Why anti-union.blogspot.com ?
This site is dedicated to Lawyer/PR man, Rick Berman, who works as a lobbyist for the corporate war against unions and the working class. His MO is to start websites who falsely claim to be factual and through truth, half truth and out right lies, misinform the public, unions are not his first campaign and I'm sure it will not be his last.
Heres an interview from 60 Minutes and a Full Story I wrote.
I am trying to raise funds from friendly readers and activists to get a batch of hardhat stickers. I have one left from the last batch ... and it is mine! Now I want to get a few thousand to send to anyone who wants them; but I need to raise some funds. The $500 would go to the cost of the stickers and the shipping; the vendor I want to use are GCC-IBT members out of Texas. If you are in, please click the donation button and send over what you can ...
The last batch of stickers were donated and made the rounds. One of my favorite hardhat experiences was going to NY for a confernece and seeing the sticker on a construction worker's hat. We didn't know who each other were -- and it was great to introduce ourselves to one another. He told me he checks the site often and probably got the sticker from Joe, who got a 100 of them when they first came out.
Let's get together and get this going. So far I have put aside $50 toward the campaign, and earlier someone sent in a five, so ... we have 450 to go ... help out, get a sticker, have fun, work safe ...
Richard has informed us he now has $100 in the till, c'mon people, you like what we do help spread the word, the stickers help.
Was noticing where my links were coming from and saw a new blog out there, I'm used to the US Chamber of Commerce and other anti-union agencies websites popping up unexpected, but it's always a pleasure to find yet another person who has been motivated enough to jump into the action and help promote our struggle, from the upcoming election and explaining that in his field videography, The Employee Free Choice Act is as necessary as in my own, the construction industry, so without further ado, a big welcome to Decision List, who's latest post is a great music video.
Though many folks try to make things more complex than they really are, it really always comes down to a simple question.
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Hope to be reading more, and I hope he checks out Broadcast Union News, who has a lot of entertainment and broadcasting news.
Speaking of broadcasts, UnionGal posted a great video on her site, from 7/17, of a SEIU(Service Employees) theater production outside of John McCains headquarters on her site called "McCain as the "Loophole King"
Last week SEIU protested outside of McCain's campaign headquarters in Virginia. How they got ABBA to join them, I'll never know...
Richard at Union Review and Kirsten at UnionGal have been crazy busy, Richard attended Netroots Nation and Kirsten is running for office in DC, I will eventually be posting about all that sooner or later, I'm still reading through it, but I have a ton of stuff on my plate and a guy I worked with has passed away, a great guy who would give you the shirt off his back if you were in need, I feel really bad, I'm gonna miss him.
So I'm kinda doing all sorts of stuff, including getting more information about The Employee Free Choice Act petition for my own local to sign up, I'm meeting with the NYS AFL-CIO rep here in NYC tomorrow to get that stuff. Found a great article from over a year ago entitled "Who's afraid of The Employee Free Choice Act" from Common Dreams.
It’s tiresome reading such nonsense as the letter from Steve Lemois (June 18) who claims to know what unions are doing.
Here are some of the programs and laws that union workers have fought hard to create, many of which we still protect from regular attack by wealthy interests: Social Security, Medicare, the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, child-labor laws, family/medical leave with employer-paid insurance, unemployment insurance, temporary-disability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, and the minimum-wage law. And we have much more hard work ahead of us, such as the need for affordable access to health care for everyone and human-rights protections for workers making our products both here and abroad.
We union workers sure do manage to do an awful lot for non-union people while just “looking after our own behinds,” which Mr. Lemois claims is all we do. Can he even be serious?
BRIAN WILDER
Cranston
Spread the word people, the American worker, the heart of the labor movement, will not go down without a fight.
That's about it for now, sorry for the lapse in covering recent news, maybe if we had a few more writers, ah, but we can all just dream a little...
Courageous FAA inspectors are coming forward April 3 to tell the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure how Southwest Airlines, in collusion with FAA management, refused to perform necessary maintenance. Southwest kept planes with cracked fuselages in the air, even when told to ground them by FAA inspectors.
The problem doesn’t stop with Southwest, as the sudden grounding of hundreds of flights across major airlines demonstrates. The cause? As experts across the industry emphasized at the first-ever Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Summit (AMOS) in February, our nation’s entire system for overseeing aircraft maintenance is dysfunctional and dangerous. A key problem:crucial aircraft repairs are outsourced domestically and to countries like China and El Salvador – and the FAA’s outdated oversight system can’t keep pace. Rear-guard actions by airlines and discredited FAA management shouldn’t fool anyone: we need aggressive reform to fix this dangerous mess!
