Only Known Video/Audio of Mother Jones

by Tula Connell, May 3, 2011

Wow. I’m blown away. The only-known video and audio recording of Mary Harris ”Mother” Jones is in the clip at left. Recorded in 1930 on what possibly was her 100th birthday (historians aren’t sure of her year of birth), it shows even at an advanced age, she hadn’t lost any of the spark that fueled her life-long activism on behalf of improving the lot of workers.

After much personal tragedy, Mother Jones went on to become a union organizer, and was so effective, the Mine Workers sent her into the coalfields to sign up miners. She was banished from more towns and was held incommunicado in more jails in more states than any other union leader of the time. In 1912, she was even charged with a capital offense by a military tribunal in West Virginia and held under house arrest for weeks until popular outrage and national attention forced the governor to release her.

Mother Jones also was very concerned about child workers. During a silk strike in Philadelphia, 100,000 workers—including 16,000 children—left their jobs over a demand that their workweek be cut from 60 to 55 hours. To attract attention to the cause of abolishing child labor, in 1903, she led a children’s march of 100 children from the textile mills of Philadelphia to New York City “to show the New York millionaires our grievances.” She led the children all the way to President Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island home.

Mother Jones still inspires: A student writes on the Youtube page with her video:
•AMEN i didnt even know she exsisted until mr. williams made us do an essay on someone and dress up like them … she has really inspired me to make a difference

H/t to the Wisconsin Labor History Society for pointing out the video, and D.C.’s own labor activist, Concarbon, for uploading it.

Communicator's comment: Watch the video here.

Help Stamp Out Hunger May 14

by James Parks, May 3, 2011

The Letter Carriers’ (NALC) annual national food drive this month comes at a time when millions of Americans are still struggling to put food on the table. More than 50 million people—including 17.2 million children—live in households that are hungry or at risk of hunger, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s a 30 percent increase in one year and represents more than one in seven households in the country (14.6 percent).

You can help “Stamp Out Hunger” by collecting canned goods and dry food, such as tuna, canned meat, soups, pasta, rice and cereal, and leaving them in a bag or box by your mailbox on Saturday, May 14. Your letter carrier will pick them up as they deliver your mail. NALC members will deliver the goods to local food banks, pantries and shelters to help needy families in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions.

Last year, the Letter Carriers collected a record 77.1 million pounds of non-perishable food.

NALC President Fredric Rolando says the union members will ratchet up efforts this year.

Letter Carriers have never backed away from a challenge. Millions of Americans depend on the food we collect to help carry them through the summer months. We cannot—we must not—let them down.

Rolando noted that donations are particularly critical at this time since most school lunch programs are suspended during the summer months and millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

This is NALC’s 19th annual food drive, which is held on the second Saturday in May in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Postal employees and rural letter carriers are assisting in the effort, as are members of other unions and thousands of volunteers. More information about the drive is available at helpstampouthunger.com. In addition to “liking” the Facebook page, you can also follow StampOutHunger on Twitter.

College Grads Face Worst Job Market in Years

by James Parks, May 3, 2011

Students graduating from college this spring will face the worst job market for graduates since the Great Depression, a new report says. “The Class of 2011: Young Workers Face a Dire Labor Market Without a Safety Net,” by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), found that unemployment among workers between the ages of 16 and 24 is more than double the national average. In 2010, young workers averaged 18.4 percent unemployment, compared with 9.6 percent overall.

The news is worst for young blacks and Hispanics, who are suffering disproportionately. The unemployment rate for black high school graduates under age 25 and not enrolled in school was 31.8 percent last year and stands at 22.8 percent for Hispanic high school graduates and 20.3 percent for white high school graduates. The unemployment rate for young black college graduates was 19 percent compared with 13.8 percent for young Hispanic graduates and 8.4 percent for young white graduates.

Younger high school graduates also are not keeping pace with their older peers. Their 22.5 percent unemployment rate in 2010 is more than double the 10.3 percent rate among high school graduates age 25 and older.

The authors of the study, economists Heidi Shierholz and Kathryn Anne Edwards, say there is a persistent high unemployment rate among graduates who have entered the job market since late 2008. There is now a backlog of unemployed or underemployed graduates from the past two years that leaves the current graduating class at a significant disadvantage.

Shierholz says the federal government should step in with relief.

The best thing we can do is to generate a faster a recovery in the overall labor market that will move the dial for [graduates] and unemployed workers in general. There is a clear lever we can push to make that happen but decisions are being made [by Congress] based on items outside of economics.

