April 30, 2005

dickin the wage index





 keep yer eye on the ball

the blue lites are out
to snip SSI's
      indexation to wages

the rest is hog wash 
=====================================


Posted by herb jr. jr. at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 28, 2005

point counter point on ronin orgers

e on

 UPCOMING IPON CONGRESS


" this is pb dung 

cult of the lone wrangler shit 

come off it herb
without a massive team
of on staff pros
how can a walmart get orged "

good question

but....

====================================
 the point is missed

the ronin orgers 
are not part 
of a co ordinated 
  top down
war of position
  like the usual
 pie card
           recognition drive


blaze setters 

part of repeated
  prime target 
attack attack attack

 deep back grounders 
living on a passed hat


working hand in glove
 with a flock of
on site regs

and in z 
       out z
             jobakazees 
 
not that ipos cant 
 link to  each other

in fact thats the idea of the IPONA
a clearing house
for clumping

               
 ITS A VIRTUAL 
WAGE LEGION 
   
  A DIGITAL SQUAWK-HALL 
FOR 
FORAGERS 
LOOKIN FOR JOB SCENE
        KLASS ACTION INSIGHTS   


AND ONCE THERES A COMMONALITY STRUCK

A WAY
 TO  REMAIN
IN CONSTANT COMMUNICATIONS 
WITH EACH OTHER

THRU THEIR 
            HIVE CENTRAL


SAY AS TIME PASSES
 IT TURNS OUT 

300  IPOS
    ARE WORKING
         WITH TROUBLE MAKERS
  AT 300  DIFFERENT
       WALMART JOB SITES

THE LINK UPS WILL HAPPEN 


NOW FOR 
 TARGET WALMART 
    CO -OP ACTIONS

LIKE 
A NATION CROSSING 
           FLASH OCC WAVE 

REALLY
THE ACTION IN ITSELF
TAKES VERY LITTLE 
            TACTICAL PLANNING

ITS A MATTER 
OF HAVING ENOUGH SITES 
            PRIMED FOR  TAKE OFF

AND THE ROAD TO THAT AIN'T ROYAL

ITS A SERIES OF

"I'M HERE FOR YOU GUYS 
AND YOU GUYS ONLY"

     SETTIN UP THE DOMINOS 
              ONE BY ONE BY ONE
 

AND LET ME TELL U
                         
         
NO GIANT OUTSIDE CARAVAN
   
OF  SUPER STAR UNION HACKS
      NO  SPOTLIGHT
  BOOGEY  WOOGEY
BY A CHORUS LINE
OF   
    STRUGGLE HAMS
WILL GET DEEP ENOUGH INTO
THESE 8 BUCKS AN HOUR 
          HEARTS AND MINDS
 

CHRIST IMAGINE ANDY 
OR HAND JOB HANSEN OR ...

NOPE

AND BESIDES 
 
IF THE BIG WILSON U U S 
EVER 
ACTUALLY GOT
EVEN ONE  FIRE STARTED 
SOMEWHERE 
AT A REAL LIVE WAL MART STORE...

FUCK 
THEY'D BIG HOSE
                   PISS IT OUT 
                FASTER THEN 
       THE DEVIL ITS LOBSTERS 

Posted by herb jr. jr. at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

IPOs to meet

the independent professional organizers
                           of north  america 
                           
             IPONA 

founding congress

toledo ohio 
june 15 2005


===================================================
i guess
 u know 
 my take  on this ...

org ronin are where its  at 


they live off their wins

they have no pie faced
"this here  union"
               to peddle  

they are there
 for the job siters
            exclusively
 
there
   to  be 
exactly
   what any unorged
       job site needs

and
if they fuck up
they don't go back

to 
the hard skull union's  hq


they starve 
---------------------------------------------

then again
if they
 plan  well
              and  win .....

their  cut is negotiable ...

thru out the process

they
allow the job siters
 to control
    their  own destiny 
 ---------------------------------------------              
an IPO 
       can  take a bunch

of other wise cannon fodder  

  and guide em step by step

thru 
  the inevitable
                   two front war

 
     against
 both 
 the company  bosses
                      and their
                             up front 
                              bashin around 
                                      
   and the  biz wiz 
                  unions'
                           two  faces 
all rah rah  
                           and then 
if things look like there headed south

                          ready to cut and run
                             stab  the jobster geeps
                               
                             right 
                    in  their sweaty  backs 
 ====================================================                          
 and after the love -in fades
 
  IPOs
   can keep jobsters 
                  choices open



they're needed

 believe me 

   beatin 
   a  two headed dragon
                ain't for ameteurs  


==============================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 09:43 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

April 26, 2005

battlin Demoro v governor bull turd


struggle blaster
       labor chiefs 
gettin good press?

like this lady 
thats been 
beef jerkin 
the gubinator ?

something fresh 
is blowin in the wind ....


===============================


la times this april:




"though spokesman, Rob Stutzman,
 tried to downplay the role of
DeMoro's  nurse's group 
in the governor's 
recent steep fall in the polls
most observers see a real connection
since DeMoro
  started after the gubinator 
for his december crack
 that he'd  
" kick their butts"

'she's  twisted it back on him"
 says nurses union 
vp  truman bobrick
" course he didn't know
              she's a wild cat in a fight "


DeMoro's foes 
in the hospital industry 
denounce her 
as a "radical"
who engages 
In intimidation tactics 
twists the facts 
and sullies the nursing
                    profession



Jan Emerson
 spokeswoman 
for the California HospitalAssn.

 said the nurses union 
has been "impossible to
deal with" under DeMoro

 Emerson said a demonstration
at the hospital association's 
Sacramento offices in
2001 turned ugly
 with protesters bursting through
doors and threatening to 
"urinate 
on the carpet" 
if they
were not allowed 
to use the bathroom

THE National Labor Relations Board
 last year
overturned an organizing election 
the association had won 
at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
 in Los Angeles

 The board found 
that the 2002 election
 had been tainted
because  antiunion nurses
 had received anonymous
telephone threats 
against "their families and pets"



according to 
bobrick
The association has won 
"more than 65 elections" 
on DeMoro's watch
 while losing 
only
" about a half-dozen
                  all close ones '

"she's winning nine out of ten "
he says 

 in her 12 years at the helm
Demoro has tripled 
the associations membership 
 
today Cal Nurses 
  represents 60,000 nurses
 a third 
 of the  180,000
       hospital nurses 
           in California
"we'll get the rest "
  says Demoro 

typical of her bruising tactics
was a recent 
    union demo in san francisco 
at a "fund raiser for the gubinator" 

" while we clogged the streets 
 in every direction with
Demonstrators " DeMoro recounts  
 "our  picket line 
hurled insults 
at  all  his  well-dressed 
contributors 
as they pulled up in their limos 
 you know  
stuff like 
 " Corporate scum!"
   " money sows "
  
  her response now
  looking back 
"all those  out raged 
  purple  faces
wow ..what a kick .....  "


DeMoro says the union's triumphs 
flow from 
the "childrens crusade-like'
              resolve 
of all 30 part-time directors
 all working nurses
 all part of a  union  culture 
that emphasizes collaboration'

" membership is
more than 90% female".

