Funny, sad, some joker is going to say its racists, well whatever the case, sometimes we need a little humor to prevent the crying.


Found this via YouTube's video response system, which allows other YouTube contributors to add a video response to a story. In this case the original story was "John McCain trashes American workers", which Uniongal, our friend and fellow labor activist, just wrote a piece "McSame Mocks Workers, Redux"

Here's Foamy, the angry squirrel, at least I think hes a squirrel, in Tech Support Part2.


Foamy is the creation of Jonathan Ian Mathers, you can see more of his work at Ill Will Press


For my text and e-mail readers, Center For Downward Mobility, Foamy Tech Support

Heres a couple of cute images from David Dees

"per capita income is just $480 a year"

Is Free Trade a Good Thing for Haiti? Deforested lands, farmers forced out to make "Free Trade" zones, no self-sufficiency, no sustainable agriculture, dependence on imports and a population growth that is estimated at 110% higher than world average and 174% higher than the United States.

Drastic food inflation causes riots

Amid riots and death's, UN forces, led by Brazilian peacekeeping forces and humanitarian food aid, Haiti has overthrow it's leader, in a country where most of it's workers make less than $2 a day. It's a simple fact, with worldwide food inflation, the people in Haiti cannot afford to eat.

When you wonder why we as labor should care, take note that many former US employers in the textile industry have opened up shop in this land, and many in Haiti itself, shut their doors when human rights organizations persisted in campaigns for these workers. These companies who contracted clothing for the likes of Nike and Disney, shut their Haitian factories and headed to countries with even lower regard for labor and human rights, such as China.

Read on and get an idea of the wonderful world of "Free Trade" and "Global" economy

Haiti Tosses Out It's Leader After Promise of Sustainable Agriculture on Barren Land

From Reuters (4/12/08):

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haiti's government fell on Saturday when senators fired the prime minister after more than a week of riots over food prices, ignoring a plan presented by the president to slash the cost of rice.
(continued)
The clash with senators came after the president of the country of 9 million people -- most of whom earn less than $2 a day -- managed to persuade rioters to end a week of violence in which at least five people were killed.

Stone-throwing crowds began battling U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south on April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, cooking oil and other staples.

The unrest spread this week to the capital, Port-au-Prince, bringing the sprawling and chaotic city to a halt as mobs took over the streets, smashing windows, looting shops, setting fire to cars and hurling rocks at motorists.

The Corporate Hands In Haiti

While in the late 90's Disney and Nike clothing contractor H.H. Cutler (a division of VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel companies), moved from Haiti to places in the world with even less human rights and lower pay, in the years since American companies such as Levi's have closed the doors here in the states and opened shop in the country. Workers in the country earn an average of less than $2 a day. A Cintas subcontractor, Haitian American Apparel Co. S.A. (or as workers call it, HAACOSA), has been alleged to have "Severe violation of Haitian Labor Codes and International Labor Standards", from the last link below:

"They lock the gates on us and sometimes put security guards out in front with rifles to prevent us from leaving, said Jacqueline, as she described the method her employer uses to force workers to work over 10 hours a day without compensation. The supervisors would yell and curse at us to finish our quota. My daily quota is sewing 90 dozen zippers on pants for 80 gourds (~$2 USD)."

The factory gets so hot it is like working in fire. Inside the air is so hot and full of dust that I can’t breathe, so I would put my handkerchief around my nose and continue working, she said. HAACOSA doe not have any purified water for us to drink. Instead, there is a tub of water that, I think, is rainwater or something because it is smelly and dirty. I think supervisors pee in the water because it smells so bad. When asked if she drinks the water, she responded, I have to, I don’t have money to buy water.

Life In Our Free Trade Neighbor


From The Associated Press (4/12/08) :

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti, where most people live on less than $2 a day, is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice.

Much of Haiti's once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil decimated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms. To make a profit, the farms that remain often price their crops sharply higher than imported American products, which benefit from generous U.S. government subsidies.

Some aid was on its way Friday. Brazil, which has about 1,200 peacekeepers serving in Haiti, sent an air force plane with 14 tons of food, including beans, sugar and cooking oil. France pledged food and other aid worth $1.6 million. The U.N. World Food Program, which had collected only 15 percent of its Haiti budget before the riots, appealed for donations to meet its $96 million goal.

But the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday that high food prices in the developing world are unlikely to subside anytime soon as price speculation and market failures counteract increases in food production.

This spells disaster in a nation where the World Bank says per capita income is just $480 a year.

Francois, gaunt and balding at 32, doesn't even have that much. Hired as a "transportation inspector" last year by the mayor of the nearby Cite Soleil slum, he has no salary — just an identification card that can be used in the slums to exact bribes or collect fees. His 25-year-old girlfriend also does not work. With no education or skills, their job prospects aren't good in a place where most eligible adults are unemployed.

Mostly, Francois depends on handouts from neighbors and friends. He begs in the street. If all else fails, he hunts for scraps in the garbage piles at the nearby La Saline market, in view of towering stacks of U.S.-produced rice he cannot afford.

Francois and Joseph weren't impressed by the much-anticipated national address of President Rene Preval on Wednesday, delivered as gunshots rang through the capital and protesters yelled for his resignation.

The U.S.-backed leader blamed soaring food costs on Haiti's dependence on foreign imports and a badly damaged infrastructure that makes shipping difficult. A trained agronomist, Preval also pledged to build up Haitian agriculture and make the country more self-sufficient, offering government loans to help farmers afford fertilizer.

His message was lost on this couple. Like thousands of urban poor in the capital, they fled the hopelessness of the countryside in their youth. At age 10, Francois was given away by his rural parents to a family in Port-au-Prince, who forced him to work as a servant until he turned 18.

For them, promises to grow more food in the increasingly barren countryside are meaningless.

"By the time rice grows here, we'll all be dead," Francois said. "Preval is a country man. He should go plant rice."

In Haitian slang, Francois and Joseph describe their hunger pangs as "eating Clorox" because of the burning sensation in their guts. Flashing a sheepish smile, Joseph said they sometimes resort to a traditional hunger palliative — cookies made of dirt, salt and butter.

More People and No Sustainable Agriculture

One of the biggest problem in Haiti is that most of it's food is imported, most of it's own farmers have, been run off their land for "Free Trade" areas or have abandoned their farms due to much cheaper US Subsidized Agriculture, another major player is the population growth figures, Haiti has had an increase of 2.45% in 2007, thats more than twice as high as the world average, and almost triple that of the United States. Obviously unaffordable food and more people is a deadly mix.

Heres the stats on Haiti,

The following diagram shows the levels of exports and imports of the country over the years.



The country became a member of the World Bank in the year 1953. The country is also a member of the trade organizations like WTO and CARICOM.

