February 26, 2006
lower- ing horizons
rust removing
wage and bene rate
frisk and wisk
"We are converging
in the industrial Midwest
on a $13- to $18-an-hour wage package
and $9 more for benefits,"
"That is roughly $25 an hour,
down from about $40."
=====================================================
Posted by pinky at
11:15 AM
February 12, 2006
wilhelmina squacks a squibble
"Thirty million American workers
1 out of every 4, make
less than $8.70 an hour"
wilhelmina
ya ...so .....
fuck u
cut the wide eyed BS
dump that candy ass
road act you got goin'
with johnny slick there
that ever so "jim neighborly "
seducer
of
piedmont jury boxes
ya
dump the fuckin duet
send
senator smarm back to DC
in an easter egg crate
and get back where you belong
back to
some red carpet
hotel lobby orgin'
=======================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
07:29 PM
i'm in a bum out ...sorry
no not a burn out
shit i got plenty of fuel left
just no concepts
at least none
i haven't already hawked and over hawked
till the stale smell makes my bowels rattle
so as of the 2oth of this month
i'm gonna let gale take
the helm awhile here
while i retreat
into "maculate contemplation"
====================================
the great amerikan klass struggle
needs
a few new
deep thinkers
maybe along
the llines of that canadian Gindin cat
not another
froth blowing
knucklehead like me
clearing his lungs over and over
on the piecard/corporate menace
an unemptied spitoon shaped into a skull
============================
its a good swop folks
i'd
take gale's pepper
over my salt...
anytime ....
but fuck
never so lucky
i'll be back
======================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
08:45 AM
merger uaw and gm ?????
nationalize gm ???
nah...lets unionize it
not the jobs stupid
we got them already
lets unionize the stock
what you think brothers and sisters ????
haav we got
the makings
of some serious class harmonics ????
or another fuckle buck
three card montee
prolly cooked up by management
to fruit punch
the kirkorian faction
================================
===============================
"idea from Rob Lache
auto-industry analyst :
Transform GM's workers and retirees
into
owners in exchange for benefit givebacks"
drawing up the two sides of the deal
GM pension liability $90 billion
estimate GM health-care
liabilities at $65 billion.
$155 billion
in total employee liabilities
assets ?
GM pension plan $95 billion
value of The health-care plan's assets
$15 billion
total $110 billion
okay first
"... give the reserves for
pensions and health care
right to the auto workers "
still short $45 billion
so
"GM transfers GMAC
the GM financing unit
to the workers too "
value of GMAC :
$20 billion at book
still off by 25 billion
so
give the workers
GM's
equity
problem
General Motors stock
has a market value of
$10 billion
but
the new stripped down gm
wmight generate $10 billion plus
per year
in
net cash flow
(before interest, taxes,
depreciation and
amortization)
that might market out
above ... $60 Billion
hmmmmm
er now ah go over that again ....
my favorite line
" shareholders
interests are strongly served
by 'giving' the workers
the $20 billion difference between
current and expected
restructuring value -- "
really ?????
one question
whats in this for the present stockholders
how does the market's 11 billion valuation
reflect
the zero present value
this plan puts
on the company stock
i'm missin something here
better call the lady eve
then again
my guess this idea/figment
has a simpler explanation:
as a very bright and shiny
chest full of objects
($250,000 on average,
FOR THE 600,000 active workers
retirees and
spouses covered under the pension
and health care plan)
floating over the assembled stiffs heads
cause it serves very nicely
to distract
and de motivate em ....
my take good deal raw deal...
either way
sieze the plants first kids
then start the bargaining process
while you're ...in possesion
get me ???
------------
ps
another great line :
"The UAW would have to substantially
reinvent itself to
undertake this challenge"
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
08:03 AM
February 08, 2006
gale's pal jeffrey hits a homer
jeffrey's
the guy gale tells me
may form a big ticket unit
to go after
the commission retail sector
but first ....
===================
=============================
"Among the thousands of stores
in New York's low-income
neighborhoods,
labor unions have virtually no presence,
except in a few supermarkets"
" But in a remarkable
culmination to a yearlong struggle
95 workers at a
chain of 10 sneaker stores
have formed a union"
"For much of last year,
workers with the sneaker chain,
Footco,
protested widespread minimum-wage violations
Last month, however,
they
signed a union contract
that raised their wages
and
gave them paid vacations
and health insurance"
.
"Footco's employees
~ almost all of them are immigrants~
used some unusual pressure tactics
to form a union"
"They worked with a community group
that threatened to boycott Footco's stores
and they filed a complaint
with Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
claiming minimum-wage
and overtime violations"
"The union that Footco's workers joined
, the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store Union"
.