DeMoro brands Schwarzenegger 
"a silly marble headed
                 sexist clown "

during an informal 
 press conference  
At her union's  headquarters
 DeMoro  lifted 
one of her row of
          bobble-head 
               "girlie guv" dolls
 from her desk 
 dropped it
  on the rug 
and stomped on it 

"  ooops 
I broke his head off didn't I " 
 while retrieving
 the pieces she asked 
 "Do you think that's symbolic?"

---------------------------------

goooooooooood press keeed 

"oh the times they are a changin "
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 07:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 24, 2005

pie card quote of the week



“This union cannot survive 
if the only goal
 is to negotiate better contracts 
for our members,” 

( Steelworker President Leo Gerard)

 “We can’t survive 
as an island of prosperity
 in a sea of misery.... 
It’s the system we have to change!”

=======================================


Posted by herb jr. jr. at 08:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

here's what don't work:

"arm people with the desire to arm themselves "


no no no no no

  just  arm em 


==============================================


Posted by herb jr. jr. at 12:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 23, 2005

my wal mart contest entry

my gal Emily
    at Andy's " wave"
           sent out a call

         so .......




========================================
Dear Herb  
The cat is out of the bag
 Millions of Americans 
are about to find out
 about the work 
you've been doing 
building the nation's 
largest grassroots movement
 to spread the truth about Wal-Mart
 and ensure that work in America 
            is valued and rewarded again. 


All this week
 Al Franken will be talking
 to Air America listeners
 about Wal-Mart 

But next week
 we want to hear 
what you think he should say
 Should he be funny? 
Serious?
 Do a Dick Cheney impression? 
How should Al Franken tell people
 why we need to stand up
 to corporations like Wal-Mart?

 Al Franken will read the best ad 
to millions of Americans 
on Air America Radio. 


Here's what I'm talking about: 


1. Listen to the current ad

2. You write a new one
 for a national audience
 by next Wednesday

3. Next week, your ad
 could be the one 
that Al Franken reads
 on Air America. 


I think that you could write
 something incredible

Herb
 Al Franken needs your words. 




 Remember it can't be longer
than one minute
 The deadline for entries 
is April 27th
 





Thanks  


Emily Thorson


PS HERB 
HOPE TO HOOK UP WITH YASOON

U CAN COUNT ON IT

   NEXT TIME I'M ANYWHERE NEAR LA


====================================================
  its now 10 am 
               hmmmm

 a contest :

 write an anti walmart 
   stinger  spot

and 
   for airing on 
           the great al frankenstein's 
                             national  radio show .......


------------------------------------------
10:45 am 

 okay  done.....

comes in at around  260 words

aaah  prolly 
             too long ........

 too long?

         shit!!

      fuck em  too long 

  so's 
        Homers ILLI-ad 
----------------------------------------------------

" ATTENTION WALMART 
    FANS  


WANNA REALLY
           BAD DEAL  ? 

   JOIN US

   SELL YOUR TIME
                 TO THE WALTON FAMILY .....

  NO NO DON'T GO AWAY

LISTEN TO MY STORY FIRST  


LISTEN TO WHAT 
OLD SAM WALTON 
DID TO ONE OF OUR PALS HERE.....


YOU KNOW   SMILEY FACE   RIGHT?


COME ON 
U MUST KNOW
    HIM   
           BY NOW 

HE'S EVERYWHERE 

HE'S 
  THE FRICKIN  COMPANY  MASCOT...

 U KNOW 


THAT 
SILLY
 
SUNNY LOOKIN  THINGEE 

   WITH   
 THE  COUNTRY SIZED
           SMILE


RIGHT ?

YA YA

 WELL
 THAT little  
         YELLOW  DISC  
  
            IS  ALL THATS  LEFT
  OF OUR PAL 
                DONNY  MORTON

MANAGEMENT 
NOW CALLS HIM 

" HOWDY THE PRICE FIXER "
 
  BUT WE  FLOOR APES
      KNOW THE REAL STORY   
  
  THATS ALL THATS LEFT OF DONNY ....

YA SEE  FOLKS

 POOR OLD DONALD

USED TO
  BE A REGULAR  GUY

A REAL HUMAN
JUST LIKE U OR ME

A GUY  MAKIN  13 K
       A YEAR
 RESTACKING  SHELVES 
           LIKE THE REST  OF UZ 
                  WAL-MATES  

BUT DONALD  SOLD OUT 
SOLD OUT
  TO THE  WALTONS  

YUP HE SOLD 
 HIMSELF 
FOR 500 THOUSAND BUCKS  
TO OLD SAM HIMSELF 

LITTLE DID HE KNOW .....
ONCE THEY OWNED HIM 

ZAP 

ZIP ZIP ZOINK  


SO THERE HE IS
ON THE TV 
 PLAYIN' 
 ZORRO WITH  PRICE TAGS 



HE AIN'T HUMAN NO MORE......

NOPE
  HE'S JUST A BUNCH  OF     
                     COMPUTER CODE NOW

  
 
  WELL THERE IS THAT 500K 
        
   BUT  HE'S 2D  FANS
                           2D

WHATS HE BUYIN IN 2 D ?


WELL THATS IT

             THATS MY STORY 

JUST THOUGHT 
U'D LIKE TO HEAR 
WHAT ONE  GUY
WAS WILLING TO DO 
                TO HIMSELF
 
JUST TO GET PROMOTED
  OUT OF A JOB
   MAKING HIM
         7 BUCKS AN HOUR 



==============================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 09:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 21, 2005

