The Penthouse of Heaven

DVD out on Chicago's massive May 1 immigrant rights march

The Penthouse of Heaven

Chicago's Immigrant Rights/Workers Rights March, May
Day 2006

On May Day, 2006 the largest march ever in Chicago took
place--to support the rights of immigrant workers.
Labor Beat has produced a 27 minute documentary about that event and what led up to it: the earlier March 10 massive march which kicked off a national immigrants rights movement; follow-up community planning meetings for the next big march; the emerging role of the unions
in this struggle, including the press conference on April 24 at Haymarket Square, with CFL (AFL-CIO) and Change To Win speakers; the last minute preparations of the organizers on the eve of the march; the launch point activities at Union Park on march day; and the great march itself of some 500,000 participants.

Includes interviews with union spokespeople from UNITE HERE, UFCW, SEIU, Carpenters, U.E., and others, including Jorge Mujica of the March 10 Committee, and a speech at the Haymarket Square ceremony by James Thindwa (Chicago Jobs with Justice) reminding us that the negative effects of NAFTA have been forgotten in the national discussion about border crossings from Mexico. The message of the video also criticizes guest
worker schemes, and calls for unionization, not just legalization, of immigrant workers, and living wage legislation.

The march participants remind us with their signs and in eloquent statements that this protest was not only about Mexican/Hispanic immigrants, but about all immigrants, from Poland to India to the Philippines. Don't miss our video about this historic day in the movement for social justice.
Ordering a DVD:

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check for $15 to:

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or $15 by PayPal.

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For more info: mail@laborbeat.org, 312-226-3330 (Labor
Beat is affiliated with IBEW 1220. Views expressed are
those of the producer, not necessarily of IBEW.)

Unions Provide Support to "Yes for Libraries" Campaign in California

"Yes for Libraries"

CALIFORNIA READING AND LITERACY IMPROVEMENT
AND PUBLIC LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION AND RENOVATION BOND ACT OF 2006

Literacy, Learning and Libraries.

Public employee unions are picking up much of the tab for the supporters' campaign. According to a campaign finance report filed last week, the Service Employees International Union's lobbying organization, the California State Council of Service Employees, and the California Teachers Association each contributed $100,000.

Low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island."

Never forget...

Tom DeLay should rot.

Low-wage, anti-union conditions of the Marianas constituted "a perfect petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos Island."

Indianapolis Marion County Public Library : Library workers deserve to be heard

Library workers deserve to be heard.

Nancy Holle writes:

"Frustrated employees, wanting a voice in the library's future and their own, organized a union. Recognizing workers' rights and the working relationship built with the city unions, the City-County Council unanimously passed a collective-bargaining ordinance a few years ago. However, when a majority of library workers signed AFSCME intent cards and requested union recognition, the Library Board refused."

and

"Indianapolis residents have had enough IMCPL drama. The Library Board should reconsider and recognize AFSCME as the employees' bargaining representative. Meet their elected union representatives at the bargaining table to get on with business in a positive manner without delay."

Hero Librarian is Proud Union Member

As a librarian, Mike Doyle has come to appreciate the value of quiet. There's been a lot less of it, however, since Doyle became a hero for saving a motorist's life during the Representative Assembly.

Doyle, vice president of the Eastport-South Manor Teachers Association on Long Island, was returning to his Rochester hotel with local President Joe Pluta on the evening of May 5 when they were stunned by a horrifying sight. A pickup truck careened off the road, plowed through a six-foot fence and plunged into a pond on the campus of Monroe Community College.

"I just couldn't believe it," Doyle said. "It was like something out of a movie."

Realizing that the truck was sinking fast, Doyle pulled over and dove into the pond to rescue the driver.

Borders workers threaten to strike

Negotiations are set to restart June 1 after the union at the original Borders Books & Music store in downtown Ann Arbor soundly rejected the company's latest proposal....On May 20, union members passed out flyers outside the Liberty Street store asking for community support in their bid for a new contract. Rekuc indicated other events to gain public support could be planned.
Workers at Borders' flagship store in Ann Arbor are threatening to strike if the company does not offer a better three-year contract.

King County Library System Union Members Vote No Confidence in Director

The Seattle Times reports that Union-represented workers in the King County Library System have cast an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the system's longtime director....Bill Ptacek, director, and union leaders are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss their differences.

"At this point in time, we have no agenda," Ptacek said. "That's part of the point. We're not going to prescribe anything; we're going to find out from their perspective what we need to work on. ... This is a time for us to listen. I think I'm in a listening mode more than anything."

Greg Novak: Union Leader and Librarian Retires

Greg Novak, Jefferson Middle School librarian is retiring this week after 31 years with the school district. During most of that time, he's been active in the teachers' union, and he's been president of the Champaign Federation of Teachers since 2001.
He's helped negotiate every teacher contract from 1981 to 2005 – 11 in all.

