President Obama Address Labor in Detroit

hat tips-Cha Eva, bison1, Angry Black Lady Chronicles, andThe Obama Diary:

President Obama on Labor Day

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The Shenanigans in Wisconsin - they reveal themselves...it was NEVER about 'FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY'. It was ALWAYS about UNION BUSTING

I thought it was all about ' fiscal responsibility'. After all, that's what the Republicans said it was about . I told you that was a lie, but that's what they said it was all about. That the collective bargaining rights of the unions had to be taken away, for the 'fiscal responsibility' of the state.

That was, of course, absolute utter bullshyt.

As tonight's maneuverings by the Wisconsin Senate have proven.

From TPM.com

Wis. State Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill, In End-Run Around Dem Boycott
Eric Kleefeld | March 9, 2011, 7:50PM

Capping a dramatic turn of events, the Wisconsin state Senate on Wednesday night passed a new, stripped-down "budget repair bill" -- which now excludes all the fiscal elements of the original budget repair bill, and simply includes the original's provisions to roll back the collective bargaining and organizational rights of Wisconsin's public employee unions.

With all 14 Democrats absent, having fled the state weeks ago in order to block the three-fifths budget quorum, the bill passed by an 18-1 margin, with only moderate Republican Dale Schultz voting no.


...................................

State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D) who has been in Illinois, released this statement:

"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin.

"Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten.

"Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people.

"Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

The move is likely to have an enormous political impact in the state, as unions remain an important base of the Democratic Party organization in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the unions and Democrats have been actively organizing recalls of Republican state legislators -- leveraging the power of the tens of thousands of people who have protested the bill, and numerous opinion polls showing that Wisconsin voters oppose breaking the unions.

So, it really wasn't about fiscal responsibility in the least - AT ALL.

This is about hurting the Democratic Party, and the President for 2012.

In fact, the Senate Majority Leader revealed that on Faux Noise:

from ThinkProgress:

WI Senate GOP Leader Admits On-Air That His Goal Is To Defund Labor Unions, Hurt Obama’s Reelection Chances

In an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly moments ago, State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), one of Walker’s closest allies in the legislature, confirmed the true political motive of Walker’s anti-union push. Fitzgerald explained that “this battle” is about eliminating unions so that “the money is not there” for the labor movement. Specifically, he said that the destruction of unions will make it “much more difficult” for President Obama to win reelection in Wisconsin:

FITZGERALD: Well if they flip the state senate, which is obviously their goal with eight recalls going on right now, they can take control of the labor unions. If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.

You really have to watch it to believe it. Rachel Maddow has the clip:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

HERE'S THE WEBSITE FOR THE RECALL OF THE WISCONSIN 8.

Five Things Unions Have Done For All Americans

Just in case you need reminding

From ThinkProgress:

Over the past few weeks, right-wing legislators have unleashed a torrent of radical legislation upon the American electorate designed to gut collective bargaining rights and attack the middle class. As these conservatives have launched their assault, a Main Street Movement consisting of ordinary Americans fed up with living in such an unequal country has fought back.

Conservatives have sought to malign this movement by claiming that it is simply defending the parochial interests of labor unions, who they claim are imposing huge costs on taxpayers with little benefit. Yet the truth is that America’s public and private unions have been one of the major forces in building a robust and vibrant middle class and have fought over the past century to improve the lives of all Americans in a variety of ways. ThinkProgress has assembled just five of the many things that Americans can thank the nation’s unions for giving us all:

1. Unions Gave Us The Weekend: Even the ultra-conservative Mises Institute notes that the relatively labor-free 1870, the average workweek for most Americans was 61 hours — almost double what most Americans work now. Yet in the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, labor unions engaged in massive strikes in order to demand shorter workweeks so that Americans could be home with their loved ones instead of constantly toiling for their employers with no leisure time. By 1937, these labor actions created enough political momentum to pass the Fair Labor Standards Act, which helped create a federal framework for a shorter workweek that included room for leisure time.

2. Unions Gave Us Fair Wages And Relative Income Equality: As ThinkProgress reported earlier in the week, the relative decline of unions over the past 35 years has mirrored a decline in the middle class’s share of national income. It is also true that at the time when most Americans belonged to a union — a period of time between the 1940′s and 1950′s — income inequality in the U.S. was at its lowest point in the history of the country.

3. Unions Helped End Child Labor: “Union organizing and child labor reform were often intertwined” in U.S. history, with organization’s like the “National Consumers’ League” and the National Child Labor Committee” working together in the early 20th century to ban child labor. The very first American Federation of Labor (AFL) national convention passed “a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment” in 1881, and soon after states across the country adopted similar recommendations, leading up to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act which regulated child labor on the federal level for the first time.

4. Unions Won Widespread Employer-Based Health Coverage: “The rise of unions in the 1930′s and 1940′s led to the first great expansion of health care” for all Americans, as labor unions banded workers together to negotiate for health coverage plans from employers. In 1942, “the US set up a National War Labor Board. It had the power to set a cap on all wage increases. But it let employers circumvent the cap by offering “fringe benefits” – notably, health insurance.” By 1950, “half of all companies with fewer than 250 workers and two-thirds of all companies with more than 250 workers offered health insurance of one kind or another.”

5. Unions Spearheaded The Fight For The Family And Medical Leave Act: Labor unions like the AFL-CIO federation led the fight for this 1993 law, which “requires state agencies and private employers with more than 50 employees to provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave annually for workers to care for a newborn, newly adopted child, seriously ill family member or for the worker’s own illness.”