shit list


at long last
all in one place

here's the complete 

shit list
Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Lamar Alexander
Senator Wayne Allard
Senator George Allen
Senator Max Baucus
Senator Evan Bayh
Senator Robert Bennett
Senator Joseph Biden
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Christopher Bond
Senator Barbara Boxer
Senator Sam Brownback
Senator Jim Bunning
Senator Conrad Burns
Senator Richard Burr
Senator Robert Byrd
Senator Maria Cantwell
Senator Thomas Carper
Senator Lincoln Chafee
Senator Saxby Chambliss
Senator Hillary Clinton
Senator Tom Coburn
Senator Thad Cochran
Senator Norm Coleman
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Kent Conrad
Senator John Cornyn
Senator Jon Corzine
Senator Larry Craig
Senator Mike Crapo
Senator Mark Dayton
Senator Jim Demint
Senator Mike DeWine
Senator Christopher Dodd
Senator Elizabeth Dole
Senator Pete Domenici
Senator Byron Dorgan
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator John Ensign
Senator Mike Enzi
Senator Russell Feingold
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Bill Frist
Senator Lindsey Graham
Senator Chuck Grassley
Senator Judd Gregg
Senator Chuck Hagel
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Orrin Hatch
Senator Kay Hutchison
Senator James Inhofe
Senator Daniel Inouye
Senator Johnny Isakson
Senator Jim Jeffords
Senator Tim Johnson
Senator Edward Kennedy
Senator John Kerry
Senator Herb Kohl
Senator Jon Kyl
Senator Mary Landrieu
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Joseph Lieberman
Senator Blanche Lincoln
Senator Trent Lott
Senator Richard Lugar
Senator Mel Martinez
Senator John McCain
Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Barbara Mikulski
Senator Lisa Murkowski
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Ben Nelson
Senator Bill Nelson
Senator Barack Obama
Senator Mark Pryor
Senator Jack Reed
Senator Harry Reid
Senator Pat Roberts
Senator John Rockefeller
Senator Ken Salazar
Senator Rick Santorum
Senator Paul Sarbanes
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Jeff Sessions
Senator Richard Shelby
Senator Gordon Smith
Senator Olympia Snowe
Senator Arlen Specter
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Ted Stevens
Senator John Sununu
Senator Jim Talent
Senator Craig Thomas
Senator John Thune
Senator David Vitter
Senator George Voinovich
Senator John Warner
Senator Ron Wyden 
 
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 01:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

one payer bingo




wanta build a car ?

even canada is better 

why?

 socialized medicine 

=================================
  read this ....

"....GM, along with competitors
 Ford and Chrysler 
 have been shifting production
 out of Michigan 
and across the Detroit River
 into Ontario
 as fast as they can.....
The reason  is health care costs....



"....health costs currently account for $1500 
of the cost of production
 of every vehicle made in the U.S
 In Canada
 the figure is only a small fraction of that"

" in Canada theres a single payer system
  its   like our "Medicare
            but for every one "


 big ameri - corp's present
              public line :
 

"GM thinks there has 
         to be 
closer cooperation between 
the government   
and the private sector
on health costs "

  since 

 "Health care costs
 currently averaging $6800 
         per worker in America"
 
but then .....

" The notion of having 
the federal government 
take over an industry 
that represents 
      about 15 percent
 of the U.S. economy 
in one gulp 
      gives U.S. executives the willies"


 but the tower boyz 
            are
   secretly resigned 
to the inevitable ....after all kids 




"... the federal government 
       already runs 
defense and law enforcement
 so why not healthcare?" 
 
  


 big  business's strategy ....


" sneak a single-payer system 
in a little bit at a time
 first step 
  a federal takeover
of catastrophic coverage." 

the case is too clear ....


 "Back in 1970
 a year before Canada 
switched from an employer-based
 insurance company-administered 
  health system 
 just like that 
in the United States 
to a national 
  single-payer model
 both countries were devoting
 about 7 percent 
of GDP to health care

 Today 35 years later
 Canada devotes 
   9 % of GDP 
to health care 

while the United States
 devotes
  15  %

Meanwhile, Canada covers  all of its citizens" 

==============================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 08:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 17, 2005

anti tower boy fury


the "ceo comp packages are out

( as i've 
         posted here  earlier)

and of course
 there's 
    tons  
       to whoop it up 
           over in these fatcat  numbers....



=====================================

---------------------------------------------------
and hey i'm a vet 


and still...

 what fuckin gall
these  tower tots have

even 
after enron et al

their still  heedlessly
            upping  the  pilfer.....


butt fuck
shouldn't 
    the  "screwed crew "
                      here......

                  (  at least
             the one 
                  of interest to us klass wranglers )

          shouldn't it 
              oughta be
 
            what these
                   fat  corporation heads
                  are doin to 
                    their own hapless     
                             jobsters                
                             
                                   we all get
                                  AGITPROPed up  OVER ?
------------------------------------------------------------
well
check out
  these  AFL-XXX
           staff infections take ....

      they find  
      more to write about
              on behalf
                    of 
the  harmed nice little outsider 
                      stockholder  people 
                  then about
                        just plain   workers ......



----------------------------------


 in fact
   these weeny wonders   
         seem to be trying 
                to fomm
              a jobster  /  stock-fry

        " small - stakers  alliance"


read this 
 official
 AFL-XXX
      thimp tank
      broad side  
      

YUP ITS from 
          right out of
                         AFL-XXX headquarters.....

--------------------------------------

"In 2004 
the average CEO 
of a major company 
received $10 million 
in total compensation

 a 12 %
     increase  
over 2003

 In contrast

 the average worker’s pay 
increased 
            3.6 %   


                   ---------12% vs 3.6% 
                        so lets pound on this right?
                          ------------

" the CEO pay system enriches executives 
without regard to their individual performance
 or realistic contribution to their company"

 ------------------ okay kool ----------------------------


    
   
"Average
 hourly worker
 to CEO 
            pay ratios  have dramatically worsened "
   
   --------------- wonderful bang away ----------------



"These executive pay excesses 
come at the expense of shareholders 
as well as the company's employees " 

 ------------- oh no ! 
             its  tiny stake holder time --------------
 

" companies are moving away from stock options
 to more sensible forms of executive compensation
 stock options  today make up just 31 percent 
of a typical CEO’s compensation
  down from 69 percent in 2001" 

------- shit good news?
for who
the widow wadman ?
          what about the profit growth 
vs wage growth disaster 
        since the bushwack? --------------------

" the average stock option overhang
 (the total number of shares allotted 
for stock options 
divided by the number 
of shares outstanding) 
has reached 17 percent
an all-time high" 

----------- stock fry beware! -------------------------

"Stock options were popular
 with CEOs because 
they did not have to be expensed 
in company financial statements"

 " not expensing stock options 
allowed companies to  treat
options  like free money "


----------okay ya sure --------------------

" many companies have started paying 
their CEOs with actual shares of stock 
only if they meet performance benchmarks"


------------good news indeed i'll e mail
the widow and her orphan nephew 
                 nelson wadman the 4th -------------------------

 ----------------------------------------------
 ya ya ya


sure raz the tower for pilfer max

its not a bad thing

but seems  tome
  that
  job belongs
        more 
in  ralph
        nader's  bag 

division of labor here

cries out for

         lettin'

 the 
  " straight arrow legal beagles
 
the
" we be  greener then thou " 

and 
other assorted
round heads
 fan tails
and do hips
               take  on the tower trolls  
                                      this way

yup
 its a battle front
in the war 
against
our national system of
                 towerocracy 

yup 
 "take outs is take outs "

but for us alleged wagery orgers

"be gettin on this hoby horse
 a ride up the side of 
        klass struggle mountain 
                 or
              down the slop
                   toward 
                            the great  muddle  slough ?"

