Wal-Mart’s Honest Graft

by Peter Dreier & Donald Cohen

Last month Wal-Mart became the latest company to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council in response to public outrage over ALEC’s aggressive support for “Stand Your Ground” laws (which are implicated in the death of Trayvon Martin, among others). Wal-Mart won some kudos for leaving ALEC, but its shrewd move was nothing more than an attempt to divert attention from the retail giant’s current troubles and its multimillion dollar effort to burnish its image, peddle its influence, and increase its market share.

The uproar over the Wal-Mart bribery scandal in Mexico uncovered last month evokes the famous distinction between “dishonest graft” and “honest graft” made by George Washington Plunkitt, a Tammany Hall politician in the early 1900s. Dishonest graft, Plunkitt explained, involves bribes and blackmail. Honest graft, in contrast, involves using one’s political and business connections, and inside knowledge, to make a fortune. Plunkitt described the principle behind “honest graft” in his motto: “I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka On the Supreme Court Health Care Decision

 

Richard Trumka

(June 28, 2012) We are pleased and relieved that the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.  Today’s decision means that we can continue moving full speed ahead to implement and build upon the Affordable Care Act.  We have no illusion that the destination has been reached, and we are more committed than ever to the hard work necessary to achieve our dream of quality health care for all.

With this decision, more than 105 million Americans will continue to benefit from the elimination of lifetime limits and the coverage of preventive services without cost-sharing, and more than 6 million young adults will remain covered by their parents’ health care plans.  Seniors will continue to save money on prescription drugs as the Part D donut hole closes over the next eight years; already over 5 million seniors have saved $3.7 billion on prescriptions in 2010 and 2011.  And insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, charge women more or drop coverage for those who get sick.

Hunger Strikers Charge Congress with Starving Postal Service

By Josh Eidelson

Ten postal workers and supporters began a hunger strike on Monday to protest proposed cuts to USPS services. (Photo by Lingjing Bao via Flickr)

Since Monday, ten workers and consumers have been hunger striking on behalf of the embattled U.S. Postal Service. Their action comes amid a fierce debate over what ails the agency and how to fix it. “It’s a shame,” says hunger striker Tom Dodge, “to let something that’s so efficient and doing so well just die, starve to death.”

Dodge says he’s “amazed” to find himself on hunger strike. A 13-year postal truck driver in Baltimore and a member of the American Postal Workers Union, he says in the past he never got involved in union activism because of “too much politics.” Dodge describes being inspired to act following proposals for major cuts last year. But after participating in rallies coordinated by USPS’ four unions, he concluded they’d had only “a limited effect.”  Reached by phone Tuesday while waiting to meet a representative from House Speaker John Boehner’s office, Dodge called the hunger strike “about the strongest thing you can do without breaking the law.”  “We’re trying to shame them,” says Jamie Partridge, who recently retired after 27 years as a letter carrier in Portland.

Silent March to Protest NYC’s “Stop and Frisk”

by Lawrence Gulotta

Lawrence Gulotta at the protest, photo by his son Nick

An unusually broad coalition turned out on Father’s Day, June 17^th to protest the increasing unpopular Stop and Frisk policies of the New York City Police Department. Many thousands of marchers departed, starting at 3 PM, in silent procession, from the corner of W. 110^th Street and Lenox Avenue in Harlem and solemnly marched down Fifth Avenue to E. 77^th Street, one block from the luxury townhouse of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

299 organizations endorsed the march.

• Unions were well represented with “boots on the ground” and banners up. The union turnout was impressive and included: the United Automobile Workers, Locals 2110, 2325, and Region 9A, New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, UFT, AFSCME DC 37, 1199 SEIU and SEIU 32BJ, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 3, Laborers Local 79, NYC Central Labor Council, and RWDSU.
• Civil Rights organizations were in the lead contingents: NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, NAACP NY Metro, NAACP Tri-State,.
• LGBT organizations were represented, in large numbers, individually and through their various organizations.
•  Religious organizations, including numerous Muslim, Jewish, Quaker and Christian social justice committees and Congregations and Chinese, Korean and Arab community groups.Student associations, including several hundred Muslim youth.
• Occupy Wall Street veterans.
• Democratic Party elected officials Christine Quinn, the Council speaker, Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, and William Thompson, the former city comptroller.
• Small contingents of the sectarian left (all 57 varieties) kibitzed with the marchers and sold their newspapers.