Report: NAFTA Has Cost 683,000 Jobs—and Counting

by James Parks, May 3, 2011

To date, 682,900 U.S. jobs have been lost or displaced since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in 1994, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study finds. The main reason for the job loss is a $97.2 billion trade deficit with Mexico. In 1993, one year before NAFTA was implemented, the United States had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico that supported nearly 30,000 U.S. jobs.

All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have seen jobs lost or displaced to Mexico in the past 17 years, says Robert Scott, EPI’s senior international economist and author of “Heading South: U.S.-Mexico trade and job displacement after NAFTA.”

During a phone conference today, Scott said NAFTA supporters argued the pact would create jobs in the United States. Backers of proposed trade deals with South Korea and Colombia are making similar claims, he said. But his research has shown that each trade agreement would cost thousands of U.S. jobs. In the first eight years, the current deal with Korea could cost 159,000 jobs, he said, and Colombia could swallow up 60,000 U.S. jobs.

Scott found the five states that experienced the largest percentage of local jobs displaced by trade with Mexico since NAFTA began are Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. The five that have the largest actual number of jobs displaced due to Mexico trade deficits are California, Texas, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. (Check out the map above.)

NAFTA made outsourcing to Mexico much more attractive for U.S. companies, Scott said. Mexico eliminated a wide range of longstanding that companies claimed were expensive, he added.

Most of the jobs displaced by trade with Mexico—415,000 jobs, or 60.8 percent of the total—have been in manufacturing. The hardest hit manufacturers have been in computer and electronic parts (150,300 jobs lost or displaced, or 22 percent of the total number of jobs) and motor vehicles and parts (108,000 jobs, 15.8 percent). There has been a huge surge in motor vehicles and auto parts in the last three years that cost 30,000 U.S. jobs, Scott said.

UCubed Calls for ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ to be U.S. Made

Tue. May 03, 2011

Ur Union of Unemployed is calling on New York City and state officials to oppose a plan by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to flood the New York streets with thousands of foreign-built taxicabs.

Bloomberg is expected to embrace a proposal by Nissan to build the so-called ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ in Mexico, rather than a proposal from Ford to manufacture the eco-friendly cab fleet in Kansas. Bloomberg is also expected to reject a proposal from the Turkish auto company Karsan, which would build the taxis in Brooklyn.

“This is an initial one-billion-dollar program, with three bidders; two of which are committed to ‘made in the USA’ and one of which is absolutely not,” said Union of Unemployed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “With over 28 million Americans unemployed – and over 869,000 ‘officially’ unemployed in New York and Kansas – this is a travesty. Can’t even one politician figure out how to create AMERICAN JOBS?”

A Day in Your Life Without Public Employees

by Tula Connell, May 3, 2011

Imagine one day you woke up and there were no sanitation workers to pick up the pile of stuff in your trash. No letter carriers or postal workers to move your mail. No teachers in the classrooms, no firefighters to stop your neighbor’s house—or yours—from burning to the ground.

Such is the scenario being created by many Republican lawmakers in the states who are destroying collective bargaining rights for public employees and decimating our ability to attain good middle-class jobs.

Sam Gilberg, an 18-year-old songwriter with a band, One Track Mind, thinks about the plight of workers and has created a video depicting this bleak scenario, with the hope that it will stir people to action. Watch it.

Support Flower Workers This Mother’s Day

by James Parks, May 3, 2011

Today’s the deadline to show your solidarity with working mothers who cut and process the flowers we send on Mother’s Day.

Some 80 percent of the fresh-cut flowers sold in the United States come from Colombia, where most flower workers are women, who work long hours, especially before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day. They are paid poverty-level wages and face hazardous working conditions.

You can help these women by making a $35 donation ($20 student or low income) to U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project’s (USLEAP’s) Flower Worker Economic Justice Project. USLEAP will send a card to the mother of your choice with a personalized message inside, letting her know that you made a donation in her honor.

Choose between two card designs, each featuring a photo of a Colombian flower worker with her child on the front, and a short paragraph about the pictured worker on the back of the card.

Orders for delivery by Mother’s Day must be submitted today, May 3.

To learn more about the ways you can help the flower workers in Colombia, check out USLEAP’s Toolkit: Flower Workers and Economic Justice. USLEAP is a an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes full respect for the rights of workers in Latin America.

Members at Ft. Rucker in Alabama Ratify New Pact

Members of Local 2003 at Ft. Rucker, AL, cast ballots during ratification voting for a new three-year agreement with Army Fleet Support.

Tue. May 03, 2011

Nearly 3,800 members of Local 2003 at Ft. Rucker, AL, voted recently to ratify a new three-year agreement with Army Fleet Support. The pact includes annual raises of three percent and a 50 cent-increase in the employer’s contribution to the IAM Pension Plan over the term of the contract.

