So, I blogged over at UnionReview and Uniongal that IAFF endorsed Obama. For those of you who don't know, IAFF endorsed Mike DeWine in Ohio for Senate despite Sherrod Brown's support among the locals. The IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters) endorsed Huckabee in the primary (and Dodd). They've even endorsed Christ (yep, Charlie) and Jim Douglas (VT). Sure, they endorsed Kerry, but this endorsement is really different. This time, the endorsement really packed a punch AND, guess who represented Obama to the IAFF at the National Convention, come on guess. Biden.
Okay, enough giber gabbering, let's talk IAFF and let's hear what they had to say...
The past few weeks have been filled with busy, busy days. I have been to my 20th class reunion and I continue to do events around DC for the Obama4UnityBeatsMcCain slate that I am running on for the DC Democratic State Committee. Hell, I’ve even had a friend visit and I had the sheer pleasure of hanging out with UnionReview’s own Richard Negri one night last weekend. In all of this, I’ve been thinking about women, unions and what exactly all of our stories really are and where they are.
This is probably due to the current negotiations with the WTU (AFT local 6) that I’ve been reporting on for longer than I’d like (seriously, sure looks like Fenty and Rhee are anti-worker in all this). It may have something to do with the recent election of Randi Weingarten, Antonia Cortese and Loretta Johnson at the American Federation of Teachers.
No seriously, that's my site ID and I don't think I've ever really discussed anything that makes me feel I'm worthy of such a low site ID number.
It's true, I've been here since the really early days. I can remember the "Mercenary" comment and stayed (okay, I also agreed), despite the call for Kos' head. I remember the pie fight, and personally thought it was ridiculous. And, OH the primary diaries that had all of us at each others throats.
Oddly enough I remember meeting people at Yearlykos who no longer come round these parts, people like Fabooj and Nathan Newman.
Remember those bad tomatoes? Remember those vile little red demons, just waiting to make you sick with salmonella?
Well, wait no longer, they weren’t the culprit. Nope, it was peppers from Mexico.
A strain of the salmonella bacteria that sickened more than 1,300 people has been found in a serrano pepper and a sample of irrigation water at a farm in Mexico, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.They called the discovery a "breakthrough" but cautioned that tomatoes may still be a culprit in the nearly four-month outbreak that has alarmed consumers and cost the domestic produce industry hundreds of millions of dollars
DELL, notorious for using labor all over the world (exploitation shipped from country to country) has contracted with UNICOR to recycle their computers (only after they came under fire from environmental advocates for dumping toxic waste).
CBS News posted a story on this (but since it’s from AP, I won’t be linking to those rat bastards at AP). The most important aspect of this piece is that UNICOR pays their inmates who do recycling as much as $1.26 per hour. Okay, they also pay as little as about a quarter of a dollar, but, whatever.
More after the bump (hey, anyone able to find a youtube on the 60 minutes piece? I cam up empty).
Years ago, 60 minutes did this amazing piece on how UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) doesn’t have to worry about trademarks and patents and has actually put textile mills in the states out of business.
Imagine a world in which SCHOOLS have all the resources they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.
I remember seeing this as a poster and bumper stickers when I was growing up.
My Mom often baked for these bake sales, as all moms seem to do. We'd raise a couple hundred, maybe, but never enough to rehab the playground or buy books for an entire grade, not in my rural Ohio school district. However, today, I'm encouraged that if anyone can make sure that schools can get the resources they need, we're looking at the leadership that can get this done.
UPDATE
This diary is NOT about NCLB, it is about a major change in leadership and the promise that change holds for the future.
You see, last night, I forgot what it means to advocate without wanting to be the crap out of someone. Wait, let me tell you what happened and I’ll get to the moment when I let myself be lead right over that cliff.
Hmm, let’s do it after the bump...come on, follow me over the cliff.
I grew up in the union movement. I’ve been lucky to have grown up in the US because being a unionist here doesn’t always mean death, jail time or torture, it has in our past as evidenced with the treatment of Mother Jones, Joe Hill and Wesley Everest, but it’s better today than it is in many countries around the world. Countries, like Turkey.
In Turkey’s push to assist in the "war on terror" and to put aside their own internal struggles against terrorists, they have brilliantly decided that a woman in the labor movement is a terrorist.
Shawn’s back was towards the furnace when they were picking up their tools and there was a blast. Some say Shawn got up and started walking towards the door and then there was a second, more intense blast. Shawn didn’t die instantly. He laid on building floor while the aluminum dust burnt through his flesh and muscle tissue. The breaths that he took burnt his internal organs, and the blast took his eyesight. Shawn was still conscious and asking for help... And the two things that I can always remember and that never leave are his last words, ‘I’m in a world of hurt,’ and his last breaths." Tammy Miser Congressional hearing on combustible dust
Continental cuts workforce and more due to fuel costs
DALLAS -- Continental Airlinessaid Thursday it is cutting 3,000 jobs and reducing capacity by 11 percent, citing record fuel costs that have pushed the industry into its worst crisis since 2001. It also said its two top executives will forgo pay for the rest of the year.
The job cuts represent about 6.5 percent of the company's work force of 45,000.
Yes. We. Can. It's not just a theme or a rally cry, it can have even more meaning today. Today, we can do more than just support Obama and cheer a nomination long over due. We can do something about the tragic death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez.
Yes, we can, AS A COMMUNITY, we can do a very small act of solidarity...
We can express our sympathy to the family of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez.
And yeah, doing it is important, to her family, to migrant farm workers all over this country and to me, a single person. It's worth just a few seconds of your time today.
My dad told me this weekend that some of his parts suppliers and buyers are shutting down their operations in Mexico and moving back to the States and into Canada.
Okay, I’ll bite, "why Dad?"
"Because of bribes. The suppliers and buyers have told me that they’re tired of trying to get things done when you have to bribe everyone to get it done. And if you don’t bribe all the right people, the workers don’t show up to produce anything at all."
Race and unions have been intertwined since the beginning of the labor movement.
Over the years, owners and bosses have used race and immigration to divide workers and keep them down. And this practice is a live and well today. Which is why when it happens, unionists combat it everywhere it happens, even on the docks in Charleston, South Carolina.
So, for this installment of my labor history series, we're going to talk about the Charleston 5.
Obama made his first public comments about the American Axle strike last Thursday in Macomb and then, suddenly, there’s an agreement. I highly recommend seeing the video and listening to what he says about American Manufacturing jobs:
Let's take a look at the "agreement" after the bump...
American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. boosted its wage offer and increased the payments it will give workers to take a wage cut as part of a tentative agreement that could settle an 11-week strike by the United Auto Workers union, a person briefed on the deal said Saturday.
I know this is coming as a SHOCK to everyone here, but Kongsberg has decide to CLOSE another plant. This one is in Sweden, again. Wonder if they’re moving those operations to the new Polish plant or somewhere with even fewer environmental laws and lower taxes. But hey, don’t take my word for it, take a read of ABN, below the fold
I'm taking a break from my American Axle diaries today to bring you a different kind of labor story, a Mother's Day labor story. I'm also hoping that the strike will be ending soon and I'm hoping that I'll get to post that info in the next 24 hours. I've got my fingers crossed on this one.