From CIA.gov

World

Population growth rate:	1.167% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	20.09 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	8.37 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

United States

Population growth rate:	0.894% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	14.16 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	8.26 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Haiti

Population growth rate:	2.453% (2007 est.)
Birth rate:	35.87 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate:	10.4 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

In Conclusion

My quick conclusion, not being the expert on Foreign affairs and this travesty in Haiti, more education and less population growth would be a good start. Any true trade pact should have this type of thing involved in it, we simply cannot just rape a country dry without helping the people create their own sustainable environment, so, is Free Trade a good thing? When people come somewhere closer to the top, with actual human rights, with regulated monitoring. With Corporate investment into the communities they invade. Will that happen? I really don't know, in this world where you need consumers, it seems that the corps are killing their own businesses. Constantly fretting on this quarters bottom line and not foreseeing past that, the entire corporate structure is flawed in it's methods. When there were businessmen who wanted to achieve their dreams of highly sought after products, and the leading products in their respective fields amidst competition, they looked past a 3 month span. They invested in the future of their companies. In todays world we have a few CEO and board members who look to get the highest bonus and pay in very small sections of time. It's a losing proposition. Especially when no one can afford their products. Biofeul's using the food supply is a huge contributer to the food demand, but then again theres another story for another day...

Also read Part 1: "Free Trade's working victims, Bangladesh's workers cannot afford rice, John McCain on free trade"

Also: "The cost of food: facts and figures"

More links of Corporations in Haiti From Hartford Web Publishing

Disney/Nike Contractor Leaves Haiti for China

Campaign for Labor Rights, Action Alert, 8 August 1998. H.H. Cutler is planning to pull production out of Haiti to relocate to China. More than 2,000 badly needed jobs in Haiti could be lost. H.H. Cutler (a division of VF Corporation, one of the world's largest apparel companies) has sewn clothing in Haiti for the last several years under contract with the Walt Disney Company and Nike.

Disney/Haiti workers threatened

Labor Alerts, 26 October 1998. Concerning the Megatex factory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which produces clothing for the Disney company. The worker organization, Batay Ouvriye, reports that a factory supervicor threatened two union members at Megatex with firing and violence.

No work at Megatex; no answer from Disney

Campaign for Labor Rights, Labor Alerts, 16 May 1999. Megatex, a factory in Port-au-Prince which manufacturers clothing for Disney and other brands and which has been the focus of several previous labor alerts. The entire export production sector is spiraling down. Foreign capital is deserting the country. The company remains silent.

Haiti private sector decries ‘climate of terror’

By Michael Deibert, Reuters, 24 November 2002. In another blow to embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's largest private sector association blamed high authoritiesclimate of terror. The business group calls for the arrests of some government supporters. for allowing a

Betting on its brand name, Hilton sees a future in Haiti: Poor economy, protests fail to dim chain's vision

By Marika Lynch, The Miami Herald, Friday 20 December 2002. The walls are to be 15 feet tall in the planned Hilton D'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. The 196-unit, $52.5 million complex is shooting for a 2005 opening. The Hilton D'Haiti hopes to attract business people seeking to slip into the country and avoid the trek—and the safety risks—of heading downtown.

Farmers forced out as global brands build Haiti free-trade area

By Jacqui Goddard, Ouanaminthe, Haiti, The Sunday Times, 6 July 2003. The Maribahoux Plain is one of Haiti's most fertile agricultural regions. Located on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic, it has a production capacity enough to feed half a million people. But under a scheme funded by the World Bank, 54 peasant farmers have been evicted to free up land for an industrial Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

Levi Strauss moving to Haiti; N. American plants closing in March

By Don Thomas, The Edmonton Journal, Saturday 4 October 2003. Levi Strauss closing its North American plants and ramping up production in Third World countries, including Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. With help from the World Bank, Grupo M, the Dominican Republic's largest employer, has opened a plant in a free trade zone in nearby Haiti.

Labor Abuses At CINTAS Producing Factory in Haiti

UNITE, [21] October 2003. The working conditions of the women garment workers at a Cintas subcontractor, Haitian American Apparel Co. S.A. (or as workers call it, HAACOSA). Severe violation of Haitian Labor Codes and International Labor Standards, as well as Cintas' own Code of Conduct.

I would call the price changes, which followed the high price of oil, as a crime against humanity - Dr Sajjad Zohir, Dhaka Economic Research Group

After 7 weeks, American Axle says the UAW offer to end the strike is not good enough, while it threatens to leave the USA for good.

Do you blame them if, thanks to "Free Trade", they can go to the lowest bidding country, where workers can not even afford to buy rice at $.40 a pound?

The American dream was sold out, at the end side of this article I add some information about Hillary's husband, her campaign strategist and John McCain's very ugly record's on protecting American workers.


Food lines have become longer as prices have gone up, Fights over food frequently break out in the queues

Bangladesh faces food crisis

From BBC (4/10/08) :

There is a simple enough way of judging how serious Bangladesh's food crisis has become this year - it is to count the changing number of people queuing up to buy government-subsidized rice each day.

As the weeks have passed and the sun above Dhaka has become stronger, so the queues are now forming earlier, and more and more people are joining them.

The shops are little more than bamboo and sheet-metal sheds set up on patches of waste ground, and the men working in them are soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles. This unit's normal job is to guard the country's borders. But for months now it has been helping preserve the country's stability by selling cheap food to the poor.

The rice they sell is three-quarters of the market price.

Originally the shops saw the poorer class of people, the rickshaw pullers and day laborers, but recently the higher paid, such as teachers, security guards and government workers are on the line waiting to get rice from the government subsidized shops. Bangladesh is known for it's garment factories, whose clothes are exported to such outfits as Levis and H&M among others, but factory owners are reluctant to raise wages due to stay competitive with China.

Now you might think that we are talking a lot of money for rice, but in fact the wages are so low in the country that the working class must stay in line, often fighting with other people to get the staple food in their country, rice, for 3/4 of the going rate.

So, what exactly is the going rate*?

Almost 2 lb's of rice sells for around $0.94 United States dollars.

Even if the family needed 40 pounds of rice, at the regular price, thats only $20

Working class people, who are making the products which were once made in the United states are so underpaid by these multi-national corporations that they cannot even afford rice.

The shoppers are no longer just rickshaw pullers and day-labourers, as they were in January, but government workers, security guards and teachers.

Instead of two orderly queues, one of men, the other of women, there are now often four queues, and a scrum of frustrated people at the front.

"The price rise has been really hard on the people of Bangladesh," Milon Das, a primary school teacher, said.

"Though I am a teacher, my salary is low, and I cannot afford rice at the normal markets. This is our country's biggest problem."

Social unrest has been predicted if the situation worsens, predicts a former government minister

"There will be chaos, there will be demonstrations, there will be muggings, there will be hijackings, there will be strikes," Mohammed Akhtar Hossein, who works as a security guard at a luxury block of flats, said.