The Teamsters have joined with the Business Travel Coalition to lead CLAMOR (the Coalition to Legislate Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Reform).We will monitor the Congressional hearings and fight until we get real reforms. Join us in this fight!
written by Joe638NYC
at Tuesday, February 12, 2008
8:00 AM this morning 450 Teamsters arrived at the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco, Ca. To rally against the NAFTA Mexican domiciled vehicle pilot program, which would allow trucks to venture the country while not adhering to US transportation laws. Did I mention the imminent job losses to American citizens, looking ahead I can see every grocery store and supply house in this country picking up and going directly to Mexico, the writings on the wall. You can see the last story I wrote covering the Fire Mary Peters campaign and some background to this story which I have been covering over the past 8 months. Check out:
Then read the next one and consider how eager the company mentioned would be to move directly to Mexico, what would the stores have to do, order a day earlier?
Think of all the distributors here in the city and surrounding area, think of all those warehouse jobs, those workers who would be displaced.
It will happen, you can help stop it, spread the word, sign the E-Active message at FireMaryPeters.com that goes directly to your Representatives inbox
Standing Together Is The Most Powerful Thing There Is
The Teamsters woke San Francisco today with a rock ‘em, sock ‘em rally against open borders to unsafe trucks from Mexico.
They began to arrive at dawn, on streetcar and in semis, on bicycles and on foot, on motorcycles and buses. By 8 a.m., 450 Teamsters stretched the length of the city block in front of the federal courthouse. There the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals would soon hear the case against Transportation Secretary Mary Peters’ cross-border truck pilot program.
Seven Teamster trucks circled the block and blared their air horns as Teamsters cheered and chanted “We Are Teamsters!” and “Fire Mary Peters!”
A constant tattoo of horns came from the streetcars, buses, trucks and cars in the traffic that flowed in front of the rally. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said a Federal Protective officer.
“I’m exuberant,” said Paul Faaola, a rank-and-file member of local 85 in San Francisco. “This just cause I believe the Teamsters Union was made for.”
Local 287 President Bob Blanchet – who had put his heart and soul into organizing the action – beamed throughout the rally. That is, when he wasn’t shouting into a bullhorn.
International President Chuck Mack revved up the crowd from atop a flatbed truck parked in front of the courthouse. “Mary Peters must be fired!” he shouted to cheers. “The only problem is George Bush is her boss. We gotta fire George Bush in November!” he shouted to more cheers.
Tony Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of local 890 in Salinsa, Calif., told the crowd that Mexican truck drivers oppose the program too. “They fear it will destroy the trucking industry there,” he said. Teamsters waved both Mexican and American flags.
Tears came to the eyes of many Teamsters as David Jennings described how he lost his mother, father and 19-year-old son in a crash caused by a Mexican truck that suffered a catastrophic drive train failure. That failure could have been prevented by a border inspection.
“NAFTA has already compromised our jobs,” he said from the flatbed truck parked outside the court. “NAFTA has already compromised our environment. Now it’s being pushed to compromise our lives.”
Jennings later watched the panel of three judges grill attorneys representing the Teamsters and representing Mary Peters. They will rule later on the case.
Afterward, Paul Faaola reflected on what the rally meant beyond a wake-up call to the City of San Francisco.
“These are the times much harder than for our fathers or their fathers,” he said. “It’s harder to organize. Standing together is the most powerful thing there is.”
To see more images from the rally, please click here.
written by Joe638NYC
at Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters launches internet campaign to Stop Unsafe Mexican trucks and the imminent job loss to countless thousands of American workers.When someone dies because of this flagrant ignorance of the will of the American People and the US Congress, Mary Peter's should be held responsible.
*Click above to Get Involved (opens Teamster site)
Myself and other reporter's at UnionReview have been following this story since President Bush, against Congress was going to allow a pilot program starting on, of all days Labor Day in 2007 . according to report's on the matter in a story by Public Citizen:
Congress (2007) this year held hearings examining the plan to allow trucks from Mexico to travel beyond the border zones. Lawmakers uncovered serious safety deficiencies and deemed the pilot program a sham and in violation of existing law. In response, Congress passed a measure designed to ensure that any pilot program does not circumvent safety standards or congressional oversight and that such a program is conducted within strict parameters designed to facilitate informed decision making.
This has been an up and down battle, and we have spent a lot of time gathering information about this situation, you can see our articles with this search of Union Review using the term Mexican Trucks:
When Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) authored a provision that scrapped the pilot program allowing Mexican long-haul trucks into the United States, which was then included in the Omnibus Budget Bill that was signed by President Bush just before the Christmas break - that provision became federal law.
Interesting as it is, the Department of Transportation could give a shit about the law and has decided to go forward with its pilot program and ultimately became above the law.
The DOT is playing with the language of the amendment, saying the provision states that funds will not be used to establish a pilot program. So, they say ... We're cool with that because we already have a kick-ass unfair Mexican long-haul trucking program -- we don't need to establish another one.
The Senator is fired up, pissed off and disgusted. He wrote a letter to the DOT blasting them for their ass-backward move, saying, among other things, that the DOT's own Inspector General issued a report stating the pilot program was a disaster.
Working people really need to stand up and be heard on this issue. It is imperative on so many fronts, the least being that if you were to break a federal law, your ass would be in jail, when the DOT breaks the law, the President probably sends off a memo saying "job well done."