"Jeffrey Eichler
the union's coordinator
of retail organizing"
"We're going
to try to use this model
elsewhere in the city."
"Ms. Brooker, 23,
a native of St. Vincent's
in the Caribbean,
said that last summer
her Footco store,
called New York Sneakers,
paid her $4.75 an hour
and
never paid time-and-a-half for overtime
, even when she
worked 60-hour weeks
.... in fact when dshe did she didn't even get straight time
she got 230 bucks not
the 280 she earned at straight time "
.
"Footco's workers turned to
Make the Road by Walking,
a
community group in Bushwick
that helps immigrant
workers.
That group and the retail workers' union
began
gathering information about wage violations
at Footco's
stores in Bushwick, Brownsville,
Jamaica, Washington
Heights and other neighborhoods."
"Make the Road has strong community support
~ 1,500
people have paid $100 each to become members ~
and to
help Footco's workers,
it threatened a boycott unless
the company signed its "Good Business Community
Agreement."
"Footco recognized the union in October,
pressured by
the complaint filed with the attorney general.
Negotiators for the workers told Footco's owner that if
he signed a union contract and improved wages, Mr.
Spitzer might demand less back pay for wage violations.
."On Jan. 18, after three months of negotiations, the two
sides signed a contract.
The three-year accord sets
wages at $7.25 an hour,
rising to $7.50 on July 1. To
increase earnings,
it guarantees most workers 45 hours
of work each week,
meaning five hours of overtime".
"The contract gives workers
three paid sick days a year
(they had not been getting paid
if they stayed home
sick).
The contract also gives
two paid bereavement days
and
one week of paid vacation,
rising to two weeks after
five years on the job.
Previously, Footco's employees
had no paid vacation."
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
03:31 PM
sri /mia
"What is it about the abuse
of third-world workers
that engenders such an apathetic response
on the part
of
the socially responsible
investment community(SRIs)?"
thats JEFFREY BALLINGER
questioning
the holy joe profit stakeholders there
he goes on with this
"Name-brand shoe and apparel companies
merely had to announce
that the companies
had corporate codes of conduct
and some form of compliance scheme
and the issue pretty much disappears "
How much scrutiny was directed at whether or not the
" objective conditions ..really changing"
" Were salaries raised "
"What does a Nike say? "
"There's no point in having 96 monitors
on a factory floor day in and day out
monitoring overtime,
if overtime is being caused
way up the supply chain"
. new tact ??
"... incentivize suppliers "
"if the brands were truly serious
about improved working conditions
they would pay enough
to make it possible
for those conditions to be achieved."
"a Nike manages
to adroitly garner praise
for ending sweatshop abuses
while continuing to squeeze
the contractors that must
actually pay the workers"
"Nike's Phil Knight
has pocketed over eight billion"
and
" enriched
a host of the world top athletes
beyond their wildest dreams"
"five classic stages on its path to corporate responsibility"
The company learns
realigning its strategy
to address responsible business practices
can provide a competitive edge
and contribute to long-term success"
.The civil stage:
"We need to make sure everybody else does it."
Companies promote collective action
to address society's concerns
"The Transparency Report Card
is based on research carried out
over the past year
by Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN),
on behalf of the Ethical Trading Action Group.
The rating system utilized
in our research is based
on the Gradient Index developed
by AccountAbility"
"the rating system
favors companies
that dedicate literally millions of dollars
per year on "managing perceptions".
the corporate social responsibilty community (CSR)
bottom line:
CSR 'S SRI schemes .... where rubber meets road ???
" like totally MIA babe "
Jeffrey Ballinger is director of Press for Change. He can be reached at: Jeffreyd@mindspring.com
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
01:08 PM
February 04, 2006
neu mittel stand
so their not my cup of tea
but what about the salary serfs
the low hanging fruit of the merit klass
here's our woe-ful countence expert
dealy plaza :
in my recent treatise:
"macroeconomics of fatigue and unrest”
i decide we needed
to
forget the old days
fatigue as
plain beat operatives
tumbling into their pallets
from yet another long day
of toiling
6 day week after 6 day week
till
the stroke or the tumar and a quick trip to
the RIP-ville underground
lashed to a moving production line
still happens here in freedoms favorite country
of course it does
of course the old sweat shops
have their counterparts
in the computer driven age
try looking at output rates
among bill collections game
thats a real fast track these days
your machine dials the next
as you finish the last
but how 'bout the f..ing neu mittel stand
now say at least ten years
drudging away
from their youthful
bored and restless expectations
of a perminent "weather change"
i mean
we dysthemic collared salary serfs
our paradigm
that dark moppped cube headed japanese icon
in the boiled starch white shirt
all face work and no joy
my conjecture leisure would be a kold turkey purgatory for him
and for the rest of us
we are so addicted to being productive
doing the distasteful
we're like joggers how can't stop
we pound out the task iterations
never cut a corner for fear
we'll suddenly reach that horror spot
tasks end
--------------
all this would be less disturbing if ...our boss
had either our welfare in mind
or could see
his own global optimum output pattern
and how foolish a work face time cult
really is
ah but then again
there are the mandatory meetings
work hookee
with a collective alibi
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
05:03 PM
pinky and me made up
yup its a real male weepy
some of you volkish old timers now the tale
maybe i'll get around to
blogging it
i know paine won't...