"If people don't have food in their stomachs they will go out into the streets to take whatever they can because they have to survive."

This is the cost of Free Trade

The cost of Free Trade, it is destroying the entire planet. Almost 500 textile mills in the United States have closed their doors for good here in America since Bill Clinton slammed the Bush written NAFTA into law against Congress, Bush Jr. has been adding Free Trade agreements all along, Now Bush has been trying to slam the Colombian Free Trade Agreement through Legislature and with a mostly partisan Congressional vote to slow the Fast Track status of the agreement, he almost accomplished his task.

I'm not saying that this is a Dem/Rep thing, but you can tell who stands to gain by the agreement, or is too stupid to realize that extending Free Trade to the absolute worst country for a worker isn't a good idea, you can see them by their NO vote to slow down the fast track decision on the Colombian Free Trade Agreement. Take a look at the tally here, Republicans are in italic.

As a matter of fact Bill Clinton has made a lot of money speaking in favor of Colombia Free Trade and Hillary's campaign strategist has been at meetings lobbying for the agreement.

John McCain is no winner either, he has stated he is a "free trader", he also voted in favor of NAFTA, CAFTA and other bad trade deals.

[1]McCain Has Voted for Every Other Bad Trade Agreement That Has Come Up. McCain votes in support of any and all trade agreements regardless of their negative impacts on U.S. workers. He voted for trade agreements with Oman, Singapore, Chile and Morocco, among others, as well as for Fast Track bills to make it easier for the president to enact trade agreements without strong worker protections.[2]

McCain in 1999: “I Would Negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Almost Any Country.” “If I were president, I would negotiate a free trade agreement with almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us.” [3]

And John McCain has not protected workers from the ill affects of these agreements

McCain Supported President Bush’s Outsourcing Efforts. McCain voted to allow overseas outsourcing of government contracts after President Bush’s economic advisers released a report saying America should outsource its jobs. [4]

McCain Voted Against Limiting Tax Breaks to Companies That Re-Import Foreign Manufactured Goods. He voted against a bill to tax multinational companies on income from foreign factories when goods are shipped back to the United States and to require companies to notify employees and give a reason before they move their jobs overseas. [5]

McCain Supported Waiving and Weakening Buy American Laws. McCain voted to allow the Secretary of Defense to waive Buy American laws for defense systems and place our defense manufacturing industry in jeopardy. He also voted to exempt defense goods from six European countries from Buy American requirements that traditionally have required most military equipment and defense systems to be manufactured in the United States. [6]

McCain Voted to Allow Unsafe Foreign Trucks on U.S. Roads. McCain voted against an amendment to prohibit Mexican trucks from operating beyond a limited border zone because they are not held to the same safety standards as U.S. trucks. [7]

McCain Abstained from Voting to Protect Steel Jobs. McCain abstained from a vote to filibuster a bill to protect steelworker jobs from illegal dumping after 10,000 steelworkers lost their jobs. [8]

McCain Voted Against Providing Health Insurance for Employees and Retirees of Bankrupt Steel Companies. McCain voted against a measure that provided temporary health insurance assistance to retirees of bankrupt steel companies. [9]

The EPI (Economic Policy Institute), states in part "since China entered the WTO in 2001, job loss has increased to an average of 353,000 per year. U.S. jobs"[1]

NAFTA was the beginning of the Global adjustment which we are all now seeing with our own eyes. Current administration bullying our jobs away with henchmen on both sides are doing everything in their power to make it worse.

---

Notes: *from the above article "The price of a kilogram of coarse rice, the staple food of Bangladesh's poor, has more than doubled over the past 12 months, to about $0.60 (30p)."
.60 Euros = 0.94938 U.S. dollars
1 kilogram = 35.2739619 ounces
[1] John McCain Revealed [2] S. 33569, Vote #190, 6/29/06; H.R. 2739, Vote #318, 7/31/03; H.R. 2738, Vote #319, 7/31/03; H.R. 434, Vote #353, 11/3/99; H.R. 3009, Vote #115, 5/16/02, Vote #117, 5/21/02, Vote #207, 8/1/02; S. 1269, Vote #292, 11/4/97 [3] (Speech to the National Press Club, 5/20/99) [4] S.1637, Vote #32, 3/4/04 [5] S.1637, Vote #83, 5/5/04 [6] S. 2400, Vote #135, 6/22/04; S. 1050, Vote #191, 5/21/03 [7] H.R. 2299, Vote #252, 7/26/01 [8] H.R. 975, Vote #178, 6/22/99 [9] S.Amdt. 3433, Vote #117, 5/21/02

"Today, on the news, they said the cancellations may get worse. Worse? How can they get worse? What are they going to do? Take your luggage and then punch you in the face, too?" --Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, April 10th.

The airline industry which the tax paying people of the US bailed out in 2001, is screwing us all over again, our lives hang in the balance in this ever greedy corporate world, where the entire idea of putting profits over people, the lawful duty of a corporation, is destroying our world.

Since the 911 bailout, the airline industry has successfully sent highly skilled and FAA certified American jobs to other parts of the world where they don't even need FAA certification.

Unions, who some claim have overstayed their welcome, still are fighting the good fight to equalize the playing field for the common man.

Without union involvement and the help of whistle blowers acting out against the social injustices of corporations, the world would be much worse off.

Image from www.TellYourAAStory.com

Un-fuck-ing-be-liev-ab-le

In New York just 3 weeks ago, on 3/25/08, a Federal appeals court struck down the New York state law requiring airlines to give food, water, clean toilets and fresh air to passengers stuck in delayed planes, saying the measure was well-intentioned but stepped on federal authority.

The very next day, 3/26/08, American Airlines grounded it's fleet of Boeing MD-80's

The nation's largest carrier canceled more than 340 flights — or about 14 percent of its scheduled service — according to the latest results from FlightStats.com.

The need for the new inspections became known during an audit of American by a joint team of inspectors from the FAA and the Fort Worth-based airline.

It's now 2 weeks later, and heres a clip from ConsumerAffairs.com (4/10/08) :

The mandatory inspections of its fleet of MD-80 aircraft forced American Airlines to cancel 500 flights on Monday and nearly 1,000 on Wednesday, creating long lines of frustrated passengers in the nation's airports. The chaos is likely to continue today, with as many as 900 more flights scratched.

At Denver International Airport Tuesday, 19 of American's 22 scheduled departures were canceled, along with the same number of arrivals, according to the Denver Post. The newspaper reported lines to American's sixth-floor ticket counter snaked to the mezzanine area overlooking the terminal's north security checkpoint.

It was the same story in Orlando, where 22 flights were canceled Wednesday.

"Folks, if you think this is going to get better, hang on. It's going to get a lot worse." Rep. John Mica (R-FL) told WDBO Radio.

