crisis broke, the government took shares in RBS and Lloyds and took over mortgage lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley. The taxpayer advanced £133 billion to restore the capital of these banks. So far, only £14bn of the original cash outlay has been recovered. The banks are still rigging interest rates, laundering illegal cash, gambling in exotic financial assets and paying their top executives grotesque salaries and bonuses. Deceit Three-quarters of the assets of Barclays bank are invested in trading on the stocks, bonds and currency markets. Barclays's elite traders and top executives took £1bn home between them this year to "reward" this gambling. Banks still engage in outright deceit and law-breaking. Barclays was caught out over the Libor scandal, HSBC in laundering Mexican drug money and Standard Chartered with Iranian banks. The banking system is not doing its job in providing loans on reasonable terms to help the economy recover. Banks are needed to provide financial services to firms and households. Most workers have wages paid directly into a bank. We need to be able to access our money. Sometimes we need to be able to borrow money. At other times, we need to save. In addition, we need banks to raise funds and provide credit to finance investment and growth across an economy. This is what banking as a public service should be about. Britain's big banks dispose of £6 trillion in funds. Yet they earmark just £200bn of this to investment in industry, a measly 3 per cent of the total. Four years after the crisis began, bank lending is falling, not rising. The banking sector stands indicted by these figures. Having been bailed out by the taxpayer the banks continue to fail to assist in any sort of recovery. Regulation failed to stop banks collapsing and bringing down the economy. More regulation won't work now. It's expensive, bureaucratic and ineffective. Despite the mess the banks have caused, we are still told we should leave them as they are because they make money. But a survey of the period from 2002-2008 shows that the finance sector paid £203bn in tax, while manufacturing paid nearly twice as much. Tax revenue from the finance sector during that period was less than the estimated up-front costs of the bank bailout of £289bn. Competition Some argue that the banks should be broken into smaller units so that competition can flourish and the monopoly of the big five can be broken. But the banks are too interconnected - if one goes down, they can all go down like a row of dominos. In any case, the crisis did not start with the big banks. In Britain, it started with the smaller lenders like Northern Rock. More regulation or a break-up of the banks will not make them operate in the interests of the wider economy. Their main objective will still be to maximise profits for their shareholders and bonuses for their top executives. Private ownership means profit comes before everything else. New regulations can be bypassed. That will continue as long as banks are under private ownership. The public has no control over the banks' decision-making, even in banks that are majority state-owned. Only public ownership of the major banks with a new democratic structure of control can turn banking into a public service. A publicly owned banking system could finance a mass programme of useful public works, to create jobs and modernise infrastructure. Public ownership We therefore welcome that for the first time in history, the TUC has adopted  the policy of the public ownership of the banks. 9In the past, Margaret Thatcher attacked us not because she was mad, but because she was acting in the interests of the ruling class . Today, in the face of economic crisis, this  same class wants to restructure the economy in the interests of capitalism and make the working class pay. But local communities will not sit back and see their services destroyed. In this fight, we must take direct action such as occupying hospitals or schools. We must see the end of this government at the earliest opportunity. But what happens next? Under New Labour we had attacks on jobs, wages and conditions. No one wants to see the Coalition government that attacks us replaced by another Labour government that attacks us. We need a change in policy. The resources are there. But they are in the hands of the Billionaires, not in our hands.We need to ask ourselves what sort of society we want – one where spivs and gamblers decide what happens or where the majority decides? We face a huge challenge. We must rise to the occasion and act decisively in the interests of our class.