at anyrate
he'll be subing here on occasion
and i'll do a few guest shifts on his blog
hey its gale's fault comrades ....
=========================
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
04:22 PM
for you herb
now we're re united
thanx to gale
thought these container facts
would look nice on your blog
see how big u're la-long beach bit has grown
==========================
Los Angeles
2005: 7.5
2004: 7.3
---
Long Beach
2005: 6.7
2004: 5.8
---
New York/New Jersey
2005: 4.8
2004: 4.5
---
Oakland
2005: 2.3
2004: 2.0
---
Tacoma, Wash.
2005: 2.1
2004: 1.8
---
Charleston, S.C.
2005: 2.0
2004: 1.9
---
Virginia
2005: 2.0
2004: 1.8
---
Seattle
2005: 1.9
2004: 1.6
---
Savannah, Ga.
2005: 1.8
2004: 1.6
---
Vancouver, Canada
2005: 1.8
2004: 1.7
get gale
to
organize a green strike
on the east coast
you peckerhead
Posted by pinky at
04:17 PM
February 02, 2006
wage mid-rift slimmin and slippin
academics got a grip on this
bottom wage half is coasting
uppper wage half is still rifting
==============================
"This paper analyzes a marked change
in the evolution of the U.S. wage structure
over the past fifteen years:
divergent trends in upper-tail (90/50)
and lower-tail (50/10) wage inequality.
We document that wage inequality
in the top half of the distribution
has displayed an unchecked
and rather smooth secular rise
for the last 25 years...
Wage inequality in the bottom half
of the distribution
also grew rapidly from 1979 to 1987,
but it has ceased growing
(and for some measures actually narrowed)
since the late 1980s. ...
We characterize these patterns
as the “polarization” of the U.S. labor market,
with employment polarizing
into high-wage and low-wage jobs
at the expense of middle-wage work.
We show how a model of computerization
in which computers most strongly complement
the non-routine (abstract) cognitive tasks
of high-wage jobs,
directly substitute for the routine tasks
found in many traditional middle-wage jobs,
and may have little direct impact
on non-routine manual tasks
in relatively low-wage jobs
can help explain the observed polarization
of the U.S. labor market. "
so there you mop jockeys
the skids over
and
you high steppers
up there
in the low end
of the 50 plus club
don't sweat
we got a nice soft place
for ya
to land
down here in flatsburg
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
07:01 PM
February 01, 2006
green strikes/civic altruism union style
gale called her notion
a safety strike
lets add
green strikes
safety strikes
are community in gathering actions
about the nyc transit system
get the ridership on your side
by a pure
no wage or work rule gimmick
safety conditions demand
outside the contract
and between contracts
not a me me me job action
" its unsafe at any speed ...
so we're shuttin it down unless ...."
"its a
dummer for us woikahs and you ridahs too "
well
heres our chance
clean-green
the air around
our la area harbors
==============================
"LONG BEACH, Calif., Jan. 30 —
The effort to reduce smog
stemming from seaports
among the biggest polluters
in the nation
gained an ally on Monday
when the union representing
thousands of West Coast dockworkers
promised to help significantly
reduce toxic emissions"
"The union,
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union,
representing 60,000 dockworkers
from San Diego to Seattle
called for a one-fifth reduction
in emissions by 2010
and said it would push carriers
to adopt less-polluting
technology on their ships"
"About 40 percent of the nation's cargo
passes through ports here in long beach
and in Los Angeles next door"
"which combined are the busiest in the country"
" air quality regulators
have identified the ports
as the biggest contributors
of particulate matter "
"The thousands of men and women
I represent and work for
raise their families
under the cloud of port pollution,"
thats union prez Jim Spinosa
" he did not rule out making it part
of negotiations during the next contract talks
in 2008"
no joe this can't wait threaten job action
in lb/la ports if you don't get
a written agreement
by july 4th
Posted by herb jr. jr. at
10:08 AM