--------------------------

 let's stick to  hammerin away 
                        at wage max / hour min

                                       period.......



if  you need allies 
         from among  the patty flocks 

show you're only after 

                           
            " a fair share of what we  make "
                       

                " decent  and honest pay
                          for a  good days work"

                                  blah blah blah 
and as to the tower take outs...

      "good luck and gods speed
between
you stock fry
and the tower tinkers
you guys 
deserve it all "
 ======================================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 16, 2005

african reds update

 


Address by Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, at the
South African Communist Party (SACP) special Congress


April 8, 2005

Durban south africa 


excerpt:


"As our bilateral concluded....
 
 the first decade of
            liberation
                       benefited capital 
            The next decade 
                    must above all benefit 
                                 the working class...."



==========================
what 94 brought 


"First, we won democratic space within which to
operate underpinned by a progressive
Constitution. You only have to look at our
neighbours in Zimbabwe and Swaziland to
understand the extent of the political space
won by the working class and its allies in
South Africa. This we must guard jealously.

Second, workers have gained rights in the
workplace, as contained in our progressive
labour laws. This year marks the tenth
anniversary of the Labour Relations Act, which
was the first salvo fired by the democratic
government in its efforts to replace the
apartheid labour regime.

We recognise, of course, that we must still do
more work to translate all these pieces of
progressive labour legislation into weapons at
the hands of workers and our activists to
defend and advance interests of workers at the
workplace and in society in general.

The recent much published threat to exempt
small businesses from the aspects of labour
laws points to the correctness of the assertion
that workers gains in any capitalist society
are consistently under threat. We welcome the
government's more recent assurance that it will
not undermine workers' rights. The lesson from
this is, once more, that the price of freedom
is constant vigilance!

The third major gain for the working class was
the provision of basic services, including
shelter, health care, water, electricity,
education and so forth, especially in the rural
areas. Roll out of basic services is critical
in the struggle to transform the gendered
household division of labour and to relieve the
burden currently borne by women. Still,
millions do not have access to these basic
services and there is a real possibility that
rising user fees may cut-off those that
currently enjoy access.

Government's income transfers in the form of
social grants provide a buffer for millions who
otherwise will be plunged into destitution.
Coverage is however not universal and there are
millions of poor people, particularly the
unemployed, that do not have a social safety
net. For this reason, COSATU has called for the
Basic Income Grant as well as mass job
creation. We need real debate on these matters.

Comrades and friends,

While we recognise these gains in democratic
space, social wage and rights at the workplace,
we also recognise that for many workers they
have been offset by deepening unemployment and
poverty and by the failure to deal adequately
with the HIV pandemic.

A new tidal wave of job losses is looming in
mining and clothing and textile sector due in
large part to the strength of the rand. Job
losses and unemployment should be declared a
national disaster.

We have a much higher unemployment than other
middle-income countries. Even if we ignore
those unemployed people who are too discouraged
to seek work, almost 30% of workers here are
jobless. That compares to under 10% in
comparable economies.

The Minister of Finance says these figures must
be wrong because otherwise we would see a
revolution. Three weeks ago I was in Secunda. I
found a massive stayaway and riot. Not even
COSATU knew it was coming. In the past year, a
wave of unrest has swept from Diepsloot in
Gauteng to the Free State and the Western Cape.
The less obvious underswell of crime, family
killings and HIV infections arises largely out
of mass youth unemployment.

True, the past year saw job creation in
construction and retail. But these jobs are
mostly low-paid and insecure. Moreover, they
will not survive long if manufacturing and
mining are shrinking.

The causes of mass unemployment are easily
found. Above all, government has not moved
consistently to restructure the apartheid
economy. Instead, it adopted a neo-liberal
export strategy that left our industries
unprotected and unsupported. Job losses
resulted on a mass scale while new employment
lagged far behind growth in the labour force.

To make matters worse, government simply has no
political will to deal with the overvaluation
of the rand, which is an immediate cause of
mass retrenchments in mining and manufacturing.
Moreover, it has not fast-tracked WTO-legal
safeguard measures for vulnerable industries.
Meanwhile, workers are being thrown onto the
streets.

The underlying problem is simple. Business
knows one way of dealing with anything that
threatens their margins of profitability -
retrenchments at the slightest chance. It would
rather retrench workers than find alternatives.
In particular, we have seen the mining houses
move abroad rather than develop our economy.
Meanwhile, government has not done much to
ensure all its programmes save and create jobs.

The economic growth path since 1994 has
benefited the rich and big business. It has
largely left behind the working class and the
poor who gave their lives to bring this
government into power.

Government seems to be helpless in face of the
scourge of retrenchments and is reluctant to
intervene to counteract job losses. This does
not suggest government does not care - it has
simply does not have ideas on how to avert job
losses and create employment outside of the
public works programmes.

While unemployment is soaring, workers' pay and
conditions have stagnated. The share of workers
earning under R1000 a month has remained
virtually constant even in the formal sector,
at about 25%. That is, even in the formal
sector, one worker in four earns under R1000 a
month. Even in the unions, half of our members
get less than R2500 a month.

Low pay is reflected in the declining share of
wages and salaries in the national income. In
1994, workers got 51% of the national income;
in 2004, their share had fallen to 46%. That is
an indictment for our democratic society. It
demonstrates that there is no easy trade off
between low pay and jobs - we have got low pay,
and we're still not getting the jobs.

Against this background we need to ask the
difficult question: Is the NDR on course? There
no doubt that the democratic ANC-led government
has registered progress in laying the basis for
non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa
as envisaged in the Freedom Charter. Yet
political transformation has not been matched
by substantial transformation of economic
power. The recent bilateral between COSATU and
the SACP concluded that in the economy, capital
has gained the most from the past decade. In
economic terms, capital scored the most and has
reaped massive profits at the back of large-
scale retrenchments.

Economic power is still in the hands of white
monopoly capital. The aspirant and vocal black
bourgeoisie remains numerically small and
depends heavily on the state and white business
for its survival.

In these circumstances, state power remains
both a critical instrument for reshaping the
economy, and a key site of contestation between
capital and workers, reflected in conflicts
within the bureaucracy and political
leadership. In this contestation, the working
class has in the past five years won some space
for change, reversing the dedication to free
markets and budget cuts experienced under GEAR.

But we must still go much further. The
accumulation path inherited from apartheid and
subjected to the chill winds of international
competition is now a brake to progress to
achieve the economic aims of the NDR. The NDR
cannot and will not be pursued on a terrain of
an apartheid economy - the time for serious
transformation and a new growth path has come.