And it has only been getting worse, according to AeroNews.net (4/12/08) :

"We anticipate returning to a full schedule on Monday." That statement Friday from American Airlines no doubt comes as little reassurance to hundreds of thousands passengers inconvenienced in the past three days, due to the cancellation of nearly 3,000 flights for emergency inspections of its fleet of MD-80 airliners. In an email message to previous American Airlines customers, Marketing VP Dan Garton said the airline is really, really sorry for the trouble.

Recent FAA emphasis in the wake of heavy criticism

According to ConsumerAffairs.com (4/10/08- same article as above) :

American is just the latest airline to react to the FAA's new emphasis on inspections, in the wake of heavy criticism of the agency's monitoring and enforcement of inspection mandates. Southwest Airlines faces a possible $10 million fine after it few a number of its Boeing 737 jets that had not been inspected for cracks in their fuselage, as ordered.

The unions have responded in both cases, most recently in the American Airlines situation

Allied Pilots Association on American Airline's

From Airline Biz (4/10/08) :

The Allied Pilots Association, 19 months into non-moving contract talks with American Airlines, has taken out a big ad in USA Today to attack the airline's management.

Under photo of a disgruntled-looking man sitting on a cot with his roll-on bag by his side, the ad's headline asks the question: "Why is American Airlines failing its customers?"

The message includes a reference to the union's new Web site that allows employees and customers to complain about American, www.TellYourAAStory.com.

The ad sums up many of the complaints the APA has lodged against American management: poor maintenance, poor customer service, penny-pinching, etc. As an interesting note, it doesn't mention the union's beef about executive stock awards.

The ad doesn't say so, but we presume the timing is tied to American's decision to ground some 2,500 flights Tuesday-Thursday to go back and re-inspect its fleet of MD-80s that it had grounded two weeks earlier for the same reason.

On Tuesday, the union plans meetings at all its bases to turn up the heat over the executive stock plan, which will distribute stock to top executives and other key employees the next day.

The Teamster's on Southwest Airlines and airline outsourcing

Same article from above- Consumeraffairs.com (4/10/08) :

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Southwest, which faces a potential $10 million fine over the inspection violations, has cancelled plans to outsource aircraft maintenance to a company in El Salvador.

"We've been trying for years to get the FAA to pay attention to how dangerous it is to outsource maintenance overseas," said Teamsters Union President Jim Hoffa, whose members perform maintenance work in the U.S. "Our mechanics keep telling us how they often have to re-do work that was done wrong by airlines' outside vendors."

"Airline mechanics have to meet much higher standards in America than they do overseas," Hoffa said. "Mechanics in foreign shops don't even have to be FAA-certificated."

Hoffa said that between 1997 and 2006, U.S. airlines increased their outsourced maintenance expenses from 37 percent to 64 percent," Hoffa said.

In advance of Oberstar's Capitol Hill hearings on the subject, FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell said the agency would institute a two-year ban on former FAA inspectors going to work for airlines in important maintenance jobs.

FAA whistle blowers have increasingly complained that FAA inspectors failed to act on repeated warnings about Southwest's inspection lapses, allowing the airline to "voluntarily" report missed deadlines, thus avoiding penalties.

Is that what the airlines did with the 9/11 bailout money?

BusinessWeek, from way back in (11/26/01) :

Airlines used the attacks as justification for large federal subsidies, and Congress responded. A board of federal officials, headed by Federal Reserve Governor Edward Gramlich, has been authorized to dole out $10 billion in government-backed loans. Some $5 billion more is available in outright grants, and half of this amount has already been distributed to many airlines.

This assistance, with perhaps more to follow, is unwise because stockholders, creditors, employees, and suppliers should have to bear most of the costs of the economic slump and the aftermath of the hijackings.

From ConsumerAffairs (1/22/05)

JetBlue, Southwest, America West, Northwest and United are among the carriers who outsource major maintenance of their aircraft to contractors in other countries, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

• As JetBlue's new A320 Airbus fleet ages, aircraft are sent to a repair hub in El Salvador;
• America West also sends its jets to El Salvador;
• Southwest has always outsourced its major maintenance;
• US Airways mechanics agreed Friday to pay cuts and the outsourcing of 2,000 mechanics jobs;
• Northwest sends its wide-body jets to Singapore and Hong Kong;
• Bankrupt United Airlines recently won union approval to begin using outside contractors for heavy maintenance.

It wasn't long ago that major airlines employed their own highly-skilled mechanics, each with his or her own Federal Aviation Administration license. The mechanics, who often studied for two years before taking the test, could make $60 or more per hour.

Mechanics working for outsourcers don't have to be licensed. Only supervisors are required to hold FAA licenses and are responsible for oversight of the mechanics, who in countries like El Salvador may make $10 to $20 per hour.

Like squeezing the juice from a lemon, once again the tax paying American public has reinvested against it's own interests.

CEO's should be repaying into the tax system, not reaping great benefits. We got screwed without even a kiss.

Submitted by Richard ,04/03/08 at UnionReview

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!

From the pages of

"Western Union is an American icon. Today, it has turned its back on the very employees who built the company into a multinational enterprise,"

A corporation is legally bound by law to show a profit to its investors at any cost. Western Union is now joining the group of corporate scum who are moving operations to the lowest bidder, who have subverted U.S. and/or Canadian wages, in favor of areas and countries with lower or almost absent labor conditions, this group includes Carhartt, Red Wing boots, Hersheys, Mens Wearhouse and so many others.

Found this on CWA Local 6377 website (3/21/08):

CWA Slams Western Union Plan to Close U.S. Facilities

CWA is condemning Western Union Financial Services Inc., for its announced plans to close three facilities in Missouri and Texas and shift that work to non-union and overseas operations.

Some 640 workers in Dallas, Texas, and Bridgeton and St. Charles, Missouri, members of CWA Locals 6377 and 6178, were told they will lose their jobs over the next five months.

"It's apparent to me that Western Union has determined that it would prefer to operate as a union-free enterprise," said District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn.

"CWA will do everything legally possible to stop these centers from closing and stop Western Union from moving our work to non-union operations, both in the United States and overseas," said CWA Staff Representative Mike Neumann, who heads the Western Union bargaining team.

Last month, CWA Local 6377 filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Western Union, charging that company managers have tried to coerce union members and subvert the bargaining process. The local also charged that earlier layoffs announced by Western Union – of 150 workers in Bridgeton and Dallas – were an act of retaliation against the workers and the union for refusing to engage in concessionary early bargaining.

Western Union said it plans to transfer the work to non-union locations including Denver and offshore facilities in Costa Rica, Manila, Mexico City and Mexicali, Mexico.

"Western Union is an American icon. Today, it has turned its back on the very employees who built the company into a multinational enterprise," said Earline Jones, president of CWA Local 6377.

Olivia Espinosa, president of CWA Local 6178 in Dallas, said "Western Union is a greedy, profitable company that doesn't seem to care about the excellent customer service our CWA members now provide. And that's bad news for customers."

