Faculty Organizing into Unions – Podcast of Ideas and Experiences

Bill Barclay

by Bill Barclay, Oak Park DSA branch (of Chicago DSA)

The Chicago December DSA podcast featured two faculty active in their unions, but at very different stages in the history of organizing on their respective campuses.  Holly Graff is Professor of Philosophy at Oakton Community College (Chicago) and Senator in the Illinois Education Association chapter at her college.  Joe Persky is Professor of Economics at University of Illinois at Chicago and President of United Faculty.  United Faculty is affiliated with both the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, in itself an unusual organizing model.

Oakton CC’s faculty union is an old one while UIC’s is brand new – not even a contract yet.  Both participants discuss how they and their unions can help defend higher education, stressing the importance of a vision of post-secondary education that is democratic and accessible to all in today’s political economy. They also talk about the ways in which their unions have been involved with other organized staff on their respective campuses as well as their interaction with the Chicago Teachers Union during the fall 2012 strike.  Finally, there are some interesting differences as well, particularly near the end of the podcast, when they talk about their respective bargaining strategies.

Episode 22, Recorded 12.08.2012:

• MP3 (≈30.2 MB)
• Ogg Vorbis (≈33.6 MB)

For other excellent political economy podcasts, see: http://northshoredsa.org/talkin_socialism.html

My Chicagoland Black Friday in words and pictures

 by Bob Simpson

As I was writing this blog post on Sunday morning, news came from the Associated Press about the real human cost of our Black Fridays:

“DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through a multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh’s capital, an official said Sunday. Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe. Bangladesh’s garment factories make clothes for brands including Wal-Mart, JC Penney, H&M, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour and Tesco.”

Walmart stocks up on products manufactured under deadly sweatshop conditions. It organizes Black Friday sales knowing they can touch off riots in their stores. Then Walmart sends security guards and police after peaceful demonstrators who only seek justice in the global workplace. Who said irony is dead?

I didn’t hear of any Black Friday shopper nastiness in Chicagoland, but there were a number of peaceful demonstrations against Walmart and other retailers who exploit and abuse their own employees and supply chain workers around the world.

My Black Friday began at around 4:30 am with a drive from my home in Oak Park to Bedford Park, a suburb south of Midway Airport. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) had rented a hotel meeting room there as a staging area for Walmart protestors, plus buses to carry them to several Chicagoland Walmart stores and eventually to downtown to support food and retail workers there.

It was dark and deserted within the complex of hotels, but when I found the yellow school buses, I knew I was in the right place. Once in the lobby, a UFCW staffer saw me  and guided me to their meeting room where staff people were already giving away lime-green Our Walmart tee shirts, buttons and signs. About 30 people were there drinking coffee and munching on donuts.

The new Chicago school budget strangles public education

by Bob Simpson

When you wage war on the public schools, you’re attacking the mortar that holds the community together. You’re not a conservative, you’re a vandal.” —Garrison Keeler

The 2013 Chicago Public Schools(CPS) budget received a resounding thumbs down at a community forum held at Malcolm X College on the West Side the evening of July 11. Over 200 people filled the auditorium to listen to an explanation of the budget from Chief Operating Officer Tim Cawley and then ask questions and make their own recommendations. The reaction of those who spoke from the audience was overwhelmingly negative. Cawley was loudly booed several times. Similar meetings were held at Kennedy-King and Daley colleges on the South Side. No meetings were held on the city’s North Side.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) described it as a “fantasy budget at best.”

Lucy Gonzales Parsons – International Women’s Day

Profile of Lucy Gonzales Parsons (1853–1942). By William Loren Katz.
Labor organizer and orator.

Image via Wikipedia

In honor of International Women’s Day, here are lessons, books, websites, and films to fill the gaps in our own knowledge, in the textbooks, and in the curriculum.

“Workers shouldn’t “strike and go out and starve, but strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production.” So believed Lucy Gonzales Parsons, who died 70 years ago this week. In light of all the meanings the word “occupy” has come to gather in these times, William Katz’…

On March 7, 1942, fire engulfed the simple home of 89-year-old Lucy Gonzales Parsons on Chicago’s North Troy Street, and ended a life dedicated to liberating working women and men of the world from capitalism and racial oppression. A dynamic, militant, self-educated public speaker and writer, she became the first American woman of color to carry her crusade for socialism across the country and overseas. Lucy Gonzales started life in Texas. She was of Mexican American, African American, and Native American descent and born into slavery. The path she chose after emancipation led to conflict with the Ku Klux Klan, hard work, painful personal losses, and many nights in jail. In Albert Parsons, a white man whose Waco Spectator fought the Klan and demanded social and political equality for African Americans, she found a handsome, committed soul mate. The white supremacy forces in Texas considered the couple dangerous and their marriage illegal, and soon drove them from the state.

Lucy and Albert reached Chicago, where they began a family and threw themselves into two new militant movements, one to build strong industrial unions and the other to agitate for socialism. Lucy concentrated on organizing working women and Albert became a famous radical organizer and speaker, one of the few important union leaders in Chicago who was not an immigrant.

Forum: Equality and Jobs for the 99 %

 

Image via Wikipedia

Equality and Jobs for the 99%:  Economic Justice for All

A public event sponsored by Democratic Socialists of America

 November 11, 2011; 7:00 p.m.  Location: St. Stephen and Incarnation Church, 1525 Newton NW, Washington, D.C.