As our bilateral concluded, the first decade of
liberation benefited capital in economic terms.
The next decade must above all benefit the
working class and the poor,

* by creating employment on a mass scale;
 
* by ensuring more equitable ownership,
including through land reform, development
of a co-operatives movement and
transformation of the financial sector; 

* by establishing an effective, holistic
campaign to end the HIV pandemic, including
the mass roll out of anti-retrovirals; 

* by building working class culture through
transformation of the schools, media and
cultural institutions; 

and 

* By strengthening participatory policy-making
to empower our people in all aspects of
life.

First, we must mobilise our power to fight the
wave of retrenchments. We need to demand that
both business and government do more to protect
and create employment. We can no longer sit by
and watch as our members lose their livelihoods
while their grown-up children stay home, having
had no chance of getting a job since they left
school.

For this reason, COSATU has brought a dispute
on the unemployment crisis to NEDLAC. We are
developing a programme of action, including
mobilisation for mass action, which will be
debated by our CEC at the end of May.
Unemployment cannot just be a crisis for the
poor and for workers, neglected by leaders in
business and the state.

Second, we need to strengthen our organisation.
In the past few weeks, I was able to spend a
lot of time with comrades in two of our COSATU
regions. The biggest lesson I learned is that
we need to recognise that the recruitment of
workers into the federation depends on a
successful organisational development drive to
improve service to members and the pick up our
gains in terms of workers' rights.

In short, the future of the democratic and
revolutionary trade union movement depends on
the successful implementation of four
interlinked campaigns:

   * To strengthen our organisations so as to
serve our members and ensure worker
control;

   * To drive recruitment so that on-going
retrenchments and restructuring do not
undermine the organisation of the working
class;

   * To pick up our gains, so that workers
really benefit from their rights in the
workplace; and

   * To mobilise to protect and create jobs
for all.

Given these challenges, what does the working
class expect of its Party?

First, we assume that the SACP cannot simply
walk out of government.

 That means you have to
discuss how to link efforts to build power and
campaigns outside of the state with work within
the state. 


Usually, this problem emerges as the
question of how 
do we give a voice 
to our
          people 
when the state 
has undertaken mistaken
policies,
 without undermining 
long-term
relations 
that can also bring benefits?





the  working class 
does not have the luxury
to be despondent

 Setbacks must be used 
        to draw
lessons and to march ahead

 History is on our
side!

http://
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 15, 2005

raw quebec stands up




 Raw- wagery 
action  alliances are 
      maybe coming alive in quebec 

as often happens 
raw students fire off 
the first wild salvos

  then on occasion
  with the taste of 
   plutonic blood 
in the air 
  a too long languid wagery
     erupts ....


" Between 60,000 and 100,000 
militant students marched in Montréal
 on March 16
 Thousands more marched 
in Québec City,
 Sherbrooke,
 Trois-Rivière, 
and just about every other Québec locality
 with a  community college
 or University 

Students blocked the Port of Montréal
 closed down the lucrative Montréal casino
 blocked Federal Highway 40
 and occupied various government
 and Liberal party offices 
in Québec City and Montréal
often for days at a time

 In all, close to 300,000 students
 went on strike
 closing almost all public higher education
 in Quebec for up to seven weeks
 (and continuing on many campuses)

 Up to 15,000 secondary school students 
joined demonstrations in solidarity
with backing from teacher's unions

 Many University and comm-col
 professors' and administrators' associations 
also endorsed the strike
as did a wide range 
of Quebec's other labor unions

The strike began February 23
 with a walkout by 30,000 comm-col and University students
 organized by the  student association CASSÉÉ 

 The motivating grievance 
was a drastic cut 
in student stipends 
from the Quebec government

 beginning with this academic year's 
promised amount
 ASSÉÉ included in its demands
 an end to the Liberal government's
 planned privatization and decentralization 
of some comm-cols
 and other higher education programs
 as well as a call for free tuition
 and "humanistic curricula."

 Among the French-speaking
 working-class students
 CASSÉÉ itself grew rapidly 
in membership
now up to about 60,000.

All during March
 the cities of Montréal and Québec
 were swarming with student militants

 hunger strikes,
 streets barricaded with tires and garbage,
 teach ins
and bed-ins
 
 Everywhere
 from the fashionable cafés 
of St. Denis 
to the gay village
 the tourist-filled Old City
 and the Parc LaFontaine 
 the red felt patch 
symbolizing resistance was visible
 not only on students
 but on many sympathizers 
among the gentry of the Plateau
 and the queens along St. Catherine's

 Drivers in cars blocked by demonstrators 
waited patiently and smiled 
or waved at the students
 Call-in shows 
were full of supportive comments
and opinion polls showed
 more than 70% of Québecers 
still supported the strike 
at the end of March
 after all the disruptions

The provincial Liberal government of Jean Charest
hads
the highest disapproval rating 
of any sitting governmentin canada 
   about 70%. 


 On April 3, the Liberal government 
caved almost completely 
on the student stipends-p
romising to restore immediately 
70% this year, and 100 %
in  coming years
 They also shelved immediate plans 
for privatization and decentralization 

 Campus by campus votes were taken
 and some already began to reopen by April 6
 Others
--including the largest unit
 at UQAM in Montréal--
extended the strike at least until April 15

 The elite campus 
of the University of Montréal
 voted April 8 for its 40,000 students 
to remain on strike

 CASSÉÉ took the lead in attempting 
to broaden the student strike 
toward a more general protest 
against Liberal cutbacks
 They declared a second round 
of so-called "echo" demonstrations 
in solidarity with all workers
 and social services 
against the "neo-liberal" platform 
of Charest--"

========================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 05:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 14, 2005

HARD BALL


WAL-MART PLAYS FOR KEEPS





==================================
WAL-MART:

washington post april 14 2005 


" Wal-mart
  The retailing behemoth
 whose $10 billion annual profits
 are based on low prices
 low expenses 
and lower wages
 announced it will shut 
    the doors
AT ONE QUEBEC store
  after workers there voted 
        to make this store
          the first unionized Wal-Mart
               in North America .......
 
          The closure will leave
                     190  employees
                                  out of work 
           a  clear warning 
              for workers 
             at other Wal-Mart stores
              who might contemplate
                defying founder Sam Walton's
                             sharp distaste for unions "


" The world's largest retail chain
 has fiercely and successfully
 resisted unionization attempts
            at its 3,600 stores 
                  in the United States
                Its closest call
                      ended in Texas in 2000 
                         when a store there eliminated 
                              its meat department 
                               after 11 meat cutters voted 
                                         to join a union "
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 

   obviously 
                both
  the   union 's
      strategy and tactics must improve 
 
                                   and my take

                     an eclectic tossed salad 
                                    of old techniques
                      no matter how they're 
                                  recombined tossed and mixed
                                 won't work  


what will work ?


                a  massive wave of flash  occupations 


===================================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 12, 2005

two purse swingers go at it again



here's a  HAPPY story

 gettin viewed
            
 STRAIGHT UP 
  through its ass hole .....