Thats bad news for American Workers

More supporting news on the story-> Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers

Comment On Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse....

(3/16/08) I was listening to the testimony of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and his points on requesting Congress for increase in H1 B visa quotas. He was mentioning that H1 B employees gets paid very high salary and most of the H1 B guys remain in US through Green card. See companies like Microsoft do not abuse H1 B visas program but there are many-2 big Indian companies are abusing these programs and also pay very low salaries to the H1 B workers keep them in a pathetic condition in USA.

Comapnies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS get the job of Software Designer, Architecht, Data Base Adminsitrator done from their employees but pay them the prevaling wage of a junior programmar as they file there H1 in junior category and pay them less salary. He only gets paid as per a Junior Programmer salary say 60 K USD where as his day to day job responsibility should be compensated by 100 K or more.

Indian H1 B employee is completely on the mercy of his Indian employer as the moment H1 is cancelled the person becomes illegal in USA so he continue to bear the abusive practices from his employer. Hiring an American would need the IT consulting to pay almost 30 K more per year for the same job responsibilities. This way of paying Indian engineer less salary brings down the overall salaries for Americans.

Most of the Indian IT consulting do not file Green Card for the employees as they want employee to be temporary for six years in USA and always be dependant on the H1 sposnoring employer. Say if they file H1 B Visa for 1000 employees but only file 10 Green card out of those 1000 H1B guys.

Mr Gates was asking to increase the quota for H1 B but most of the quota would be abused by the Indian IT Companies. Only 20 % of the quota would be used by the big American companies like Microsoft and they might be
utilizing this H1 B program correctly but rest of the 80% would be used by Indian IT consulting companies who would abuse the emoloyees and bring down the entire salary level for American employees.

One H1 B employee works in USA and be a Onsite coordinator but in his team there are 5 engineers in India. So he becomes a coordinator and 5 people work in India. So one h1 B is replacing atleast 5-6 jobs in USA.

I know a very close friend of mine who is on a H1 B program and get paid only 65 K per year whereas the same job being done by an American is getting paid about 90K per year. He cannot raise his voice as his Indian employer would kick him back to India. So this way the abuse continues and if the congress increase the H1 B quota the more Indian employees would get exploited, IT salary would come down further and jobs would continue to get shipped to India.

And From The Star Ledger

Editorial: Going after the skills of foreign workers (3/16/08) Excerpt
A well-intended visa program needs expansion and reform.

Four years ago, the Office of Management and Budget found the program "vulnerable to fraud or abuse" and made several suggestions for reform, none of which has been implemented.

In most cases, the H1-B program does not require that employers hire a U.S. worker who may want a particular job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from a job in favor of a foreign worker, according to the Department of Labor. In fact, contrary to widely held belief, most employers using the H1-B program do not have to search at all for a U.S. worker willing to fill a job.

Of the 10 companies that filed the most requests for H1-B visas in 2006, seven had headquarters in India. Those companies use H1-B visas mainly to send workers to the United States for training before bringing them back to work in low-wage countries.

Oversight has been less than rigorous. The Department of Labor certified 99.5 percent of the nearly 1 million applications that it reviewed from 2002 to 2005. A check of the same applications by the Government Accountability Office found thousands of instances where the wage rates being paid to H1-B workers fell significantly below the prevailing wage, a violation of the rules. And that GAO review merely looked at the information provided by the employers themselves, without verifying the information's accuracy. In fact, the H1-B program does not require any verification of the information presented by employers. Many of the workers brought in under the program actually earn less than the median U.S. income.
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Thanks to Global Writers, a blog which according to their about: The blog is linked to the ILO International Training Centre course ‘Communicating labour rights’. Blog

From the pages of:

by David Macaray 3-15-08

Myth #1: Union wages are responsible for companies relocating to foreign countries.

It’s not inaccurate to say that some jobs (e.g., manufacturing jobs) have been moved from the Midwest and Northeast to the South in order to take advantage of a non-union environment, a lower standard of living, and less stringent government regulations regarding environment protection and workers’ rights. It’s a fact. And there’s no arguing that unions are partially to “blame” for that. Even auto manufacturers in faraway Japan have heard about the built-in benefits of setting up shop in the American South; that’s why they install their factories down there.

Replacing a union forklift driver earning $17.50 per hour in Cleveland, Ohio, with a non-union driver earning $10.50 per hour in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, might be enough of an inducement for a factory owner to pick up stakes and relocate to Dixie, particularly if he had a large number of employees. Moreover, there’s not much a union can do about these wage differentials, other than try to organize as many sites in the South as possible, in order to level the playing field.

But a company that moves its operation to a foreign country isn’t doing it to avoid paying a union wage; it’s doing it to avoid paying an American wage. Where being able to pay a non-union forklift driver $10.50 per hour instead $17.50 per hour represents an opportunity to trim costs, the prospect of moving abroad is seen as a shrieking bonanza.

Moving an operation to Asia or Latin America is not a case of union vs. non-union. It’s a case of a decent standard of living trying to compete with the permanent underclass of a fledgling economy. It’s no contest.

And to suggest that it’s somehow organized labor’s fault that businesses are forced to exploit the foreign labor market is to perpetuate a lie. The United States could go non-union overnight, and you’d still have businesses seeking foreign labor. Why? Because the wage differentials are simply too staggering, too alluring, even compared to work being done in the U.S. for the federal minimum wage.

Myth #2: Union members are sub-standard workers.

Consider the premise for a moment. People can say or think whatever they wish about labor unions (they can accuse them of being anachronistic, out of touch, too powerful, etc.), but they can’t deny that, across the board, union jobs typically offer better wages, benefits and working conditions than non-union jobs. The notion that the best paying, most coveted jobs in a community would attract the least competent workers simply makes no sense.

As a general rule, the highest paying and best-benefited employers will attract the highest caliber of worker—whether we’re talking about accountants, cooks, college teachers or warehousemen. Think about it. Which warehouse is going to attract and maintain the better shipping checkers—the one that is clean, safe and generous, or the hole-in-the-wall outfit that pays lousy wages and offers little or no benefits?

Also, because a union shop offers better pay, benefits and working conditions, it’s going to have many more applicants to choose from, allowing management to pick and choose from the very best candidates, an option the tiny mom-and-pop enterprise won’t have.

Still, this notion that union members somehow aren’t as competent or hard-working as non-union members has seeped into the national consciousness. Part of it may be because a union contract provides workers with dignity on the job. That doesn’t mean they’re bad workers; it just means they don’t have to grovel or jump to attention when a boss passes by. Part of it may be that a union contract exposes inferior managers. Working within the confines of a union contract requires the bosses to be consistent and attentive, something which some managers (particularly the lazy or dumb ones) aren’t capable of.