Vote Includes Shasta County (CA) Librarians in 14% Raise Over 4 Years

Pact would boost wages 14 percent over four years

By Tim Hearden, Record Searchlight
May 21, 2006

Shasta County supervisors will consider Tuesday signing off on a labor agreement that would provide raises of more than 14 percent over four years to 169 employees.

The pact with United Public Employees of California (UPEC) would affect a wide-ranging group of professionals that includes librarians, air pollution inspectors, child support attorneys, mental health clinicians and property appraisers.

In addition to wage boosts of 3 percent or 4 percent annually, the employees would receive a host of other benefit improvements, including increases in the county’s contributions to medical and dental coverage and attorneys’ time off.

King County (WA) Library workers show no faith in director: 92 percent of union members cast votes of no confidence

Library workers at the King County Library System show no faith in director: 92 percent of union members cast votes of no confidence.

Susan Veltfort, president of Local 1857 of the Washington State Council of City and County Employees, which represents 520 library workers, said Saturday that 92 percent of voting members submitted votes of no confidence.

5 Killed in Harlan Mine Explosion. Joe Hill Watch. No. 4.

5 Killed in Harlan Mine Explosion HOLMES MILL - Five coal miners died and a sixth crawled to safety early May 20, 2006 after an underground explosion ripped through a Harlan County coal mine in Kentucky's worst mining disaster in 17 years...United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts urged state and federal mine officials to "redouble their inspection and enforcement activities, starting now.""This tragedy only compounds what has already been a horrific year in America's coal mines," Roberts said in a statement.
Yesterday's deaths doubled the number of Kentucky coal mine fatalities for 2006, bringing the toll to 10.

Joe Hill Watch.

Beware Lies by PHONY-NAMED -Center for Union Facts

The PHONY-NAMED Center for Union Facts has been set up to make false statements about unions. A Wall Street Journal article exposes their lies: "Anti-Union Group Takes Message to the Airwaves:TV Spots Employ Sarcasm In a Campaign to Discredit Practices of Organized Labor."

Library Dust has analyzed the mendacity of the Center for Union Facts:

This site provides an interesting example of a very clever and carefully managed campaign of distortion.

Union: EEOC Cuts Threaten Job Security

Cuts in funding and staff at the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are threatening job security for millions of Americans, a federal workers' union claims in a new ad campaign.

The American Federation of Government Employees is starting a media campaign this week with radio and newspaper ads criticizing budget cuts and reductions in staffing at the EEOC. The union claims about 20 percent of staff has been cut in the last five years.

Debating Labor's Future

Forum Sponsored by the Labor and Working-Class History Association/Organization of American Historians.

Hosted by the AFL-CIO Washington, D.C. April 21, 2006


Rights, Democracy, and the Framing of Organized Labor’s Vision: Looking Back and Moving Forward

Joseph A. McCartin, Georgetown University

One Saturday last December, the scene on 16th Street outside of this building was stirring. Just months after the split between the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win unions, labor activists converged here to lift their voices in unison on International Human Rights Day. Streets here and elsewhere around the country were filled with union members and allies making a vital point: the right to organize, a fundamental human right, has been undermined in the United States. The latest in a series of protests that have turned International Human Rights Day into a day of labor protest in this country, the December actions indicated how widespread the violation of workers’ right to organize was in the United States. Some recent studies have suggested that in 30 percent of organizing drives employers fire pro-union workers, and in nearly half of all campaigns companies threatened to close up shop or relocate if workers choose a union. These figures explain why U.S. private-sector union density has dropped to levels lower than we have seen since the dawn of the 20th century, even though more than half of workers surveyed say they would join a union if they had the chance. As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney put it, a worker’s right to organize is a "fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition."1
READ MORE.

Unions Join "We Are America Alliance "

The We Are America Alliance is a newly-forming nationwide alliance of immigrant, grassroots, labor, local, statewide and national organizations.
We are an alliance of key immigrant, grassroots, labor, local, and national organizations joining together to:

Produce a million new voters and citizens between now and Election Day 2006

Press our lawmakers to stop the punitive and harsh HR 4437

Enact real and comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for America's undocumented immigrants, reunites families, respects civil rights, and protects all workers.

National Day Laborers Organizing Network : NDLON is composed of 30 community-based organizations that work with day laborers in different capacities to advance the human, labor, and civil rights of day workers throughout the United States and to strengthen and expand the work of local day laborer organizing groups.