====================================
 
notice how these fey scrappers
actually got the job done better

cause there was contention

and still want to have their anti movement
anti unorged wagery
sector
 exclusionary rights 
   preserved

fuck  the   rotten fruits 

"let a  thousand unions contend "


==========================================

 SEIU VS AFSCME :

             OR

WHEN   LACE  PANTY UNIONS COLLIDE 

 
 " on the streets of Chicago
 organizers from the two sides
boosted with staff
 from outside the state
became increasingly confrontational
 and tires of AFSCME organizers
 were even slashed

 SEIU, which had nearly 500 organizers
 of its own from around the country
 brought in nearly 200 organizers
 for a weekend 
from several of its allies 
in the contest within the AFL-CIO
UNITE HERE, 
Teamsters,
 Laborers 
and United Food and Commercial Workers. 

After the election had already started
 SEIU filed charges
 with the AFL-CIO 
against AFSCME
 and quickly won a decision
 that it had the exclusive right
 to organize 
based on its having started 
a substantial campaign 
with a good chance
 of winning far earlier
 than AFSCME

 

 The confrontation between AFSCME and SEIU 
is rooted in a recent history 
of conflicts in Illinois
 but it also reflects 
difficult issues in the debate
 about labor movement restructuring
 and there's a good chance
 that the two big unions
 could confront each other again
 in other states 
unless their leaders 
can work out some understanding

 the complex feud in Illinois
 between two unions
 was triggered
 by the defection
 of one SEIU local 
from a hospital contract coalition 
in 2002
 undercutting AFSCME's bargaining
 But it escalated 
through a series of incidents
 in which each union
 blames the other 
for misconduct 
or sabotaging the other

In 2003 it erupted in a battle
 over AFSCME's decision 
to try to organize home healthcare workers
 where  SEIU Local 880 
had long established a presence

 AFSCME criticized
 the governor's executive order
 and eventual legislation
 which made home healthcare workers 
(and eventually, in a separate order
 daycare workers) 
a distinct type of employee 
of the state 
rather than of an independent commission
 as in many other states

 "With the homecare workers
 we feel that SEIU lowered the standards
 of state employees,"
 "They're the only state employees 
without health insurance or pensions,"

 and were excluded 
from state responsibility 
for workers' compensation. 

SEIU responds that with collective bargaining rights, SEIU was able to raise the pre-existing low standards 
and that now the union 
is fighting to expand 
on its gains to win
 insurance and other protections

 There was no way
 the SEIU  argued
 that the state was politically willing
 at a time of extreme budget pressures
 to make these tens of thousands
 of low-wage workers 
full-fledged state employees immediately.

SEIU leaders say 
that the union delayed filing charges
 with the AFL-CIO 
for a variety of reasons:
 They were surprised by AFSCME's success 
in signing petitions; 
they counted on Sweeney 
to act without formal charges;
 they worried that filing charges
 might delay the election.

 But the decision reflects 
complexities of the current national debate
Despite denigrating the effectiveness 
of the AFL-CIO
 and the procedures 
giving organizing rights
 SEIU quickly won a favorable decision
 after it filed its protest

At the same time
 the decision was made
 on the basis of SEIU's being present first
 and both AFSCME and SEIU 
have argued that the criteria 
should include other considerations
 such as whether 
the workers in question 
are part of a union's 
core jurisdiction 
(which both SEIU and AFSCME 
now claim for childcare workers)

 Also, SEIU and its allies 
have argued that the AFL-CIO
 should prevent contracts 
that bring down standards
 for an industry
 but the SEIU and AFSCME debate
 over standards in Illinois reveals 
how complex that decision can be

While there has been a debate
 over how much money to devote 
to organizing and politics

 AFSCME has argued most forcefully
 that political action 
to neutralize employer opposition 
is the most solidly proven route
 to organizing success

 SEIU in Illinois demonstrated 
how that political strategy can work.

By calling in organizers
 from its labor movement allies
 SEIU's campaign also demonstrated
 how unions can come together
 to help each other win 
large-scale organizing victories

 It's the kind of solidarity
 that is essential 
but nearly nonexistent
 last having shown up 
nearly a decade ago
 in support 
of an only partly successful
 United Farm Workers campaign 
to organize strawberry workers
 Unfortunately
 it took a fight between two unions
 not a fight with an employer
 to revive such solidarity this time.

The Illinois victory 
was a great triumph for unions 
in hard times
 a reflection of long and hard organizing work
 and a critical political victory

 It opens a door 
to future victories but also
 unfortunately
 to the potential 
of future conflict between 
at least SEIU and AFSCME 
over childcare workers 
in other states
 unless top union leaders 
can figure out a way to work together

 "I hope these issues can get resolved,"
 says Balanoff
, "and we can all be working 
toward building the labor movement 
       and working together." 



 
 
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 04:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

the strip goes on




these stats have all had 
a posting or two here

but lets bang em out again


the job market hell jobs themselves
here in amerika are 
              gettin more nasty............
" Today, one in four workers
30 million Americans
hold jobs that pay below
 $9.00 an hour"

----- okay herb 
           you say
             thats old hat boo hooo
                        but.....----------------


"the trend
is clear:
     high wage  jobs
         are taking on 
     the characteristics 
               of low-wage  jobs
 1 little job security
  2  stagnant wages 
     3   decreasing 
            benefits"




" today
 Fewer than one-fifth 
of large and medium-sized companies 
 pay the full cost of employees’
         health premiums"

 --------------- and this is headed 
                           toward zero for sure ---------

" Nearly half of full-time workers
 were covered by traditional
       defined benefit  pensions
 30 years ago
  Today, that number is  below 20 percent"

----------- and also headed to zero ----------------


" the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
shows that today 
   a middle-aged man 
is likely to be in his job 
for 71/2 years
 down from 11 years 
          just 25 years ago"

           ------------- from an average
                           4-5 jobs 
                            in a job life 
                                to  6-7 ----------------

Posted by herb jr. jr. at 02:23 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 11, 2005

fuck me and comment

where are the comments?

i now yer out there
      readin this shit.........

 we got a secret counter

and hey
i know
 you  know 
the idea  behind  
post it up stuff like this

(outside 
the fun house mirror department
                     at least)
is 
  to try to  get some 
               nasty cross words flyin' around
     
 so  whats wrong ?

             I  started FORWARD  passing this head wash 

NEAR 7 MONTHS AGO NOW

    but 
up till today 
outside of a few stray kats
its been 

nada nada nada 
 

(that is
besides my own gang 
of lawless dip sticks)
              ----------------------------------

no 
    i've gotten
                   zero
                     "  BACK AT MES"

 so start 
                  "BACK  AT ME" - ing 

now 

PICK ONE OF THESE FUCKIN FLOATERS OFF

and run it back down my throat 

come on 

YOU   two grand worth a FOUR EYED 
                                ass holes

fuckin start  BRINGIN' 
                     IT
                        BACK AT ME 

================================================


Posted by herb jr. jr. at 04:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

exploitation rises

LA  times :


"last year
 the consumer price index rose 2.7%.
             But wages rose only 2.5%"

     (  Meanwhile  up in the tower...)

