March 4, 2005

1) Press Release for Troublemaker's Handbook 2: Please Circulate

2) Reformers Sweep in Los Angeles

3) March 2005 issue (#312) Online Articles, Please Circulate:

INTERNATIONAL UNION CAMPAIGNED AGAINST LOCAL LEADERS: WORLD'S LARGEST MEATPACKER BUSTS TEAMSTERS REFORM LOCAL by David Levin

SEIU THREATENS TO SPLIT: CHANGE IS IN THE AIR AT THE AFL-CIO by William Johnson

INVESTIGATION NEEDED: PRESSURE LED TO SHOOTINGS AT JEEP by George Windau

INTERVIEW with DAVE BROWN: FIGHTING RACISM AT WORK AND IN THE COMMUNITY by Marsha Niemeijer

SONG OF THE MONTH: "We Speak Louder Than Machines" by Pam Parker

4) Legal Challenge to Labor Law Reforms in Mexico

5) Contact Us

Labor Notes is a monthly magazine putting the movement back in the labor movement. Every month we post a small selection of our articles on our website.

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Press Release for Troublemaker's Handbook 2: Please Circulate

Labor Notes Introduces New Troublemaker's Handbook

Contact: Sheila McClear, 313-842-6262, email Sheila or Jane Slaughter, 313-842-6262, email Jane

DETROIT. -In the midst of an exhaustive soul-searching throughout organized labor, a 372-page handbook emphasizing workplace organizing as the key to union strength has just been released by Labor Notes (LaborNotes.org).

Targeted at workplace activists, with object lessons on how they can fight back against unfair or abusive employers, A Troublemaker's Handbook 2 includes 25 chapters that describe winning tactics and successful campaigns, as well as the lessons to be drawn from past failures. It updates the first Troublemaker's Handbook, published in 1991, and is a collaboration of 72 authors and hundreds of activists under the direction of editor Jane Slaughter.

Examining workplaces that range from factory floors to white-collar offices, both public and private and on both sides of the U.S.- Canadian border, A Troublemaker's Handbook 2 takes a close look at the celebrated UPS strike of 1997, the community alliance that took on Yale University, the organizing drive at Powell's Books, the farmworker-led boycott of Taco Bell, and many other campaigns. Its subject matter spans the full spectrum of challenges confronting labor activists, including discrimination against minority, women, and immigrant workers.

Throughout the entire volume, the emphasis is on organizing-on reaching out to those already in a union and those who are still unorganized, and on involving allies and the media in broadcasting
labor's message.

Kate Bronfenbrenner, author of Blueprint for Change: A National Assessment of Winning Union Organizing Strategies, calls the book "a wealth of information," noting that it includes "everything from researching multinational companies, to mapping workplace hazards, running a local, developing leaders, building community-labor coalitions, bringing immigrants into the union, and running comprehensive organizing and bargaining campaigns."

Ken Riley, a South Carolina dockworkers' local union president, said, "It's because of strategies like the ones in this book that our local won our fight to defend the Charleston Five. International solidarity, getting in touch with other locals, dealing with the media, bringing the community into the union hall-. It's all in this book."

Authors who contributed to the book and the activists whose stories it tells are available for interviews by calling Labor Notes. Interviews also may be arranged with Jane Slaughter, a longtime Labor Notes writer whose previous books include Concessions and How To Beat Them
and Working Smart.

The book can be ordered at TroubleMakersHandbook.org or 7435 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 48209, by phone at 313-842-6262, or by fax at 313-842-0227. The price is $24 plus $4 shipping.

Labor Notes is a monthly magazine for union activists, now in its 27th year. Its slogan is, "Let's put the movement back in the labor movement."