There is a whole blog on this issue over at Daily Kos ... please comment here and there, pass this along to everyone you know, and get as fired up as I am right now.
What in fact is the severity of the loophole, the current pilot program in its state violates 7 US laws, just a glance of the Fact or Fiction area of the Teamsters site would make anyone who drives on a road in the US afraid for their life. Trucks would get a typical glance from a US inspectors who are drastically understaffed, according to The Chief, the Civil Service Employee Weekly:
National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley, who represents 20,000 CBP workers, told the House Homeland Security Committee, which assembled in the Texas border town, that staff shortages have forced down morale among employees and adversely affected citizens trying to cross the border.
Thats just one branch of inspectors who inspect people, notice there are quite a few Mexican citizens here in the US, are we to believe that the understaffed vehicle inspectors are able to do much better. The trucks do not have to meet the same safety requirements as US trucks, it's a huge difference. A US truck driver must take a break after 11 hours of driving, a Mexican domiciled vehicle can drive for 10 hours before entering the US, then another 11 in our country. Just that fact alone is enough for the public to be outraged. But theres much more safety concerns, not limited to the two examples above. Please take a look, it's mind boggling.
Even the Mexican truckers do not want this to happen, according to El Financiero:
Mexican truck drivers believe it will destroy the Mexican trucking industry.
Elias Dip Rame, president of the Mexican National Truck Drivers Federation, told a reporter, "This program really hurts the trucking industry, this famous pilot plan, where the borders are opened, it really worries us." (El Financiero (Mexico City) in Spanish on December 7, 2007.)
"It is irresponsible of the Mexican Government, of Felipe Calderon, to allow the interests of a powerful 2 percent of people in the Mexican economy to hand Mexican trucking over to the Americans," Dip Rame said. (El Financiero (Mexico City) in Spanish on December 7, 2007.)
Now the Teamsters are calling for the head of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters.
This comes at a great time as I was bitching about communication and lack of publicity yesterday in my Waldbaums Closing NY Warehouse story. I urge everyone who cares about their families and workers here in the United States, Union and otherwise, to send an E-Mail to Congress demanding action. It's really easy to do and it makes a difference. Click the link below and fill out the form, you can personalize your disgust in the body area. Tell Congress: Stop Illegal Mexican Truck Program
Heres an interesting link about the "safe Mexican domiciled vehicles" in which 37 people were killed and 150 were injured in a trucking accident in Mexicofive days before Senate temporarily blocked the pilot program. And another story about an accident, involving 2 tractor trailers and many vehicles, that *killed four Mexican nationals who were driving a pick up with Texas plates on a the border crossing bridge. If the unending influx of Illegal Aliens entering this country via Mexico is any indication of what the truck inspections will be like, we're fucked, plain and simple. *source-KGBT and CNN
From August 2007
Please post back if you get a response Thanks, Joe
Most of us believe our medical records are a private matter between us and our health care providers. But postal employees learned recently the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been snooping into their medical records, according to a suit filed by the Postal Workers (APWU) and Letter Carriers (NALC).
The unions filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 17. They say that beginning in 2006, the postal service’s OIG began surreptitiously seeking and obtaining the medical records of postal workers directly from doctors and hospitals that had provided medical services to postal employees.
The suit alleges that the OIG has routinely instructed medical providers that they must submit records to the OIG and they should refrain from notifying affected employees that the records have been requested by the OIG. It says the snooping continues and the OIG claims it has a right to review the records as part of oversight or investigatory activities.
The unions are asking the court to declare the practice illegal and issue an injunction against the OIG and the USPS. As APWU President William Burrus says:
I am outraged that OIG would use the tactics of a police state to investigate workers compensation or sick-leave cases. The OIG has no legitimate business investigating routine personnel matters. The use of these methods demands the strongest possible response.
NALC President William Young vows NALC
will do everything in its power to reign in this outrageous conduct by the OIG. This federal lawsuit is the first step. If more is needed, we will take further action.
Richard Negri at Union Review wonders what would happen if the investigative shoe was on the foot of workers.
As this slimy, slippery and surreptitious practice continues, the OIG says it has every right to review the records as part of its oversight and investigatory activities…oh really?
So, I began thinking about this: What if a group of workers, clearly invested in the well-being and longevity of their company or organization, found that their top brass was slacking. They became somewhat concerned as they all agreed they needed their jobs. Then, without saying a word to anyone, began poking at the medical records of said-top brass. What would happen? My educated guess is that we’d have a group working people carted off in chains, loaded into a paddy wagon and beamed out on the six o’clock news.
I had to repost this here, big thanks to Richard Negri and Mike Hall for getting the message out, my local postman couldn't believe it. So I'm gonna print it and leave it in the mailbox for him.
The Teamsters woke San Francisco today with a rock ‘em, sock ‘em rally against open borders to unsafe trucks from Mexico.