You commonly hear this work performance slur in regard to the California school teachers’ union, where incompetent teachers (rather than a myriad of other obvious factors) are blamed for low test scores. This is a myth that is being propagated by school administrators who don’t have the courage or resources to address the root problem. Blaming the teachers is far easier.

If people really, truly believe that union workers are less competent than non-union workers, then they should think twice before calling 9-11 or flying somewhere on a trip. Police, firemen and pilots are heavily unionized occupations.

Myth #3: Union members can’t be fired.

As good as union workers generally are, there are occasions where they, like anyone else, deserve to be fired. And, despite the myth, union members do get fired. Indeed, union members in this country get fired every day, for every manner of violation, from insubordination to poor work performance to insurance fraud to chronic absenteeism (the most common offense).

No contract in the world is going to include language that forbids management from firing a substandard employee. Again, all one needs to do is consider the premise. What management representative would ever sign a contract that contained “immunity” language of that sort? And what union rep, no matter how bold or arrogant, would dare suggest that such restrictive language be written into it? In truth, no one wants to work with deadbeats . . . not even other deadbeats.

Is it harder to fire a union worker than a non-union worker? Yes. Thank god, yes. Having a modicum of job security is one of the virtues of being a union member. Where a boss in a non-union shop might be able to fire an employee because, say, he didn’t like his “Nader for President” bumper sticker, or because he wanted to give the job to his wife’s nephew, he couldn’t do that in a union shop, because in a facility governed by a union contract you need actual grounds to get rid of someone.

Again, it’s school teachers who are frequently scapegoated here. Administrators complain that it’s inordinately hard to fire an incompetent teacher, even though, per the provisions of the union contract, the school has two full years from a teacher’s date of hire to fire him or her for any reason they like, without having to defend that decision. Two years. Compare that window of opportunity to the standard 60 or 90 day probationary periods found in most businesses.

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright and writer, was president and chief contract negotiator of the Assn. of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, Local 672, from 1989 to 2000/ He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net

Main Stream Media, are they lazy, or is it in their best interest not to report factual information.

In November 2007, I wrote a story entitled "Slavery Alive and Well In New York and the rest of the US" at Union Review , in which i run through the various ways in which is not only tolerated and unregulated but the facts are so underground the real tallies on these human rights infractions are almost impossible to figure. From the Long Island, NY perfume barons who had actual slaves living in their house, the slave like conditions in which undocumented workers in the construction industry must endure, to the prostitution industry that uses indentured servitude to pay their way to the states which the NY Times reported on way back in 1994. Before that story, back in 7-08, I wrote about the H1B Visa abuse, mostly in the tech sector, that a law firm actually had the audacity to produce a video training seminar where they boast on how to use this procedure. That story, "Corp Objective: Disqualify Qualified American Workers, Get H-1b Visa's For Non-Citizens." and it's follow-up, "Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers" are among my two most read entries since I have been writing about the labor movement. Which brings us to the newest in the trend of slavery and Visa abuse that is alive and well in these United States.

From:ABC News 3-07-08

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'
Workers Call for Signal International to Be Prosecuted on Alleged Human Trafficking Charges

Rebelling against alleged "slave treatment," some 100 workers recruited from India staged a dramatic protest at a Mississippi shipyard Thursday, claiming they had been tricked into coming to the United States.

The workers, brought from India to work as welders and pipe-fitters at Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, hurled their hard hats at company gates and demanded a federal investigation.

The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees.

The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing.

"For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves," said former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan. "Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end."

The workers have reported their situation to the U.S. Department of Justice and are calling for Signal International to be prosecuted on human trafficking charges.

Signal International strongly denied the workers' allegations. The company released a statement saying, "Unfortunately, a few of the workers whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions." According to the statement, "The vast majority of the workers whom Signal recruited has been satisfied with the employment and living conditions at Signal."

Signal called its housing complex "state of the art" and said government inspections have "found that Signal's practices and facilities are fully compliant with the law."

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has faced a severe labor shortage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and many companies have replenished their workforce with overseas labor brought in under a guest worker plan. Human rights groups, however, charge that many foreign workers have been exploited by their employers.

"The U.S. State Department calls it 'a repulsive crime' when recruiters and employers in other parts of the world bind guest workers with crushing debts and threats of deportation," said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. "This is precisely what is happening on the Gulf Coast."

How is it that we have temporary Visa's for Foreign workers when we have vast unemployment here in the United States? It's amazing how they are getting away with this, under the cloak of labor shortages, I fucking know plenty of welders who are quite capable of doing the job for an honest days pay. Never mind the fact that big business wants more Visa's. People's Weekly World has a more in depth article, from way back in March 2007:

Guest workers fired after protesting ‘slave’ conditions

Strike line formed when more than 200 workers walked off of the job at Signal, March 9, in solidarity with at 3 employees that they believe were wrongfully terminated and illegally imprisoned by management on Signal’s property. MIRA photo.

Hundreds of guest workers from India are protesting conditions in a Pascagoula, Miss., shipyard that immigrant rights activists compare to slavery.

Many of the workers gathered in a church on March 11 in this Gulf Coast port, after their employer, Signal International, threatened to send some of them home. Signal is a large corporation that repairs and services oil drilling platforms around the world.

According to Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, “they were hired in India by a labor recruiter sent by Signal. They had to pay exorbitant amounts to the company, to the recruiter and to the attorney who did the labor certification for them.”


Labor traffickers globalized
Signal brought about 300 workers from India in December to work in its Mississippi yard, and another 300 to work in two yards in Texas. The workers are part of the H2B visa program, in which the U.S. government allows companies to recruit workers outside the country and bring them here under contract. The visas are good for 10 months, but the company can renew them for those it wants to keep longer. The workers must remain employed, and if they lose their jobs, they must go home.

Signal H2B worker Joseph Jacobs talking to WLOX reporter March 9, about the general despair of mistreated Indian H2B workers at the Signal International, LLC, plant in Pascagoula, MS, including a young man who attempted suicide when he learned that he might have to return to his country without the opportunity to earn the money he had borrowed to come to the United States. MIRA photo.

Workers say they were promised jobs as welders and fitters, and had to pay as much as $20,000 each to the recruiting contractor, Global Industry. Workers also say they were promised that Signal would refund the money.

“I had to pay $14,000,” says one of those workers, Joseph Jacob. “I worked for years in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, and I spent all the money I had to get the visa, which the recruiter promised would be a permanent residence visa. But that visa never came, and finally he said they could get us a H2B visa. That would give us 10 months of work, and if the company renewed it, we might get as much as 30 months. I thought that was the only way I’d ever be able to get back the money they’d taken.”

Signal put the Indian guest workers to work in the yard alongside U.S. workers doing the same job — welding and fitting. The company claims it pays workers from India the same wages as domestic employees. The guest workers say they were promised $18 an hour, but many were paid only half that after the company said they were unqualified. Chandler says the company recruiter in India determined the workers knew their jobs during the process of hiring them.