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United) (Woodburn, OR) : PCUN works closely with a wide variety of local and national organizations to promote legalization for undocumented workers and to ensure immigrants' rights both federally and in Oregon.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) : With 1.8 million members nationwide, SEIU has been working with our coalition partners in 33 states to educate and mobilize members in support of sensible immigration reform that will help raise standards for all working people.

UNITE HERE!: With more than 440,000 active members and more than 400,000 retirees throughout North America, UNITE HERE's diverse membership includes a high percentage of immigrant workers who labor primarily in the hotel, restaurant, textile, apparel, and hospitality industries.

...and more.

Back to the Bargaining Table at the University of South Florida

I've been reappointed as a member of the Bargaining Team for my Union, the United Faculty of Florida at the University of South Florida. The bargaining unit includes all librarians.

This photo is from the signing of our contract in 2004. I'm at the far left.
We begin the next round of bargaining talks in a few days. Summer fun.

27 Librarian to be Cut in Federal Way Schools

Kimberly Rose wasn't expecting to hear 27 librarians might not be in Federal Way Public Schools next fall.
"That was a complete shock," Rose, the librarian at Star Lake Elementary School, said Tuesday night after superintendent Tom Murphy proposed cutting the number of librarians from 34 to seven next year to save $1.4 million and help stem a $4.2 million hole in the school district's budget...The teachers union vowed to fight the proposal, and the librarians have been persuasive lobbyists in past budget debates.

Jailed Trade Union Leaders in Indonesia.

Back in February we (LabourStart) launched a campaign in support of six jailed trade union leaders in Indonesia. They were employed by a company called Musim Mas, the world's largest manufacturer of palm oil.

As always happens in these cases, the response -- initially quite large --has dropped down considerably. Now only a trickle of messages are reaching the Indonesian government. Possibly, some bureaucrat there is telling his boss, "Don't worry -- we hardly hear any more about those jailed unionists. We can let them rot. The world has already forgotten them."
But we have not forgotten them. The union chairperson, Robin Kimbi, and the regional secretary, Masry Sebayang, got two years in prison. Fourteen months terms were given to union leaders Suyahman, Safrudin, Akhen Pane and Sruhas Towo.
Their "crime" was to exercise their mandate as union leaders. They are
prisoners of conscience.
We have not forgotten them, and we will not let this issue drop.
Last week, Amnesty International called on its members around the world to raise their voices in protest against the jailing of the Musim Mas trade unionists.
And unions around the world are taking up the cause.
The Nestle European Works Council, representing 80,000 company employees,has written to the company to express concern over the possible presence of Musim Mas palm oil and oleochemicals in Nestle products.
The German Food and Allied Workers NGG and the Dutch FNV Bondgenoten have echoed the public call by the Unilever European Works Council for Unilever to distance itself from Musim Mas and publicly reveal its sources for the palm oil in company products.

And the global union federation representing food workers, the IUF (at whose request we launched our campaign) has now begun to raise money for the struggle through its International Musim Mas Defense Fund.
Momentum is growing again. A three-month old campaign, no longer "fresh", is attracting attention. The Indonesian government is going to have to start paying attention.

Please do these 3 simple things today:

1. Send off your message of protest

2. Donate generously to the International Musim Mas Defense Fund:

http://www.iuf.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&ID=3231&vie
w_rec ords=1&ww=1&en=1

3. Spread the word in your workplace and union. Forward on this email
message!

In the international trade union movement we do not forget those who
languish in prisons for our cause. This campaign continues.
Solidarity forever!
Eric Lee
LabourStart

American Library Association Does Support Collective Bargaining

ALA Policy Manual

54.11 Collective Bargaining

The American Library Association recognizes the principle of collective bargaining as one of the methods of conducting labor-management relations used by private and public institutions. The Association affirms the right of eligible library employees to organize and bargain collectively with their employers, or to refrain from organizing and bargaining collectively, without fear of reprisal.

Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library: Helpful library staff deserves a say in operations

May 8, 2006 Letter to the editor in the Indianapolis Star states

"any good manager will tell you that employees are the best solutions to work-place issues and problems. It's the staff -- not board members or the CEO -- that makes the library a friendly place for the family. The employees want a union and a say in both the library's future and their own. The board owes them that, and I think the public would agree."

UnionFacts Exposed as Propaganda Devoid of Authority

I had run across this vicious lying piece of crap website and had chosen to ignore it, but Authority Problems at Library Dust dismantles that strawman with dispatch:

As for those of us who labor in the library vineyard, we can classify this website as a propaganda vehicle devoid of authority or reference value—that is, on a professional level.

"Each and every library worker needs to be an agent for change."-- Diane Faye, Chair of the Union Subcommittee of ALA-APA

Diane Faye, chair of the Union Subcommittee of the ALA-APA responds to M. McGrorty about the wages of library workers.

