labor

Cherie's a chicken--people are not handy wipes

What's the difference in a worker who drives a truck for UPS and one who drives for the state of NC? The UPS driver can enjoy a union contract while a public employee doing the same job is denied that right.

Much of the debate of the 2008 Presidency has largely ignored trade and labor. This is the moment to push this issue for working class Americans and for working class people all around the world.

In March of 2006, Continental Tire of North America carried through its plans to slash its payments for health care benefits for its retirees. For months, the company had been threatening to impose a $3,000 cap on payments for retiree health care. With the annual cost of family health care coverage costing retirees as much as $15,000, the implementation of this cap could be financially devastating.

By Mark West
Larry Little is an avid basketball fan in general, and a huge UNC Tarheel fan in particular. He has videos of UNC games dating from 1979. In October Of last year, Larry got a rare opportunity to visit the hallowed halls of UNCs home court, the Dean Smith center. I was with Larry on that occasion, and I witnessed the excitement of his thrill of a lifetime. Larry was as giddy as kid on Christmas morning. The pictures on the walls in the hallway of the Dean Smith center came to life for him. I, not being as big of a fan, was Larry’s classroom and he was the instructor.

He tells me about this guy and that guy. “This is Michael Jordan” he says, he played on the 1982 championship team. This one played in 1987, here’s Julius Peppers who now plays football for the Carolina Panthers, “He played both basketball and football for UNC in 2000” Larry says, and “UNC went to the final 4 that year, what a great athlete Julius Peppers is” he says. In the trophy room of the Dean Smith center is where Larry took over one hundred pictures of the history of UNC basketball, including pictures of the bust of the great Dean Smith himself.

This started out as a comment over at this John Edwards diary, in response to this comment by SPLib.

Edwards: "...ban the hiring of permanent replacement workers."

So, workers should have all the freedom to come and go as they please, but a business cannot choose who to hire and how long they work for them?

If you want to strike, you take the risk of being replaced.

Sure, most people think they are irreplacable at their jobs, but what if everyone KNEW they couldn't be replaced? That sure is a non-motivator for excellence and productivity. Sounds like France.

To understand my comment below, I think you really have to understand my history with unions. I was raised in a coal mining county, everyone mined coal and the sound of Triaxles slowing down with their Jake Break was a constant backdrop to my life, as they flew down our mainstreet about every 10 minutes all day and all night long. The boom was great, the pay was great, everyone had a new car and went on vacations and painted their houses, pools were built, cookouts were common, all the kids had new cleats and baseball gloves each summer. Then, Reagan was elected. Steel moved overseas and with it the need for coal. Soon, even the power plants stopped asking for coal, because they found it cheaper to buy it from China. But, a few die-hard coal companies still existed, and even one or two still exist today as a shadow of their former selves. A company that remained was the one my dad worked for, and one day the Unions came to town. They wanted the workers to hold a vote on whether to allow a union rep on the premises to talk with the workers. The owner called my Dad in, who had worked his way up from a bulldozer operator to be a higher-level foreman. He told him, "Bill, if they vote yes, I'm shuttin' her down. I've got my money, I've got money put away for the kids, and right now we're just breaking even. I can't afford a union."

Last week, Smithfield foods announced an agreement with the feds over a new union election. This on the heels of another walkout at the plant after another immigration raid. Not a great time for an election one might think.

Union officials say the election can't move forward, pointing out that there are still cases pending charging unfair labor practices (like the unfair practice of threatening or attacking workers engaged in legal protests). The feds seem to agree. The last few elections were a nightmare. Throw into this one even more volatile immigration politics and and the recent history of raids and actions.

Links: Fay-O on the story. Previously in EJS, Smithfield Justice site. Press release on union vote (pdf).

This seems like a pretty good way to use NAFTA.

Now this is what I am talking about...trans-national Solidarity. If the Corporations can move across borders at will...so should Workers' Solidarity....

CM

As a true-believer in the Democratic Party, I hate it when I am let down by the party. One of the things that I believe will make us a greater country is universal healthcare. When Americans are healthier they are better workers, better parents, and better citizens. Just as with education, healthcare is a right that all North Carolinians have inherent to their being – it is not a privilege bestowed upon those with the most money. Yet, in our society we too often kill off our poorer citizens by denying them healthcare. Make no mistake, the inability to have preventive care leads to lethal illnesses that could be stopped earlier in the disease progression. Look no farther than curable childhood diseases, which under a universal healthcare plan could be screened for in every newborn. Instead, many of our children suffer through their whole lives with physical and mental retardation all for the lack of a blood test at birth.

So, what have we as Democrats in North Carolina done for better healthcare? Well, not much. Certainly not as much as the Republican governor of Massachusetts. More below the fold.

Congressman Charles Taylor's first television ad of the political season (Watch it HERE) is brought to NC's eleventh district by the United States Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is: "the world's largest not-for-profit business federation...The Chamber is staffed with policy specialists, lobbyists and lawyers. It is known for spending more money than any other lobbying organization on a yearly basis." - Wikipedia