" corporate profits 
hit record highs 
as companies got 
more and more 
       productivity 
   out of their workers "

=========================================
 
and then the times 
  goes on to the  usual 
                  boo hoo  for the boobs
                                         fest 
 

" workers' wallets are being pummeled
 by something of a perfect storm
 of economic forces:
 a weak job market
 rising health insurance premiums 
fuel cost spikes ...."

-----------------------------------------

but then we get a  ( R.A.U. PIT )
                      mention...


"The biggest factor 
is the slack employment market"

---SO SLACK IN FACT THAT ---------------

"people are  dropping
 out of the labor market 
at a greater rate 
than anytime since 1988 "


----------- SINCE  BEFORE 
            THE LAST BUSH BUILT RECESSION -----------------

------------------------------------------


THE BENE COST BINGE 


 " Although pay rose 
  only about 2.4% last year
 benefit costs jumped almost 7%" 



" employers also are requiring 
workers to pay a greater share 
of their premiums"

A PUNDIT QUOTE:


"In the long run 
           things
 can't continue like this....
 If healthcare
 keeps crowding out wages 
             forever
 something's got to give"


INDEED


-----------------------------------------------
  A FACT:


" for  47% of the workforce
  employers 
don't directly provide 
their health insurance"

 ANOTHER FACT:


"Historically
 periods 
     when wage growth 
       is outpaced by inflation
         rarely last
          more than 18 months"


are u re- assured mates?

--------------------------------------------

  not so bad as it might be .....



"Despite the failure of their wages 
to keep pace with inflation
 American consumers 
            have kept shopping.....

 Consumer spending 
    has continued to rise"

----------- 
                 WHY ? 
                   -------------------


" Home prices rose 
   9% nationwide 
from February 2004 to February 2005.....

 sheltering consumers
 and the economy
 from much of the pinch 
             of stagnant wages 
                    and higher prices"


---------- the joy inside
              greenspans  neat  mortgage rate
                             trick explained --------------------


"There's been a  home value driven
         wealth effect
          afoot throughout
       much of the recession 
               and the recovery" 



-------------- better 
   called still got
         the ability to borrow effect -----------


==========================================================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 10, 2005

unemployed private accounts

talk about private accounts

how about  uncle buildin one
  for every  laid off  jobster ?



==================================================
okay so you're laid off

the gub sets up an account 
based on a formula to be named later....

now you can draw it out
   at any rate slower then 
          x% per week

go out get a job the next week
  you get to keep 
    all the money in the account 

simple nice fair 

hey its wonderful

----------------------------------

we should reward the laid off

not punish em 

on the calvinest side 

we've 
      remove the  fast max
                     rejob 
                          dis-incentive 
lodged in the present system 

treat laid off types like wounded soldiers

fallen hero's in a righteous cause

productivity max 


no scratch that 

don't treat em like
 we treat wounded soldiers


why  not ?

well

ask  my raw friend
       Son of Sam 

over at   samm -- clubs HQ

(presently i believe
the clubs  temporary HQ
is cell 273 
 Boone county house of detention

boone county north carolina 

which as the crow flies
is about 
8 miles southwest 
       of fort bragg  
------------------------------------------

ps pards


 i learned up on this type of 
                        high concept stuff

durin my recent 
    two week retreat
               up there 
        in and aroundthe shaggy pines
              of 
          lake carson 


===================================================== 
Posted by pinky at 01:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 08, 2005

wall mutts arise ?



 once more on baggin'
  
          the big cahuna 


=================================
Leveraging Labor’s Revival: A Proposal to Organize Wal-
Mart

By Wade Rathke

As the debate concerning labor’s future rages on,
prodded by Andy Stern, International President of the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and
answered by one union after another, President Sweeney
has agreed on the need for debate and the need to form
committees to discuss the various proposals generated.
Workers in general and union members in specific can
hardly find cause for inspiration or action in these
multi-point programs. This is true, except in one very
important area: the proposal for a full-scale campaign
against Wal-Mart.

In the case of Wal-Mart, Stern has argued that one
clear "purpose" for the AFL-CIO is in leading campaigns
which transcend the interests of any single union and
find common cause for all unions and indeed all working
people. He has publicly argued in the debates around
restructuring the federation that as much as $25
million should be set aside for the Wal-Mart campaign,
virtually earmarking all of the HSBC/Household credit
card money that goes to the federation. Sweeney has
shrewdly stated publicly that perhaps even $25 million
is not enough to fight Wal-Mart - indicating that it
might take even more! Disappointingly, very few other
unions have taken up the battle cry over Wal-Mart,
perhaps because they believe that this is all just an
argument between one or two people and a half dozen
unions, rather than a fight for the future for American
workers.

I would argue that a campaign on all fronts against
Wal-Mart is the single organizing effort that offers
the most hope for working families. Furthermore,
driving an organizing program around Wal-Mart and its
workers could potentially change the tide for labor and
create organizational capacities that would give us
fighting and winning forces for our future.

Wal-Mart and its wannabes are the GM’s, Fords,
Chryslers and US Steels of our time. The great
organizing drives of the 1930s were mounted around an
understanding that there was a new industrial force
reorganizing all of mass work. Wal-Mart and its clones
have similarly restructured the nature of mass
enterprise in service industries today, and therefore
are transforming the fundamental business model that
drives both domestic and international commerce.

The size, scale, strength, and location of the company
are a direct challenge to almost any usual or common
organizing strategy. One cannot go store by store with
NLRB-style direct certification elections. There are
just too, too many stores to believe that one could
conceivably get a handle on the company in this way.
Furthermore, the United Food & Commercial Workers
(UFCW) has already tried this model aggressively and
thrown the kitchen sink at the company without much
success. One cannot also underestimate the weakness of
the current law and the robber baron ruthlessness of
the company and its culture. The often repeated true
story of the UFCW winning an election in a butchery
department in the Dallas area and Wal-Mart switching
every store in the American empire to processed meat
speaks volumes of the futility of this approach

A market-oriented strategy effective in direct
recognition successes in other industries is also
unlikely to be effective in organizing Wal-Mart.
Arguably the southern California market had UFCW’s best
contracts and highest unionization rates, yet the
threat of Wal-Mart’s entry was sufficient to
destabilize the bargaining relationships preemptively,
rather than forcing Wal-Mart to move up to the market
rates and benefits in order to enter the area. The
power and efficiency of the Wal-Mart business model
acts as a pervasive threat regardless of unionization.
Recently, as Wal-Mart replaced Albertson’s as the
number one grocery seller in the Dallas-Fort Worth
market, Albertson’s countered by publicly announcing
that it was unilaterally moving the bulk of its 20,000
workers in that area to part-time status with no
benefits.