MM:
“"Well, there you have it, folks. Who is better off, the homeless lady or the library assistant? And we wonder why it is difficult to attract people to this work? Apart from the irony of the situation, the Times story raises the question: What are we doing that will solve our own problem? What, for instance, has the library world accomplished over the past generation to genuinely improve salaries for library workers— not planned, not intended, but accomplished?”"

DF
Yes, Michael, what are “we” doing? The reality is if everyone is looking at “we” as being the “library world” then we most likely won'’t see a hell of a lot. The issue is the “we” -- just who is “we”? Each and every library worker needs to be an agent for change. This will not take place unless the “we” is every library worker and “we” all work at making a change. That means stepping up and taking an active role in the process. And that means more than being critical of what hasn’'t taken place. It is a lot easier to be “paper tigers” than it is to step up and do something positive to facilitate change.
---------- Diane Fay
-------------- Original message --------------
From: Backwage@aol.com
If you find yourself being too cheerful this Sunday morning, here's something for you to ponder: Hand to Mouth in the Library.
M. McGrorty

3 workers buried alive in construction accident: Joe Hill Watch. No. 3.

The Miami Herald reports that the roof of a condominium project partially collapsed, burying and pinning workers in quick-drying concrete that ultimately crushed them. The site was One Bal Harbour featuring 185 apartments priced from $1.75 million to more than $12 million.

Joe Hill Watch.

On May 5, 1886 the Wisconsin State Militia fired upon workers marching in an eight-hour-day rally, killing seven persons.

Bay View Massacre.
E. Russel Ave. At S. Superior Street, Milwaukee, WI.
May 5, 1886.
The Wisconsin Labor History Society placed this marker in honor of those killed by the state militia on May 5, 1886 during a city-wide strike for the 8 hour day. Five workers, a Bay View resident and one young child were shot to death.

Massacre at Bay View.

Pension Plan Unfair to Library Employees in Waterford, MI

Detroit Free Press reports:

A union representing some Waterford employees says its workers' pension plan is unfair and that's why it is pushing for a plan equal to one provided to other township employees. Teamsters Local 214 -- which represents the township's 150 clerical, public works, water, wastewater and library employees -- wants the same pension plan that township managers, police officers and firefighters have.

The one emotion that trumps anger among voters is fear."

Frank Luntz, a leading Republican pollster :

"The one emotion that trumps anger among voters is fear. The best
Republican strategy would be to work on fear."

"Out on a limb: why blue-collar Americans see their future as precarious" by Edward Luce in FT.com.

The paradox derives from the fact that median incomes have been flat or declining, over a period when average incomes have grown robustly in line with equally impressive productivity growth. Since 1998, America's economy has expanded by more than 25 per cent. But the median wage - the middle fifth of Americans in employment - has declined by 3.8 per cent. In fact, barring a few years in the late 1990s when a rising stock market lifted all boats, wage stagnation stretches back to 1973.

Union vote at JetBlue?

It's time to make travel plans to attend the American Library Association conference in New Orleans.

I had an e-mail from the airline JetBlue reminding me to consider flying with them. I've avoided JetBlue because they aren't unionized. I had a little e-mail back and forth with them where a customer representative informed me that they were really happy and don't need unions. The CEO,David Neeleman has stated:

I love American history, and I've studied it. I understand we had a big need for unions in this country. You basically had unscrupulous people who were building companies on the backs of their people without giving them health care and without giving them other benefits. They made them take on hazardous jobs and work long hours.
We aren't one of those companies. We don't do that to our people.
We don't want a third party who may or may not have our best interests in mind or our crew members' best interests in mind because they may be serving a union of one of our competitors. They are trying to equalize us and take away our competitive advantage.

Now it looks like union organizing is coming to JetBlue as the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers said yesterday it has filed a petition with the National Mediation Board to hold an election by JetBlue's baggage handlers.

Support for Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library Employees by Library of Congress Professional Guild

Saul Schniderman,President, Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910 has sent a "letter to the editor" of the Indianapolis Star newspaper offering support of the employees of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library in their efforts to participate in both the direction and future of their library system as well as in the enhancement of their careers.

Schniderman notes,

"the Library Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910 -- works with our managers to improve the work environment and create a modern and progressive Library of Congress. Because of our efforts we have created a positive labor-management relationship that has led to greater employee satisfaction and a higher quality of public service and performance.
Your library board could take a major step forward by recognizing your employees' desire to have union representation and allowing them a seat at the bargaining table."

"El Gran Paro Americano 2006" "The Great American Boycott 2006"

"El Gran Paro Americano 2006" "The Great American Boycott 2006."
"Un dia sin immigrante" "A day without an immigrant"

Nationwide General Immigrant Strike!
Wear White T-Shirt at May 1st!