Speakers

 

Eliseo Medina – International Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU

Sarita Gupta – Executive Director, Jobs with Justice

John Nichols – Washington Correspondent, The Nation

Joslyn Williams – President, Metropolitan D.C. Central Labor Council

Maria Svart – National Director, Democratic Socialists of America

DSA, the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, is the largest socialist political organization in the country, with more than 6,000 members and active locals in more 40 U.S. cities and college  campuses. DSA Locals in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Wichita, among others, have taken an active role in the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Freedom Plaza, and other Occupy protests in support of jobs and economic justice.

This forum  is organized in conjunction with the 15^th National Convention of Democratic Socialists of America, which is being held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner November 11-13, 2011. Visit www.dsausa.orgfor more information.

Nurses Condemn Chicago Mayor Emanuel for Arrest Of Nurses, Medical Volunteers at Occupy Chicago

NNU first aid station in Chicago just before the arrests Saturday night

RNs to Picket Mayor’s Office Monday 24 October at 10 am

Registered nurses from across the USA condemned Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his decision to arrest nurse volunteers, as well as peaceful protesters, in a late night crackdown Saturday night at the Occupy Chicago protest.

The National Nurses Union (NNU) is asking supporters to call Mayor Emanuel’s office at 312-744-5000 and demand they immediately drop all charges against the nurses and other protesters, and stop the harassment and arrests of the nurses and others peacefully exercising their free speech rights. Nurses will also picket the mayor’s office at 10 a.m. Monday morning, at City Hall at the LaSalle entrance.

Nurse leaders of National Nurses United who set up a nurses’ station to provide basic first aid to Chicago protesters – as NNU has done peacefully in five other cities across the U.S. – were among the some 130 people arrested by Chicago police. The police also tore down the first aid station, and arrested scores of others who had peacefully assembled to support the station.

“Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. “These arrests are disgraceful and unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from continuing this mission, setting up the station again, and continuing to support the protests.”

Jewish, Christian, Muslim Clergy To Join Striking Hyatt Hotel Workers On Picket Line Wednesday

Heeding the calling of their faith traditions to do justice for the oppressed, area Jewish, Christian and Muslim clergy will hold an interfaith prayer service on the picket line to support striking workers at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Chicago on Wednesday, September 14, 2011.

Hyatt workers in Chicago joined thousands of Hyatt workers striking in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Honolulu. The company has singled itself out as a particularly abusive employer, with a high record of injuries for its housekeepers and an incredible 15 citations by OSHA or its state-level counterparts at hotels around the country.

Several attempts have been made over the past two years to appeal to the Pritzker family and to the shareholders to bring a fair offer to the Hyatt hotel workers, as the Hilton and Starwood chains have done; they have refused.

2,000 Attend Chicago Rally to Support Wisconsin workers

by Bob Roman

Twenty minutes before the Saturday Noon beginning of the rally in solidarity with Wisconsin workers, a few hundred people had already gathered in the plaza in front of the Thompson Center within the Loop in downtown Chicago. I had just arrived in a clot of a dozen or so off a CTA Blue Line train. For some of them, downtown Chicago was unfamiliar territory, slightly intimidating, and they navigated uncertainly. We emerged from the subway station to find a rally already in progress. To fill the time before the official start, the organizers opened the microphone to everyone wishing to speak.

By the time the rally began, the plaza was nearly full, and organizers announced about 2,000 people were present.

Sitting Down, Chicago Hotel Workers Rise

by Bob Roman

Photo Credit Jerry Mead Lucero

On Thursday, July 22, several hundred people gathered in front of downtown Chicago’s Hyatt Regency hotel to protest the Hyatt chain’s failure to negotiate a new contract and, more to the point, to protest management’s attempt to take back gains made in the previous contract. Management’s rationale being the recession at a time when business at the Hyatt is recovering and the enterprise is, in any case, profitable. This action was part of a nationwide day of action at Hyatt hotels called by UNITE HERE.

Some 17 different actions were held in the United States and Canada. With the exception of a Thursday morning action out at the Hyatt near O’Hare Airport, they all featured civil disobedience leading to arrests. In Chicago, not all those participating in blocking the street remained to be arrested. This was done to allow some police officers time off to attend slain police officer Michael Bailey’s wake and funeral. Not all the participants were happy about this, but everyone behaved in a disciplined and focused manner.

Wal-Mart Rejected Again in Chicago

by Bob Roman

A proposed compromise that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build additional stores in Chicago bit the dust just before a January 11th Chicago City Council Finance Committee meeting .The compromise ordinance would have required a “living wage” of $11.03 an hour for retailers that employ more than 50 and benefit, directly or indirectly, from a city subsidy.

According to the Sun-Times, Wal-Mart would not agree, claiming the proposed compromise was “at the expense of Chicago’s working families, not on their behalf.” The Illinois Retail Merchants Association chimed in with “A job killer,” and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce called it ten times worse than the vetoed big-box living wage ordinance.

So it’s all about jobs, yes? No. The quality of jobs in the city is a major concern, but it’s also about the very nature of the city: how we get around, how we shop, how and where the money flows. Politicians in favor of Wal-Mart coming to town wrap themselves in the flag of jobs, but in fact Wal-Mart, and other businesses, would be perfectly happy to do business using no employees at all.   Consider the “big box” stores that encourage you to ring up your own purchases, or the shabby trick (most popular among manufacturers) of staffing your enterprise almost entirely with “temps.”   It’s not about jobs.