The sprawling base in southeast Alabama is the Army’s largest helicopter base. Operational units on the post include the 1st Aviation Brigade and the 110th Aviation Brigade handling Army Aviation training, and the USAF 23rd Flying Training Squadron for the training of Air Force helicopter pilots. IAM mechanics service and maintain the helicopters, and IAM test pilots fly at Ft. Rucker.

Members of Local 2003 ratified their contract while collecting food and funds for victims of the recent tornados that swept across Tuscaloosa and Northern Alabama. In 2007, a deadly tornado slammed into nearby Enterprise, AL, causing nine deaths and injuring over 121 others. The worst damage occurred at Enterprise High School, where eight students died after a hallway roof collapsed.

North Carolina Coast Guard Workers Join IAM

Tue. May 03, 2011

One hundred and thirty workers at Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, NC voted for IAM representation to improve their pay and benefits. The Service Contract workers are employed by URS Corporation and provide service to the base and helicopter fleet.

Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City is one of the busiest Air Stations in the Coast Guard. On any single day, aircrews may be as far away as Greenland, the Azores or the Caribbean. Aircrews from the base are constantly putting their training and knowledge to the test in missions including maritime law enforcement, environmental response as well as search and rescue. URS employees also ensure the equipment at the station is in top shape at all times.

“Local Lodge 2203 already represents federal workers at the base,” said District Lodge 74 Directing Business Representative Larry Young. “Our federal members talked to the Service Contract workers about the importance of having a union contract. The URS employees recently had pay and benefits cut. I want to thank Local 2203 member Willard Jenkins, and his wife, Tabatha, who is a URS employee. They led the organizing effort.”

“Hard-working professionals don’t need pay cuts. They need the protection of an IAM contract to ensure their future,” said Southern Territory GVP Bob Martinez. “This was a great move for the 130 workers and their families. Congratulations to DBR Young, and I want to welcome our newest IAM members.”

IAM Leaders Address Ohio State Council Delegates

Andy Buffenbarger addressed the Ohio State Machinists Council meeting in Cleveland and provided an update on the IAM’s Young Machinists Program.

Tue. May 03, 2011

Members of the Ohio State Council of Machinists met on April 30 in Cleveland, OH, to coordinate their efforts on behalf of members in the Buckeye State and to review the unprecedented assault on collective bargaining taking place in Ohio and elsewhere.

International President Tom Buffenbarger, General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart and Eastern Territory GVP Lynn D. Tucker, Jr. were among the IAM leaders who addressed the group and spoke about the importance of resisting the anti-union agenda being pushed by Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich.

“In little more than a year, we’ve gone from a solid ally in Gov. Ted Strickland to John Kasich, a former investment banker for Lehman Bros. and Fox television host, and the results have been disastrous,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that elections don’t matter, because Ohio is proof how much difference a single election can make.”

GST Mart echoed Buffenbarger’s remarks, calling on members to be leery of watered-down proposals from anti-union lawmakers that are only slightly less odious than the frontal assaults in Wisconsin. “It will be up to us to keep our members advised about subtle changes that would gut their collective bargaining rights, just over a slightly longer period of time,” said Mart.

Delegates at the annual meeting were updated about the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council and the IAM’s Young Machinists Program, an organizing and outreach effort designed to build connections with new members and potential new members. “We have an obligation to educate the next generation about the value and importance of union membership,” said Andy Buffenbarger from the Young Machinists. “The Young Machinists Program is intended to do exactly that.”

Ohio Gov. Kasich Pays Lip Service to Public Employees

Ohio Governor John Kasich

by Tula Connell, May 3, 2011

Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich has taken hypocracy to a new low. After months of pushing a bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public employees, he now has issued proclamations making this week “Public Service Appreciation Week” and “Teacher Appreciation Week.” Seriously.

Kasich signed the draconian bill into law, and workers–many of them teachers and other public employee–now are gathering signatures to put repeal of the bill on the November ballot. Kasich’s actions prompted this respsonse from Ohio State House Miniority Leader Armond Budish:

Gov. Kasich’s statements forced me to check my calendar, and much to my surprise today is not April Fool’s Day….While he’s putting out statements of praise, he and his Republican cronies are working to systematically destroy public employees and teachers… So Gov. Kasich, do you commend the police officer for doing his job well before or after you call him an ‘idiot’? Do you thank teachers and firefighters for the invaluable work before or after you slash their wages and benefits?

Ohio AFL-CIO President Tim Burga called Kasich’s proclamation “superficial” and “disingenuous” given Kasich’s support for the legislation.

Those words describe Kasich’s two-year budget as well. Like many Republicans who ran and won in 2010 by promising they would create jobs, he has done the opposite after getting elected. Kasich’s budget would result in the direct loss of 51,052 jobs in that state, according to a study by Innovation Ohio.