The new ‘company town’
Out of their wages, workers pay an additional $35 per day to stay in a labor camp Signal set up inside the yard. “The conditions are very bad here for the H2B workers,” Joseph says bitterly. “Twenty-four of us live in a room in a barracks that measures 12 feet by 18 feet, sleeping on bunk beds. There are two toilets for all of us and only four sinks. We have to get up at 3:30 in the morning, just so all of us have time to use the bathroom before going to work.”


Fired for meeting

Indian H2B workers from Signal International, LLC, marine fabrication company meet at a Pascagoula hall to strategize how to present their demands against substandard living and working conditions, March 4. MIRA photo.

A month ago, the Indian guest workers began meeting in a local church to discuss how they might get the company to refund the huge sums they paid to come to the U.S., and to protest the bad conditions. They organized a group, Signal H2B Workers United. It was after the company found out, they say, that it accused workers of being unqualified for their jobs and cut their pay. Eight were told they were completely incapable, and Signal announced it was sending them back to India immediately. Joseph was fired. “I am now terminated because I attended the meeting,” he says. “That’s what the company vice-president told me.”

Signal International President Dick Marler told the Mississippi Press that although workers had been employed since December, the company only discovered recently that they had no skills. Federal law required the company to fire them, he asserted.

Signal did not return calls for this story, but a statement on the company web site says the workers “receive the same pay and are taxed the same as all other Signal craft personnel. Workers from India have a reputation for being pleasant and hard-working.” It quotes Marler, who says, “We are fortunate the U.S. government has such a program that allows us to supplement our workforce during a time of emergency created by hurricanes.”


Deportations, company lock-up
When the company announced the terminations, one worker disappeared. Another, Sabu Lal, slashed his wrists and was taken to the Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula. He told the Mississippi Press that dying would be better than being sent home.

“Lal and I are from the same place in India,” Joseph explains. “I knew he had sold his home, and had no place to return to. He was only able to make back a small part of the thousands of dollars he paid to the recruiter, and he said he couldn’t go home like that.”

Company security guards locked the fired workers in what they call the TV room, and wouldn’t let them leave.

Their co-workers contacted the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, which went to the Pascagoula Police Department. The police went out to the yard and eventually freed the imprisoned workers. Outside the yard, dozens of workers and activists denounced the firings and mistreatment.


DANGER: Guest worker programs

Signal International plant in Pascagoula, MS. MIRA photo.

“We’ve learned about case after case of workers in Mississippi, Louisiana and all along the gulf in these conditions,” Chandler says. “There are thousands of guest workers who have been brought in since Katrina and subjected to this same treatment. Mexican guest workers in Amelia, La., were held in the same way. They also got organized, and came to Pascagoula to support the workers here when they heard what happened.”

According to Chandler, Signal imported hundreds of workers from Peru a year ago, and after sending them home, brought the present group of guest workers from India to replace them. He says the experience of these workers highlights the problems inherent in proposals introduced into Congress over the last two years, which would set up similar schemes for the importation of as many as 400,000 guest workers per year.

“Organizations that are fighting for the rights of workers and advocating on behalf of workers should be totally opposed to these kind of programs,” he says. “The conditions that people work in here are so exploitative they’re worse than the conditions for even undocumented workers.”

The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance and the Southern Poverty Law Center plan to go to court to stop the deportations. Meanwhile, workers say they are determined to continue challenging the company until the money they paid the contractor is returned to them.

Suppression of News that matters

Whatever your thinking, know this as a fact, this information was out there a full year ago and the suppressive corporate media didn't acknowledge it.

It is us against them, at so many levels. Turn off the damn TV and get to learning.



We knew about the abuses in New Orleans, the facts are never reported on, just take a look at the article at Union review published by Chuck Lazette in Sept 0f 2007, entitled "In the Lawless Post-Katrina Cleanup, Construction Companies Are Preying on Workers", and its further backed by a comment I found on the upcoming attack on the guest commentary found in the NaplesNews that was published on Labor Day in 2007 about unionized teachers entitled "Labor Day ’07: Union bosses’ agenda scary", by corporate lobbyist, and the mind behind "The Center For Union Facts" and other disillusioning bullshit against the people of America, Rick Berman. Here is the counter "attack" and I use the terms loosely, because Mr.Charlie Ward uses FACTS in his comment.

More for Rick Berman: Why didn't the Right to Work Committee defend the rights of the American workers in Louisianna(which is, after all, a right to work state? Recently, the State of Arizona (which is also a right to work state), passed legislation stating that businesses can not hire illegal workers, and illegals can not own businesses. These illegals are leaving Arizona by hundreds a day, selling their houses, leaving for other states or heading back to their homeland. The U.S. workers of Arizona have had enough of their wages being undermined and demanded change--and they got it. Guess who is challenging this new law? The United States Chamber of Commerce. Where is the outrage by you and the Right To Work Committee? Union membership in Arizona has grown by 30% in the past two years. One wonders why. With respect to The Employee Free Choice Act,tell the truth. The glitch in the bill that you and the Right to Work Committee object to is not the way a union is voted in.(card vs. secret vote--they are both legal and valid, and it is diversionary to assert that this is the issue. The issue really is that this bill would stop management from stalling for time and finding bogus reasons not to sit down and negotiate--just as you and the Right to Work Committee assert that unions use this tactic to slow down a decertification process. What is really not wanted is the clause that would require a federal mediator to step in if management and the union representation can not come together, and any employer who commits unfair labor practices shall be fined $20,000.00 for each violation. Thus far it has been passed by the House and it is up to the Senate. They are being lobbied strongly against this bill---by you know who. You are correct, unions do lobby and donate to politicians that they perceive will help them with their issues. As you know,all union members have the right to use the Beck Right Law, which states that they can request that none of their dues be used for political interests to which they do not subscribe. It's a law. Conversely, anti- union organizations and businesses also lobby strongly and donate heavily for support of their interests. So, where's the beef? It's politics. Right now, the NLRB is stacked with anti-union people, mostly Republicans. And yes, you are right, if the Democrats win, the pendulum will swing the other way. That, too, is politics as usual. The only thing The Right to Work Committee has done has been to assure that an individual does not have to join a union or pay dues, even if there is a union in their workplace. But they have done their best to undermine labor laws for all workers: i.e. minimun wage, overtime laws, OSHA and reduced workmans comp entitlements , which have been reduced as much as 50% in some right to work states already, and other laws which protect the rights of workers both union and non-union. In closing, Mr. Berman, I would like to say that with all the faults unions have, they have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, education, betterment of all races, and for the developing of character in man than any other association of men. Clarence Darrow

Remember, before there is profit, there is labor. Abraham Lincoln (Republican President)
Happy Labor Day. Charlie

One more note about Labor Day, according to WIN, Workers Independent News Radio on 3-14-08 "The Department of Transportation came under fire by Senator Byron Dorgan on Tuesday over a controversial “pilot program” that allows Mexican trucks to operate on US roads.", that program, which is Illegally being funded by Mary Peters DOT, was being pushed into operation directly by President Bush to have had a start date of Labor Day 2007.