To state the obvious - there is no easy way to organize
Wal-Mart workers. Furthermore, there is a pervasive
culture that militates against organization, along with
a generation of union avoidance work that permeates all
parts of the personnel system. It is not cowardice, but
good judgment that brings us to the basic conclusion
that to organize these workers one must build a
different kind of formation than we have seen
previously. The mission cannot be to create simple
"bread and butter" unionization for Wal-Mart workers;
instead, as both Stern and Sweeney have argued, the
grand vision has to be achieving change and a voice for
all workers.

Get the idea of collective bargaining out of your mind.
Collective bargaining requires two parties committed to
at least a minimal level of good faith in practice and
a concession of a countervailing level of power between
management and labor. Currently, such programs are
unimaginable at Wal-Mart and therefore at best a
distraction. The mismatched imbalance of power is too
extreme to imagine winning an agreement now. We need to
put pressure on wages and benefits, and envision an
organization that exerts constant pressure in a way
that is unnatural under a bargaining regime. The first
priority for workers at Wal-Mart has to be building a
powerful organization on the job and in public vis a
vis their employer.

Efforts to engage the community in conjunction with
other allies on the requirements for new Wal-Mart store
sites, including community benefits, have become
increasingly successful. There are now examples like
living wages (won in Chicago), store access (won
recently in Hartford), environmental protections and
disclosures (conceded in Tarpon Springs, Florida). The
missing agreement has been a formation that includes
Wal-Mart workers asserting their own interests and
objectives in the community. Similar fights with a
worker face and voice would empower a worker
association.

For workers to create an association at the workplace
they will need a strong alliance of support in the
community acting in concert with them and protecting
their efforts to create space for organization and
struggle. Such an alliance should be constructed on the
broadest possible framework in order to unite all other
organizations and interests who have an issue that
engages the company and its practice. Community
organizations like ACORN, and other civic organizations
have raised concern about store traffic, location,
safety, sprawl, and its impact on the community.
Immigrant and civil rights groups have raised issues
around discriminatory employment practices. Women’s and
labor groups have raised issues about sex
discrimination in pay and promotions. Environmental
groups have concerns that range from sprawl to green
practices. Consumer groups have raised issues
concerning toxic cosmetics, shoddy foreign goods,
questionable financial services, and an array of
similar issues. From such a burgeoning array of groups
a very broad alliance could be constructed linking the
interests inside the company with the public force of
its activity.

Besides bringing together community organizations and
institutions into such an alliance, there should also
be an effort to recruit individual support for workers
and their families who are organizing the association.
This can be done in numerous ways (via canvass,
internet, door to door, etcetera), but it is essential
that there be a direct, independent, and large base of
public support for the alliance and the association to
offset the tactics that will be predictably taken by
the company.

Critical to both of these efforts would be a
stakeholder not usually seen in classic labor
organizing: former employees. Wal-Mart, and companies
that are following its business model, churn through
the workforce. Wal-Mart claims that its turnover is now
down to about 40 percent, but with 1.2 million workers
that is still a huge number of workers - more than
500,000 - to spit out on an annual basis. These workers
have experience with the company, have gained some
perspective from their distance from the culture and
the paycheck, and in many cases have issues about
rights abridged and are even potential beneficiaries of
efforts to reform the company’s practices. They have a
common cause and their voice is an important one to add
in reforming the company, therefore a place should be
made for them in this new type of organizational
formation. The inability of most unions to allow useful
and vital participation from workers who are
unemployed, laid off, or fired is a critical weakness
of the political structure of such institutions. We
should not allow such barriers to exist in this new
formation, because we need the help of such former
workers for their own sake and in order to support both
community and existing worker activity.

Stern’s call for a campaign against Wal-Mart, and
Sweeney’s rejoinder to bring it on, but perhaps in an
even larger way, is potentially the best news American
workers have heard in several decades. At the least, a
serious and well-resourced campaign focusing on Wal-
Mart, even if it does nothing more than force the
company to establish a fairer business model, will make
a difference to Wal-Mart workers and their allies. It
would also send the message to unorganized workers
throughout the United States that labor cares - and
will act - in behalf of the unorganized and oppressed.
At the most, the Wal-Mart battle cry could create new
momentum for mass organization among the literally tens
of millions of unorganized service workers in firms
both gargantuan and tiny, who are united in denying
workers basic wages, benefits, and rights and are able
to do so because workers lack voice and organization on
the necessary scale.

Posted by herb jr. jr. at 07:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 01, 2005

doin primary socialization don't pay shit

 



 a lazee suzann  post:



read this 
and 
then go piss up a rope 


" 
America's child care providers

   average wage :
                     $8.37 per hour

                   and
 pre-school teachers

          average wage:
                    $10.75 per hour 


" those first 4 years 
of a child's life 
       are 
the most critical
 for both cognitive
               and social 
                      development
yet 
   in bushmill amerika
   it pays better
to  teach dogs to do tricks "
-----------------------------------

the pay sucks so bad     
  child care workers 
rarely stay at their jobs 

 The turnover 
in the child care industry:

 40 percent per annum 

    this has gotta
       undermines 
          quality 

---------------------------------
  



 comparison:

 the wages
  of early childhood workers 
        vs
 kindergarten teachers

  Kindergarten teachers 
    on average earn $20.37 per hour

  more than double 
        the average wage 
         of child care workers 
    
 tell me ass holes
 
  is there 
  a $10 per hour 
      difference
 between teaching
   a 4-year 
and 
teaching
   a 5-year old 


the real diff:

 When it comes 
to K-12 education
 the general public 
     pays 
the cost through 
property taxes 
  and other state revenues

-----------------------------------


 check this out .....     

at the  Post-secondary level  
           parents pay  
            only  23 percent
              of the total costs 
                of higher education

  

  but  Currently
   parents pay roughly
         60 percent 
             of early childcare  costs 
   



----------- 

sum up:

20 per hour to teach  k

but fuck
    8-10 per hour  for pre k 

            half the wage...
         
             ask  yourself this
                             
                     that buys us all  what?

              how   much  better 
              then  
                     half the care ? ------------



and as to the ass backwards
                     public    subsidy  department

 
              

          gub picks up 
       77  % of the higher ed  bill 

       but only 
                           40 % of pre k ?

  heres a quid pro quo


  hows about
     we  geeps
          pay
                 100 %
           of 
     whatever  
             the   fucking  cost
                are
               of any and all our fucking
                                       college years  
       and 
         uncle and his fifty sons 
                            pays
                                90%
                                  of all 
                                  our nearly  necessary
                                     hardly optional 
                                              pre k costs 

----------------------------------------------------------




Posted by herb jr. jr. at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack