The World of Labor - February 28, 2009



	THE WORLD OF LABOR — February 28, 2009 By Harry Kelber U.S. Unions and Environmentalists Focus on Good, Green Jobs Trade union leaders and prominent environmentalists told a White House panel, headed by Vice President Joe Bidden, that good, green jobs were needed by millions of Americans who aspire to be part of the Middle Class. That was the focus of Biden’s Middle Class Task Force, which met for the first time in Philadelphia on Feb. 27. Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers Union, expressed the prevailing sentiment at the meeting when he said: “To build our middle class, we must also be sure that the jobs created in this new green economy are good jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits." Carl Pope, Sierra Club director, said: “Creating jobs and protecting the environment go hand-in-hand, and that is why creating green jobs is so important to our economic recovery. Biden was joined at the meeting by eight members of President Obama’s cabinet and an audience of top national leaders, including AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, as well as students, academics, public officials and activists. Mexican State and UFCW Canada to Protect Migrant Workers Migrant workers from the Mexican state of Michoacán will have enhanced protections when they arrive in Canada this season, thanks to a new historic agreement. On Feb. 24, Dwayne Hanley, president of UFCW Canada (an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers), and Governor Leonel Godoy Rangel, from the state of Michoacán signed a landmark cooperation agreement to ensure that the human and labor rights of agricultural workers from Michoacán are recognized and enforced while they work in Canadian fields and greenhouses. Under the agreement, the Mexican workers employed in Canada will be assisted by the union in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA), which operates nine agriculture workers support centers across the country, UFCW Canada is the largest private sector union in Canada. The AWA centers are staffed by Spanish-speaking workers who will offer counseling and advocacy services regarding labor rights, housing conditions, medical claims and other work-related issues. The AWA centers will also conduct workshops on health and safety, workers’ compensation and free long-distance telephone access. Guadeloupe Unions Win Pay Raise, but Strike Continues Unions in Guadeloupe scored a victory in getting a deal to raise some workers’ salaries, but said they would not end a general strike, now continuing its sixth week on the French Caribbean island. The strike, organized by the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP) shuttered stores across the island, chased away tourists, and occasionally erupted in clashes between the strikers and police. Starting March 1, employers will provide half the salary increase for workers earning up to $2,353 a month, with the rest paid for by the French and local government. Workers making up to $2,690 will receive at least a 6 percent raise. But further salary talks were in doubt when employers of large companies refused to return to the bargaining table. Union leaders quickly turned their attention to unsettled issues to demand lower food and energy prices, which are many times higher than on the French mainland. About 500 LKP supporters descended on a high-end Carrefour grocery store, owned by a key business leader who kept open, using non-union workers during the strike. The strikers chased off shoppers and chanted, “Employers are thieves, exploitation has ended,” as they knocked over the shopping carts and barricaded the parking lot. French riot police were on hand but did not intervene. Government, not the Market, Must Shape Green Economy, TUC Says Creating thousands of green jobs could not only help the U.K. slash its carbon emissions, but could also limit the length and severity of the current recession, says the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a pamphlet published Feb, 26. The TUC warns against the government taking a back seat and leaving it to the market to set the pace of transition to a green economy. It says that it is up to the ministers to create the conditions that will allow the U.K. to keep up with European competitors, such as Denmark and Germany, that have developed much bigger green industries. The TUC estimates that the green economy was worth some $548 billion in 2004 and could be as much as $800 billion by 2015. The 7,000 jobs created in renewable energy in the U.K. hardly compares to the half a million employed in the sector in Germany. The pamphlet, “Unlocking Green Enterprise: A Low Carbon Strategy for the UK Economy,” says that “to push the UK to a greener direction, the government must first convince business that it is serious about the environment, and that green issues will be at the top of the political agenda even after the economy recovers.” It insists that “ministers need to act to ensure suitable degree courses and training schemes are in place.” Tens of Thousands of Germans Strike for Higher Pay Roughly 40,000 German public sector workers staged “warning strikes” in universities, hospitals and local government offices on Feb. 27 to press for higher pay, ahead of wage talks with employers this weekend. Service sector union Verdi said the one-day work stoppage across the country was to emphasize the workers’ demand for an eight percent raise. A fourth round of negotiations with employers is due to start in Potsdam, near Berlin, on Feb. 28. The outcome of these talks will affect some. 700,000 staff employees among federal states, and a further 1.3 million civil servants in Europe’s biggest economy. German state employers have offered workers a 4.2 percent pay increase over two years from July. Verdi has rejected the offer, threatening to step up industrial action. Hartman Moellring, chief negotiator for employers, described the union’s demands as “unreal” and told RBB-Info radio that the state could last out a long strike. Korean Broadcasting Unions Strike Against Proposed Media Law South Korea’s major broadcasting unions have gone on strike, to protest a decision of the ruling Grand National Party to revise a media law that would allow big companies and newspaper firms to buy a stake in local broadcasting outlets. The disputed legislation is opposed not only by the unions but by the opposition Democratic Party. Some 2,000 union members at MBC, one of the country’s three major broadcasting networks, walked out at 6 a.m. on Feb. 26, while others at TV and radio stations mulled similar action. The move came a day after the ruling party’s legislators in the Assembly’s Culture and Broadcasting Committee introduced the media revision bills, despite vehement resistance from Democratic Party members. The proponents of the bill say that allowing big companies to buy stakes in the local broadcasting market will strengthen the country’s media and telecommunications industries. Industry representatives, however, claim that passage of the measure would usher in the prospect of business conglomerates exerting undue influence over news and editorial operations. Visit our new rank-and-file website: www.laborsvoiceforchange.org.

THE WORLD OF LABOR — February 28, 2009

By Harry Kelber

U.S. Unions and Environmentalists Focus on Good, Green Jobs

Trade union leaders and prominent environmentalists told a White House panel, headed by Vice President Joe Bidden, that good, green jobs were needed by millions of Americans who aspire to be part of the Middle Class. That was the focus of Biden’s Middle Class Task Force, which met for the first time in Philadelphia on Feb. 27.

Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers Union, expressed the prevailing sentiment at the meeting when he said: “To build our middle class, we must also be sure that the jobs created in this new green economy are good jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits." Carl Pope, Sierra Club director, said: “Creating jobs and protecting the environment go hand-in-hand, and that is why creating green jobs is so important to our economic recovery.

Biden was joined at the meeting by eight members of President Obama’s cabinet and an audience of top national leaders, including AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, as well as students, academics, public officials and activists.

Mexican State and UFCW Canada to Protect Migrant Workers

Migrant workers from the Mexican state of Michoacán will have enhanced protections when they arrive in Canada this season, thanks to a new historic agreement. On Feb. 24, Dwayne Hanley, president of UFCW Canada (an affiliate of the United Food and Commercial Workers), and Governor Leonel Godoy Rangel, from the state of Michoacán signed a landmark cooperation agreement to ensure that the human and labor rights of agricultural workers from Michoacán are recognized and enforced while they work in Canadian fields and greenhouses.

Under the agreement, the Mexican workers employed in Canada will be assisted by the union in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA), which operates nine agriculture workers support centers across the country, UFCW Canada is the largest private sector union in Canada.

The AWA centers are staffed by Spanish-speaking workers who will offer counseling and advocacy services regarding labor rights, housing conditions, medical claims and other work-related issues. The AWA centers will also conduct workshops on health and safety, workers’ compensation and free long-distance telephone access.

Guadeloupe Unions Win Pay Raise, but Strike Continues

Unions in Guadeloupe scored a victory in getting a deal to raise some workers’ salaries, but said they would not end a general strike, now continuing its sixth week on the French Caribbean island. The strike, organized by the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP) shuttered stores across the island, chased away tourists, and occasionally erupted in clashes between the strikers and police.

Starting March 1, employers will provide half the salary increase for workers earning up to $2,353 a month, with the rest paid for by the French and local government. Workers making up to $2,690 will receive at least a 6 percent raise. But further salary talks were in doubt when employers of large companies refused to return to the bargaining table.

Union leaders quickly turned their attention to unsettled issues to demand lower food and energy prices, which are many times higher than on the French mainland. About 500 LKP supporters descended on a high-end Carrefour grocery store, owned by a key business leader who kept open, using non-union workers during the strike. The strikers chased off shoppers and chanted, “Employers are thieves, exploitation has ended,” as they knocked over the shopping carts and barricaded the parking lot. French riot police were on hand but did not intervene.

Government, not the Market, Must Shape Green Economy, TUC Says

Creating thousands of green jobs could not only help the U.K. slash its carbon emissions, but could also limit the length and severity of the current recession, says the British Trade Union Congress (TUC) in a pamphlet published Feb, 26. The TUC warns against the government taking a back seat and leaving it to the market to set the pace of transition to a green economy. It says that it is up to the ministers to create the conditions that will allow the U.K. to keep up with European competitors, such as Denmark and Germany, that have developed much bigger green industries.

The TUC estimates that the green economy was worth some $548 billion in 2004 and could be as much as $800 billion by 2015. The 7,000 jobs created in renewable energy in the U.K. hardly compares to the half a million employed in the sector in Germany.

The pamphlet, “Unlocking Green Enterprise: A Low Carbon Strategy for the UK Economy,” says that “to push the UK to a greener direction, the government must first convince business that it is serious about the environment, and that green issues will be at the top of the political agenda even after the economy recovers.” It insists that “ministers need to act to ensure suitable degree courses and training schemes are in place.”

Tens of Thousands of Germans Strike for Higher Pay

Roughly 40,000 German public sector workers staged “warning strikes” in universities, hospitals and local government offices on Feb. 27 to press for higher pay, ahead of wage talks with employers this weekend. Service sector union Verdi said the one-day work stoppage across the country was to emphasize the workers’ demand for an eight percent raise.

A fourth round of negotiations with employers is due to start in Potsdam, near Berlin, on Feb. 28. The outcome of these talks will affect some. 700,000 staff employees among federal states, and a further 1.3 million civil servants in Europe’s biggest economy.

German state employers have offered workers a 4.2 percent pay increase over two years from July. Verdi has rejected the offer, threatening to step up industrial action. Hartman Moellring, chief negotiator for employers, described the union’s demands as “unreal” and told RBB-Info radio that the state could last out a long strike.

Korean Broadcasting Unions Strike Against Proposed Media Law

South Korea’s major broadcasting unions have gone on strike, to protest a decision of the ruling Grand National Party to revise a media law that would allow big companies and newspaper firms to buy a stake in local broadcasting outlets. The disputed legislation is opposed not only by the unions but by the opposition Democratic Party.

Some 2,000 union members at MBC, one of the country’s three major broadcasting networks, walked out at 6 a.m. on Feb. 26, while others at TV and radio stations mulled similar action. The move came a day after the ruling party’s legislators in the Assembly’s Culture and Broadcasting Committee introduced the media revision bills, despite vehement resistance from Democratic Party members.