Splits in the Labor Movement, Then and Now: C.I.O. - Change to Win

Rough economic times, changing demographics, the reinvention of work and workplaces, conflicting models for moving forward - both in the 1930s and the 2000s one result has been to split the labor movement.

AFL vs. CIO — AFL-CIO vs. Change to Win, how far do the parallels hold up?

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The New York Labor History Association’s 2008 May 22 Conference Panel Discussion looks to be outstanding: Splits in the Labor Movement, Then and Now: C.I.O. - Change to Win

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Join their panel of historians and activists for a lively overview of where we came from, where we are and what lies ahead for labor.

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WHEN: Thursday, May 22, 2008 - 6:00-8:30 p.m.

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WHO:Moderator /Commentator: Steven Greenhouse, Labor and Workplace Correspondent, The New York Times

Panelists:

* Melvyn Dubofsky, Professor of History and Sociology, Binghamton University

* Priscilla Murolo, Professor of History, Sarah Lawrence College

* Robert Master, Legislative & Political Director, Communications Workers of America, District 1

* Greg Denier, Director of Communications, Change to Win

WHERE. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU

. 70 Washington Square South - 10th Floor (Manhattan)

. Free and open to the public; refreshments will be served.

. For information: 212-998-2636

Co-sponsor: Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU

Gandhi and Martin Luther King: Jobs with Justice National Conference

Here is one ongoing story of struggle by workers against exploitative corporate globalization. It is part of the rich tapestry presented at the Jobs with Justice National Conference in Providence, which assembled several hundred activists from forty local coalitions that campaign for workers’ rights. These delegates, diverse in age, race and culture, shared their organizing experiences and successes, of perseverance in the face of adversity and corporate and political villany. This struggle by Indian workers against their exploitation by the U.S. government’s H2B “guest worker” program is continuing.

We are workers, not criminals

By David Bacon

May 1, 2008

In the big immigrant marches that swept the country on May Day in 2006 and 2007, one sign said it all: “We are Workers, not Criminals!” Often it was held in the calloused hands of men and women who looked as though they’d just come from work in a factory, cleaning an office building, or picking grapes.

The sign stated an obvious truth. Millions of people have come to this country to work, not to break its laws. Some have come with visas, and others without them. But they are all contributors to the society they’ve found here, not people who mean it harm. Again this May Day, immigrant workers are filling the streets, making the same point.

The importance of understanding private equity

Stuart Elliott

Our friends at Dissent have made available on-line a very important article from their Winter 2008 issue–Stephen F. Diamond’s “Private Equity and the Public Good.” (It’s a reminder that subscribers get to read many articles before they’re on-line. I’m looking forward to getting the Spring issue in the mailbox to read “Show Me the Money”: Labor and the Bottom Line of National Health Insurance by Marie Gottschalk and A Southern Strategy For Unions by John Lalas. So subscribe, already)

Diamond argues that the emergence of private equity firms as an important form of capitalist organization marks “the arrival of a potentially new stage in the history of capitalism.”

Labor scholars, writers, Challenge SEIU

In May Day Letter To SEIU President Andy Stern, 100 Scholars, Artists and Writers Defend Right to “Principled Dissent” and Caution Against UHW Trusteeship

“We are writing to express our deep concern about SEIU’s threatened trusteeship over its third largest local, United Healthcare Workers (UHW). We believe that there must always be room within organized labor for legitimate and principled dissent, if our movement is to survive and grow.”

May Day!

ITUC May Day Manifesto

Brussels, 29 April 2008 (ITUC OnLine): On this day, the 1st of May, millions of working people across the world join together to celebrate the achievements of more than a century of trade unionism. The high principles of equality, justice, human dignity and peace which have found expression through the trade union movement are just as relevant today as they were when working men and women first came together to fight for their rights at work. These principles gave rise to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ILO Convention 87 in 1948. But the fundamental rights enshrined in these celebrated instruments are far from reality for much of humanity.

Harold Meyerson on why the Democrats need unions

In his latest op-ed, the astute Harold Meyerson gives some advice to the Democrats about attracting white working class voters. The key is union. In the electoral long run, the Employee Free Choice Act and, this November, labor’s secret weapon–Working America.

Barbara Ehrenreich with the truckers

Barbara Ehrenreich has been arguing that the left and the Democratic Party ought to be paying attention to the travails and protests of the truckers. She blogged today about the protest in DC.

Three truckers – two white and one black – speak about their dwindling livelihoods and the need for immediate government action to push down fuel prices. I can’t fight my way through the media to hear much of what they’re saying, but one speaker mentions foreclosures. This is a wide-ranging cry from the strangled middle class –or working class or whatever you want to call it—and all I can think is: Where are the Democrats? Why aren’t they are pouring out of their offices to show support for the truckers? And wouldn’t have been wonderful if Obama had shown up? Because he’s not going to make it unless he learns to channel the frustration of people like JB, Melissa and Mike.

That’s just my concern though. The whole event has been strictly nonpartisan. The truckers are already focused on the May 1 Truckers and Citizens United protest in New York City (see www.theamericandriver.com). That one, JB tells me, will be in solidarity with the San Francisco longshoremen’s May Day actions against the war.

Workers Memorial Day–not just American anymore

Many of our readers no doubt participated in local Workers Memorial Day events. The AFL-CIO produces an excellent report each year entitled Death on the Job, which should be read and studied by every union activist, and not just members of the safety committee. But few realize that, like another labor holiday made in the USA, Workers Memorial Day has gone international.  The UK-based Hazards Magazine has a global roundup and images–posters from the US, UK, Denmark, Bangladesh and other countries.

Just days before, 55 workers were killed in a factory fire in Morocco that recalls the Triangle Fire Tragedy.

The ITUC press release on WMD below the fold.

SEIU California Cleaners Show Solidarity with Nestlé Russia Workers’ Struggle

In the midst of a difficult contract campaign for the janitors servicing commercial buildings in California (including Nestlé USA headquarters in Glendale), members of SEIU Local 1877 showed their solidarity with the union struggle at the Nestlé factory in Perm, Russia by distributing leaflets and displaying banners on April 16.