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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Hour Headlines 9-3-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
03 Aug 2002
Modified: 02:38:51 PM |
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM Champaign. Fast Track Passes Senate; New Report on Repression, Worker Protests in China; Mexican People Win Fight Against Airport; UMass Undergraduates Expand Union Rights; County to Allow Voters to Decide on Nursing Home Tax; Corporate Crime Wave Continues Under Cover of Corporate Press |
Fast Track Passes Senate
On Thursday last week, the United States Senate voted in favor of "fast track" negotiating authority for President Bush, nearly finalizing a major victory for US corporations. The only remaining step is for the president to sign the bill into law, which he'll do next week. Fast track was strongly opposed by environmental, public health, and labor organizations not only because it transfers the authority to negotiate trade deals from Congress to President Bush, but also because it tells the president what he should negotiate in those deals. Congress gives the president strict orders for protecting corporate interests, like defending patents and intellectual property, promoting the use of genetically-modified foods overseas by prohibiting even the labeling of genetically engineered food products, and overseas protections for US investors. Labor standards in the bill are difficult to interpret and ultimately do little if anything to recognize the importance of stable, decent-paying jobs. The bill also directs the President to uphold and promote the agreements of the World Trade Organization. President Bush and the press who support him, including the News-Gazette, did not mention downsides to the bill, but rather claimed that Trade Promotion Authority will help workers. AFLCIO President John Sweeney said the Senate made the wrong decision for the US economy, stating, quote, "Fast Track will further the loss of family-supporting jobs to nations where corporations routinely exploit child labor, workers' rights, and the environment--at a time when America's workers are already reeling from the effects of the manufacturing downturn and the layoffs due to corporate wrongdoing." unquote. The senate vote was 64-34. All but 5 Republicans voted for the bill, but virtually half of Senate democrats voted for Trade Promotion Authority. Prominent Democrats supporting trade promotion authority included presidential hopeful Joseph Lieberman and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, as well as California Democrat Diane Feinstein, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, and Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/thomasconf.pdf
New Report on Repression, Worker Protests in China
The Chinese government's refusal to allow independent trade unions is fueling worker protests, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on Friday. A new 50-page report available at the organization's website analyzes in detail the demonstrations that took place from March through May 2002 in three cities in northeastern China, and the government response to them. Human Rights Watch director Mike (jen-DRE-chick) said, quote, "The Chinese Communist Party is facing a serious dilemma: it claims to protect workers, but those very same workers are protesting in the streets," unquote. (jen-DRE-chick) went on to state that workers want the right to form their own trade unions and have a voice in decisions affecting their work and their benefits. The unprecedented demonstrations lasted longer than any since the 1989 pro-democracy movement. For instance, in Daqing, laid-off oil workers encountered a massive show of force and security forces detained at least sixty workers for periods ranging between twenty-four hours and two weeks. In some cases, the protests were successful: in Fushun, thousands of laid-off miners and workers from nearby factories blocked roads and rail lines until they were given limited payouts, but many are being arrested for demanding workers' rights. Only one organization, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), can legally represent workers, and it is under the control of state authorities. It has never spoken out against the laws and regulations routinely used to justify putting independent labor activists in prison.
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/08/china080202.htm
Mexican People Win Fight Against Airport
The Canadian Auto Workers live by the motto, "Fighting Back Works." Townspeople in Mexico found that the CAW is right last week, when the Mexican government announced that it will not build a new airport on top of a village. On Thursday night, Mexican President Vicente Fox's transportation secretary said the government would abandon the Texcoco lake bed side for a new airport, saving the town of San Salvador Atenco from destruction. Feeling that the government was trying to appropriate their land at a fraction of its true value, town residents rebelled against the town's police and political leaders, establishing an autonomous municipality last Spring. In July, police tried taking over the city but farmers blocked highways and seized fifteen police, and demanded the release of community leaders arrested during a protest against the airport. Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, praised the decision on Friday, calling Fox's decision "reasonable and brave." A surgeon from Atenco, Abel Galicia Viveros, 42, thanked Fox for the decision, saying the president had realized that "dialogue is the answer, not violence."
UMass Undergraduates Expand Union Rights
In a victory expanding the variety of workers entitled to collective bargaining rights, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst announced last week that they will negotiate a union contract with 370 undergraduate workers, making the university the first college in the nation to recognize the labor of its undergraduate employees. The university tried for several months to avoid negotiating a contract, arguing that dormitory resident assistants aren't entitled to union representation. Managers claimed that union recognition would corrupt the educational mission of the university and lead to the workers trying to influence non-work policies. The Boston Globe reported that a university official was worried that refusing to bargain would trigger solidarity actions by other campus unions who would fight for the rights of the student workers. The United Auto Workers, the union representing the RAs, predicted the UMass announcement would set a precedent for American higher education that would reverberate for years to come. The union will be made up of undergraduates who work in the UMass dormitories, and they will negotiate over normal union topics, including salaries, benefits, and other terms of employment.
County to Allow Voters to Decide on Nursing Home Tax
The Champaign County Board agreed to allow voters decide how much they value the Champaign County Nursing Home. On Tuesday last week, the board agreed to a county-wide vote on whether to raise taxes enough to build and operate a new 240-bed nursing home. The tax increase would amount to about fifty dollars for someone who owns a one hundred fifty thousand dollar home. The vote by the democrat-controlled board was fourteen to eight, with Mike Frerichs casting the only Democratic vote against the proposal. Republicans Deb Feinen, Steve O'Connor, and Mike Graham all voted in favor of the proposal. Due to aging facilities and cuts in support for the elderly by the Illinois state legislature, the nursing home needs support from county residents to continue operating. According to the News-Gazette, nursing home Administrator Jeremy Maupin said the institution is down to its last $400,000 in cash reserves and can't get by without an operating subsidy. He noted that as of July 1 the state had cut Medicaid reimbursement for indigent residents to about $80 per day, a 6 percent reduction.
Corporate Crime Wave Continues, Under Cover of Corporate Press
With the stock market staggering through a mid-summer depression, the for-profit news media and the White House are leading corporate crime out of the public view. The News-Gazette is repeating the same low-key reporting of corporate crime that it demonstrated last fall and winter with its coverage of the Enron bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in history at the time and with many ties to the Bush administration. On Monday last week, news broke that global telecommunications giant Qwest had lied about one billion dollars that it falsely claimed as profit. News-Gazette editors granted the billion-dollar theft three short paragraphs on the back page of the sports section. Then, on Wednesday, news broke that Motorola CEO Chris Gavin sold 40,000 shares of his company's stock just hours before another executive quit and the stock price plummeted. Gavin claims he didn't know his Chief Financial Officer was about to quit. Gazette editors granted two short paragraphs on page C-6 to the report. Gavin's action mirrors President Bush's sale of a million dollars in Harken Energy stocks just weeks before that stock was revealed to be worthless. Also on Wednesday, the day after the White House made a major show of reforming certain financial laws, President Bush quietly issued a statement saying that it will weaken protections for people who report corporate crimes. Bush's action lessens the risk to those who commit corporate crimes, and it drew criticism from Democrats.
For weekly developments in for-profit and independent media, tune in to Radio Free Conscience, Fridays at 5:30 on WEFT. |