Veterans Forced to Attend Anti-Union Meetings on Army Base

by Mike Elk

Mike Elk

Jason Croic is a Marine combat veteran who served 28 months in Iraq. When he came home, he found a job working for $18 an hour as a mechanic on Stryker vehicles for General Dynamics Land Systems in Fort Lewis, Washington. Croic now has a new combatant, as his employer is attempting to stop him and his fellow contractors from joining Local 286 of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE).

For the last six months, Croic and 120 of his co-workers, nearly half of whom are veterans, have been forced to attend anti-union meetings, in which General Dynamics managers make them watch films about why unions are bad. General Dynamics has routinely told workers that if they vote to join union that it will likely lead to General Dynamics losing their contract with the U.S. Army. On several occasions, General Dynamics has even flown some of their top corporate officials out on Lear jets from their corporate headquarters in Sterling Heights, Michigan, to explain to the workers why they shouldn’t join a union.

Class war at the Supreme Court

Harold Meyerson

By Harold Meyerson

(June 26) n the eve of the Supreme Court’s much anticipated ruling on Obamacare, here is a simple test for detecting the politics behind a decision: When reading the rulings, look for the double standards and answers to questions not posed by the cases themselves. By those measures, the Supreme Court’s record in the past week fairly reeks of the justices’ politics.

Exhibit A is Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000, in which nonunion California state employees whose wages and benefits were nonetheless set through the collective bargaining process of SEIU — the state’s largest union — sued the local to get back a special dues assessment it levied in 2005 to fight two ballot measures. The union’s normal practice was to allow nonmembers to opt out of paying the roughly 44 percent of dues that went to matters not directly related to collective bargaining, such as election campaigns. In this instance, however, no such opt-out was allowed.

No Walmart in Chinatown MASS ACTION on June 30

The Los Angeles Federation of Labor, in cooperation with many community and faith allies is organizing the largest demonstration ever against Walmart. Speakers and performers will include Democratic Socialists of America honorary chair Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Tom Morello, United Food and Commercial Workers President Joe Hansen, Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, Chinatown residents and workers from Walmart and Walmart supply chain warehouses.

March Against Wal-Mart and Low Wages Jobs!
WHEN: Saturday, June 30, 10:00 AM
WHERE:Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 North Spring St. Los Angeles

Click here for flyers, route, directions, and more!

Press release with more details after the break

Teamsters rally for fired ice cream workers in Modesto

Teamster Nation

Practicing before the big rally

(June 26) Hundreds of Teamsters from three Teamster locals are putting on a tremendous show of solidarity in  Modesto, Calif., even as we blog. Teamsters from Local 386, 572 and 853 are wearing t-shirts and carrying signs that say, “WANTED: Ignacio Guiterrez for Unlawful Acts Against Latino Workers.”

They are rallying to support workers fired by ice cream maker La Michoacana. Neighbors and politicians have joined them. Dolores Huerta, founder of the United Farm Workers, is there to show Latino people throughout California are standing with them.

The workers decided to form a union after the company announced it was making record profit, but would cut their wages. Days before the union election, La Michoacana fired long-time drivers, merchandisers, warehousemen and office staff. That’s illegal.

Corporate Primacy Causes People Poverty

by Leo Gerard

USW President Leo Gerard

The Romney v. Obama economic smack down in Ohio last Thursday failed to deliver half the punch of remarks the men made earlier in the week.

President Obama said the nation must focus on the public sector, which continues to lay off thousands of teachers, cops and firefighters, even while the private sector has recovered sufficiently to consistently add jobs. Romney said he would fire more teachers, cops and firemen.

This gets to the dispute between Democrats and Republicans. The GOP has contended for 30 years that the primary function of government is to serve corporations and the 1 percent, and that when they thrive, the 99 percent may receive hand-me-down benefits. Democrats believe the principal function of government is to serve the majority of people and that when they benefit, the economy thrives for everyone.

Can SEIU Help Vermonters Win Single Payer?

by Steve Early

Steve Early

MONTPELIER, VT.–While the nation waits for an overdue Supreme Court decision that will decide the fate of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), another health care drama with wide implications for universal care is just starting in Vermont.

Prodded by a strong grassroots movement, the Vermont legislature voted last year to create a system where every citizen will eventually be eligible for publicly funded health care.

“Green Mountain Care” will take five years to fully implement, however. That’s because of the complexity and difficulty of phasing out existing insurance arrangements, overcoming legal hurdles, choosing a funding mechanism, and dealing with ACA’s unhelpful requirement that Vermont first create a private “insurance exchange”(a speed bump the Supreme Court may eliminate if it strikes down all or part of the ACA).