Egyptian revolutionaries provide some good advice to their brothers and sisters in Wisconsin

 

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This pamphlet contains good advice for union brothers and sisters. It's matter of time before the fascist governor Scott Walker will starts evicting the protesters from the capital building. The governor has already tired to ban sleeping bags.

Scott Walker's response to planting troublemakers among the protesters is wrong. Walker didn't reject this dirty trick as immoral. 

Walker said the problem was the results might backfire, scare the public and force him to settle with the Democrats and the unions.


See the link for more information on organizing a protest. If the Egyptians can pull this off, the progressives and union folks in Wisconsin can do it, too. 

Don't believe the Republican Borgs that "resistance is futile."

source: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/01/29/18670645.php

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NYTimes.com: States Seek Laws to Curb Power of Unions

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE Published: January 3, 2011

Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, Republicans are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers . . .

Scott Walker, the new Republican governor of Wisconsin, is threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts.

State officials from both parties are wrestling with ways to curb the salaries and pensions of government employees, which typically make up a significant percentage of state budgets.

On Wednesday, for example, New York’s new Democratic governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, is expected to call for a one-year salary freeze for state workers . . .

But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican governors and Republican statehouse majorities — officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions, including private sector ones.

For example, Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Maine, Missouri and seven other states plan to introduce legislation that would bar private sector unions from forcing workers they represent to pay dues or fees, reducing the flow of funds into union treasuries.

In Ohio, the new Republican governor, following the precedent of many other states, wants to ban strikes by public school teachers.

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said:

We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.



Walker's comments are an example of class warfare. The government and unions didn't cause the Bush recession, the private sector did.


Many of the proposals may never become law. But those that do are likely to reduce union influence in election campaigns, with reverberations for both parties.

After World War 2, one in three Americans worked in a union. Today the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union--was 12.3 percent, essentially unchanged from 12.4 percent a year earlier. This means less than one in eight Americans is in a union today.

More public sector employees (7.9 million) belonged to a union than did private sector employees (7.4 million), despite there being 5 times more wage and salary workers in the private sector.

Workers in education, training, and library occupations had the highest unionisation rate at 38.1 percent. By age, the union membership rate was highest among workers 55 to 64.

In 2009, among full-time wage and salary workers, union members had median usual weekly earnings of $908, while those who were not represented by unions had median weekly earnings of $710.  


This means non-union workers make about 78 per cent of what union members make. 
 
source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/business/04labor.html?_r=2&hp and http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

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Another Columbian Union organizer murdered

by James Parks, Oct 28, 2009

George W. Bush was trying to get a free trade agreement with Columbia through Congress, but the  Congress torpedoed it because of all of the anti-union violence in Columbia. There was also a scandal in the Hillary Clinton campaign when Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, apologized for meeting with Colombian officials pushing a free trade agreement that Hillary opposed. Penn was forced to resign.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/04/mark-penn-apologizes-for_n_95090.html

The AFL-CIO is saddened and angered by news of the assassination of Honorio Llorente Melendez, a union organizer for the CUT—Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (Unitary Central of Workers) of Magdalena Medio—in Colombia. Until he was fired recently for trade union activity, Llorente had served as treasurer of Sintrainagro (National Union of Agricultural Industry Workers) in Santander.

A court hearing on his unlawful firing was scheduled to take place this week. Llorente is among at least 25 trade unionists killed this year in Colombia, which remains the deadliest country in the world for trade unionists. Llorente, a father of five, was killed Oct. 17, allegedly by paramilitaries, in Puente Sogamoso, a community in Puerto Wilches, Santander.

Prior to his murder, Llorente and his colleagues had received numerous death threats because of their organizing work. The CUT of Magdalena Medio had appealed to government authorities for protection, but its request was denied by the local police.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka expressed his outrage at Llorente’s murder, saying: We join our sister organization, the CUT of Colombia, in condemning the ongoing violence against trade unionists and other human rights defenders in Colombia, as well as the ongoing impunity of all of those responsible for this violence.

The AFL-CIO extends its condolences to the family and friends of Brother Llorente and stands in full solidarity with them. The AFL-CIO and CUT of Colombia demand that President Álvaro Uribe and the Colombian government order a full investigation, prosecution, conviction and sentencing of those responsible for this unconscionable crime.

They also call upon the U.S. Congress to demand the same. The two federations urge the Colombian government to protect the ability of all workers and trade unionists in Colombia to exercise their fundamental rights without fear of violence.

source: AFL-CIO Now blog

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