Discussion - Coal Mining In West Virginia

Hear NPR discussion on the coal industry in West Virginia.

Democrat Collapse in Virginia

This article at Firedoglake was so right on target I just had to share it here. Hat tip to Chris Townsend who originally wrote this post. The chatter on the talk shows today is centered on the depressed turnout by the Democratic base for Virginia's elections contributing to an easy Republican victory.

Townsend's article powerfully illustrates how working class people had little to no reason to vote Democratic this election and hence, largely stayed home on election day. After reading Townsend's article I can't say that I blame them. In fact, I would wonder why any working class person in Virginia would want to vote for a Democratic Party that is non-responsive to their needs and interests.

A Union Man Ponders the Democrats’ Collapse in the Virginia Elections

Exactly one year ago the Obama-Biden momentum and optimism swept over this state, generating record numbers of enthusiastic voters all clamoring for "Change." Obama won this state handily, with a campaign machine and message which in many ways set the standard. These dreams and hopes now lay shattered and scattered. How could this be? What are the reasons for one of the most phenomenal political collapses in recent U.S, history?

1. The Democratic Party election strategy in Virginia only works successfully when it can blame Virginia’s decaying communities and falling living standards on Republican rule. With no Republican boogeyman in office to blame this year it was no surprise that their usual routine never got off the ground. Facing Republican candidate — now Governor-elect Bob McDonnell — who is truly stone age in his views, the Democrats flailed away but none of it would stick. The Democrats had nothing to say this election about how they might defend working people from employer attacks, or advocate on their behalf. Nothing. Unemployment is much higher than it was at election time last year, and those working people still working are working (mostly) for less. The cost of living in many places in Virginia is akin to the northeast, while wages are comparable to the deep south. The heavy tax bite for workers includes the remnants of an indefensible annual property tax on automobiles, surely one of the most regressive and hated taxes on the books anywhere. And, once you get 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. — or away from the numerous military installations in Virginia –you’ll find a working class that is not just impoverished but acutely aware of their diminishing opportunities to escape it.

2. When the Obama campaign turned out the lights and went home just a couple days after the election last year that was it. The campaign was over. When the paid campaign staff operatives threw the switch to try to turn it all back "on" this year nothing happened. The Obama strategy of relentlessly and fruitlessly trying to coax support for its timid agenda from the Republican Congressional minority has left the rank-and-file with nothing to do but complain in frustration. The activists were largely missing in action, and the newly energized voters stayed at home. It was as if last year never happened.

Get the full article at Firedoglake.

Made in America?

Here's something sad, maddening and a bit amusing:

Made in America: Corporate PR, Not Practice

Big Business wants it both ways: It wants to wrap itself in the ol’ red, white and blue while feeding the decline of the U.S. economy through its actual practices.

Here’s the latest example of such corporate hypocrisy. Over the Memorial Day weekend, J.C. Penney advertised a silkscreen T-shirt bearing the slogan, “American Made.” Yet when Joe Allen, a retired apparel manufacturer in the Dallas area, bought the T-shirt, he found it actually was made in Mexico—”of USA fabric.”

Allen didn’t just shrug off such a blatant sleight of hand. He took action, contacting Steve Capozzola at the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Capozzola sent an e-mail to J.C. Penney, saying that the ad was deceptive and asking why the shirt “was emblazoned with an ‘American Made’ slogan when it was in fact made in Mexico.”

Here’s what J.C. Penney spokesperson Kelly Sanchez had to say:

"You indicate that there was a shirt that depicted the slogan “American Made.” This type of slogan is referring to the actual person wearing the shirt and not to the manufacturing of the merchandise."

Full article at the AFL-CIO Blog.

The Right to Organize

I wish I could have said it first but Harry Lundeberg at the Working Life blog beat me to it. He asks in the context of the current battle over the Employee Free Choice Act why no one seems to question the right of employers to form associations to represent their interests. Lundeberg observes:

And form them they absolutely do. Right off the top of my head I can think of several; National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable, Chamber of Commerce, West Coast Wholesalers Coalition. The one thing they have in common is the desire to keep unions impotent or non-existent.

Wellstone Action has a couple of good educational links which explains the crucial relevance of the EFCA in today’s political and economic climate. This link explains how people can communicate with their peers about the EFCA. This link is a breakdown of the war over the EFCA, including common answers to myths and misconceptions about the EFCA.

Full disclosure: I work in a non-unionized industry and am not a union member. I am writing in support of the EFCA, therefore, not as a union member or organizer but as a concerned citizen who recognizes the lopsided balance of power between businesses and corporations and the workers who work for these entities—ordinary citizens.

If you ask me, much of the economic mess that this country finds itself in stems largely from the wide imbalance of power and representation between ordinary folks and elite and corporate entities in this so-called democratic system. In short, these entities have all the power and influence and ordinary people have almost nil.

If you are not a fan of unions, fine. If legislation like the EFCA is not your cup of tea, then that is also fine. I would like to ask you, however—other than the EFCA and unions, what other options do we as ordinary people have to organize and represent our interests? This isn’t a sarcastic question it’s a real one. What other than labor unions and union-friendly legislation that makes joining unions easier will work for you?

Realize that the business lobby is well-organized, has plenty of resources at its disposal and is very much ready and willing to fight for their interests. Ordinary people, other than labor unions, have no equivalent counterparts.