There is a war against the workers here in the United States and using Labor Day to push our faces in it is showing you just how brazen they are. I don't think if you add all the facts you could come to any other conclusion. Rick Berman, who this site got it's name from, has now launched a new agenda, to find the worst unionized teacher, in the same week here in New York the United Federation of Teachers is fighting for the city to keep its funding for students. Yeah those bad teachers fighting for kids. What a bunch of bullies.

"he estimated 500,000 people in the U.S. on H-1Bs are by definition citizens of other nations, and they're usually beholden to employers that can transfer them home at will."- BusinessWeek 1-31-08

H1B Visa Abuse
Do as we say or get deported
From the green building in which I recently left, where the entire environmental controls will be monitored from the desk of another country, to the tech support jobs that Dell led the way into the Indian nation, the brighter of our countrymen, the Techie geeks, are under attack. Not just from the threat of offshoring, but by the threat of misuse of H1B Visa's by unscrupulous employers on our own shores. It is called the PERM process and the following video made by Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains just how to disqualify qualified US Workers in favor of foreign workers, who by the way must keep their job at all costs or be deported. Sounds like a new form of slavery.

Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. See what Bush and Congress really mean by a "shortage of skilled U.S. workers." Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week.

From : networkworld.com

Cisco caught in maelstrom over fake job ads to hire H-1B visa holders
Submitted by Brad Reese on Fri, 06/29/2007 - 2:04pm.

Patrick Thibodeau reported in Computerworld, that Cisco may have advertised for a U.S. job position that really wasn't open to American citizens.
June 28, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Cisco Systems Inc. placed a help wanted ad for a network consulting engineer in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, June 3, and David Huber, a networking professional who lives in Chicago, was interested in the job.

The ad copy read, "No phone calls please." But Huber, a University of Chicago graduate whose prior work included being the lead LAN/WAN network engineer for NASA's aborted X-33 rocket plane project, called Cisco and asked for the person named in the ad.

"Before I send my resume into a black hole, I always like to talk to the recruiter first," he said this week. A Cisco telephone operator gave Huber the phone number of an immigration law firm in Santa Clara, Calif. "Why would I be talking with somebody at an immigration law firm about this?" he wondered.

Huber said his question was answered a couple of weeks later when he saw the controversial YouTube video that shows an attorney from a Pittsburgh law firm providing advice to employers on how to deal with government requirements for seeking U.S. workers to fill jobs before hiring foreign workers.

"It seems obvious to me after that video what's going on," Huber said.

This isn't just an isolated incident, most if not all of the major companies are doing this and lobbying to get more H1B visa allowances pushed through Legislature. In fact a recent bill which was supposedly for border enforcement contained wording to increase the allowed H1B Visa's annual cap to increase from from 65,000 to between 130,000 and 195,000(*See Below). The companies keep saying the same old bullshit to allow this, but according to Information Week story entitled No, The Tech Skills Shortage Doesn't Exist:

none of the indicators demonstrates a systemic shortage. While exceptional talent or skills in emerging technologies will always, by definition, be in short supply, the most relevant market indicators--wages and employee risk--clearly show there's no broad-based scarcity of U.S. IT workers. In their zeal to enlist government help to expand the supply of tech workers through foreign guest worker programs, employers are misrepresenting IT labor market conditions.

BusinessWeek points out how many foreign companies are accused of underpaying foreigners on work visas and hurting US wages in the process in the article: Are H1B workers getting bilked?

But this was no dream job come true. Goel's base salary was $23,310, about half the $44,000 that Patni had said it would pay on the visa application, according to a lawsuit he has filed against the company. When Goel complained, one official said that Patni would brand him a "troublemaker" and that his parents in India would be harassed unless he stopped, the suit alleges.

How do the candidates feel about the subject? Heres a CNN story with Hillary from 6/2/07, none of the other front runners seem to have an opinion.

Off Shoring
Cheaper workers, do you see the savings? I think not!
Heres a partial list of the job impact of off shoring by the people at TechsUnite.org who state:

Offshore Events Display
most recent event: 02/01/2007
last updated: 09/22/2005

The offshore tracker is based upon news accounts and employees. It tracks instances of offshoring beginning in January 2001 and using a list of companies derived from media sources. The tracker is not scientific in determining the precise number of jobs lost, since media reports are not always accurate, we do not have access to all media reports, and many instances of offshoring go unreported. However, this tracker is the only source that accounts for and aggregates the number of jobs lost due to offshoring. In fact, we know the current totals are low. For that reason. we need your help to let us know which employers - companies and state agencies - are offshoring jobs. We will be updating the tracker regularly by encouraging individuals to submit new event information and by continuing to monitor the media

Top 10 Offshoring companies

Company------Most Recent---Jobs Offshored--Est. jobs lost

IBM--------------11/20/2006-----63700---------45247

EDS--------------06/27/2005-----22400----------7950

Dell--------------02/01/2007-----17450-----------7100

Cognizant-------11/01/2004-----15000-------data unavailable

Siemens AG----03/02/2004-----15000-------data unavailable

GE----------------12/20/2004-----14250-------data unavailable

Convergys------04/13/2005-----14000-----------160

Accenture------06/27/2005-----13000------------90

Computer
Sciences---------06/27/2005-----10800---------5400
Corp

Intel--------------10/01/2005-----10426----------4126

The complete list of Offshoring can be found here, I don't know what to tell anyone to do about it other than what I always do when confronted with a guy named "Sam" on the phone who obviously doesn't speak English very well, I tell him I would like to speak to someone who is English speaking as a first language, Most companies have a remaining call center in the states for obtuse people like myself. I stopped buying Dell and dropped Verizon DSL because of this exact problem of sending our jobs out of the country. Did it make a difference, probably not, but I refuse to knowingly give my hard earned money to a corporation who doesn't reinvest in our country. If there were more people like myself we wouldn't be in this predicament.

The fight for the tech workers is the same fight for the rest of us here in America, Joe's Union Review stands with you in your plight. Please feel free to give me any news to spread to the masses.

Resources for Tech workers:

• TechsUnite
• Alliance At IBM- CWA Local 1701
• *The Programmers Guild, who is asking that people send a Fax to Congress to remove the H1B visa increases, which for some strange reason are attached into the text of H.R. 4065: Border Enforcement, Employment Verification, and Illegal Immigration Control Act, you can grab the letter to fax here (PDF file)
• WashTech - Washington Alliance For Technology Workers - CWA Local 37083
• Earleir story I wrote at UnionReview: Corp Objective: Disqualify qualified American workers, get H-1b Visa's for non-citizens