IAM Report Highlights U.S. Manufacturing Jobs

Tue. May 03, 2011

Unlike most industrialized countries, the U.S. has no definitive policy to preserve and protect its homegrown manufacturing jobs. A new IAM report, “Creating and Sustaining U.S. Manufacturing Jobs,” includes a nine-point plan that could provide the basis for a desperately-needed national policy.

“While there are many reasons for the decline in manufacturing and the closely-related economic crises, one of the fundamental reasons is the simple fact that the U.S. does not have a national manufacturing strategy and has not established a framework for creating one,” said IAM Trade and Globalization Department Director Owen Herrnstadt.

Included in the nine-point plan is a provision to require that “Made in the U.S.” actually means “Made in the U.S.” An additional point in the plan calls for policies that will curtail states battling with one another for manufacturing jobs.

“It is imperative that the administration demonstrate much-needed leadership in pursuing policies that will have immediate and long-term impact on ensuring support and creation of U.S. manufacturing jobs,” said Herrnstadt.

Answering the Call

Mon. May 02, 2011

May 2, 2011 - Each time Congress cuts the budget, a social program usually suffers. For the Machinists and the labor movement, that means, if you aren't already doing so it's time to step up and answer the call of community service.

Communicator's Note: Watch the video here.

Sweeney: Renewal of Social Justice Spirit Desperately Needed

AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney

by James Parks, May 2, 2011

Working families in our country are in desperate trouble and in desperate need of the spirit and strength of Catholic social teaching which embraces social justice and the right of workers to form unions, AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney said today.

Sweeney delivered the keynote address at the Church, Labor and the New Things of the Modern World conference at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. The conference celebrates the 120th anniversary of the landmark papal encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things). Written by Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum laid the foundation for the Catholic Church’s longtime involvement in workers’ issues. Read the entire speech here.

Labor unions, the “free associations” Rerum Novarum said should protect them, are under attack as never before, Sweeney said.

Earlier this year, politicians began taking America’s anti-union, anti-worker crusade a step even further by trampling the rights of public employees and boldly trying to eliminate their unions altogether.

If unchecked, this assault on the very existence of unions is sure to spread, and the impact on Catholic social teachings and, indeed, the moral and economic fiber of our nation, will be profound.

Sweeney reminded the participants it will take more than words and admonitions to rescue working families from a society that insists they should have no say in the decisions affecting them.

It will take a genuine renewal of the social teaching tradition in the Church and the willingness of the leadership to challenge the economic and political “powers that be.” It is that tradition and that willingness that together brought us so far towards the goal of dignity for all work and dignity for all workers.

The conference, which ends tomorrow, brings together top Catholic religious leaders and scholars, including His Eminence, Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and journalists Harold Meyerson and E.J. Dionne and others to discuss the relevance of Catholic social teaching in the modern world.

NNU: Lawmakers Have ‘Real Choice’ to Reform Medicare

by James Parks, May 2, 2011

In a letter to the New York Times today, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), says the Republican plan put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is “little more than a thinly veiled scheme to destroy one of the most fundamental reforms in American history through privatization and further cost-shifting to many of the most vulnerable in our society.”

The “real choice,” DeMoro says:

would be securing the future of Medicare once and for all by extending it to cover everyone. Through its proven formula of global budgeting and federal bulk-purchasing power, it is the best way to effectively control costs while ensuring that we change our broken health care system from one based on ability to pay to one based on patient need.

Wis. Protests Inspire Morello’s ‘Union Town’—Download It Free

by James Parks, May 2, 2011

Singer Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine has always been a strong supporter of working people. Morello was so inspired after taking part in a demonstration and headlining a concert in February for the protesters at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., that he wrote what he calls “fighting songs.”

Not only did he write and record the songs, he’s donating the proceeds of the new eight-song extended play (EP) “Union Town” to help working people. There’s more: For a limited time, you can download the title song free here.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler says this is a very special action by Morello.

Do you remember the last time a leading recording artist put out a labor EP? And do you remember one ever donating the proceeds entirely to the cause of workers’ struggles at a critical moment—or anytime?

The EP will be released in digital form on May 17 and on CD and vinyl on July 19 under Morello’s new deal with New West Records. Proceeds from sale of the album will go to the America Votes Labor Unity Fund to support mobilization for pushing back against the state attacks on workers.

“I was so inspired by what I saw in Madison,” Morello says.

It seems very much like we’re at an important crossroad, and that this movement was not just about stopping some bad legislation, but possibly harnessing the energy of 100,000 to 150,000 people who were in the streets and want to put some teeth back in the labor movement in the U.S.

Check out an interview with Morello today at Politico.com here.