Contents

Foreword by Baldemar Velasquez

1. Power on the Job by Jane Slaughter

2. Basics of Organizing by Ellen David Friedman

3. Shop Floor Tactics by Dan La Botz

4. Creative Tactics by Julie McCall

5. Fighting Discrimination/Building Unity by N. Renuka Uthappa

6. Saving Good Jobs: Fighting Lean Production and Outsourcing by Jane
Slaughter

7. Organizing for Health and Safety by Marsha Niemeijer and Roni Neff

8. Contract Campaigns by Chris Kutalik

9. Strikes by Dan La Botz

10. Inside Strategies by Aaron Brenner

11. Corporate Campaigns by Steven Ashby

12. Allying with the Community-Single-Issue Campaigns by Sonya Huber

13. Allying with the Community-Multi-Issue Coalitions by Steve Hinds

14. Union Solidarity by Aaron Brenner

15. Organizing New Members by Aaron Brenner

16. Bringing Immigrants into the Movement by Teofilo Reyes

17. Workers Centers by Dan La Botz

18. Reform Caucuses and Running for Office by Aaron Brenner

19. Running Your Local/Strategic Planning by Robert Hickey

20. Troublemaking on the Home Page by Matt Noyes and David Yao

21. Developing New Leaders by Tony Perlstein

22. Dealing with the Media by Andy Zipser

23. International Solidarity by William Johnson

24. Troublemaking for the Long Haul by Jane Slaughter and Dan La Botz

25. Resources by Peter Asen

Appendix. How To Research Employers by Stephanie Luce and Tom Juravich

Reformers Sweep in Los Angeles

In an unprecedented election upset, a coalition of militant, social justice oriented teachers are slated to take control of United Teachers-Los Angeles (UTLA), the second largest teacher union in the U.S. The incumbent officers were beaten in large part due to their unwillingness to mobilize membership to win a contract over the last 20 months.

The victory was fueled by the emergence of a rank-and-file caucus - Progressive Educators for Action (PEAC) - that over the last year was able both to push a reluctant union leadership to take action at times and to expose the leadership for its timidity and excessive reliance on elected school board members. PEAC's success put it in position to forge United Action -- a coalition and a slate with other
progressive-minded union leaders throughout the district, including A.J. Duffy, the newly elected president.

The United Action candidates and those it endorsed made a clean sweep, winning every race entered. It now controls 85 percent of the 45-member incoming Board of Directors, as well as five out of seven full time officers. Three of the seven are active PEAC members, while almost a majority of the Board of Directors members are also from PEAC.

INTERNATIONAL UNION CAMPAIGNED AGAINST LOCAL LEADERS: WORLD'S LARGEST MEATPACKER BUSTS TEAMSTERS REFORM LOCAL by David Levin

The world's largest meatpacker, Tyson Foods, narrowly defeated Teamsters Local 556 in a decertification election on February 11-in a bitter setback for supporters of workers' and immigrants' rights. The 1,500 workers at Tyson Foods in Pasco, Washington had long been the activist base of Local 556-a militant and progressive Teamsters local led by Maria Martinez, a co-chair of Teamsters for a Democratic Union.

full story at LaborNotes.org

SEIU Threatens to Split: Changes Is in the Air at the AFL-CIO by William Johnson

March 2005: With disagreements heating up the federation's largest union-SEIU--is threatening to leave.
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An AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting doesn’t normally make very exciting news, but the council’s next meeting — scheduled for March 1-3 — is shaping up to be a free-for-all.

Heading into the meeting, some union leaders have been launching attacks (some veiled, some fairly explicit) on each other, not the usual conduct for this exclusive group. According to the New York Times, Machinists President Thomas Buffenbarger recently compared SEIU President Andy Stern to “a rather small peacock,” while Stern has written on his weblog that criticisms of his leadership style as “undemocratic” are “sloganeering” and “nonsense.”

So what’s the ruckus about?

RESTRUCTURING FEVER

The March 2005 core of the debate revolves around proposals to restructure the AFL-CIO. SEIU and the Teamsters have both released proposals that would encourage unions to merge, either by giving the Executive Council authority to force mergers (SEIU) or by providing financial incentives that would encourage mergers (Teamsters).

Meanwhile, CWA’s proposal encourages unions to increase support to stewards and other “workplace organizers,” and to provide more strike support. Besides these three proposals, at least nine other unions and a number of state and local bodies have put out their ideas for fixing up the federation.

But these debates aren’t all that’s fanning the flames. In November 2004, with pro-Kerry union leaders still smarting from President Bush’s reelection, SEIU’s Stern raised eyebrows by threatening to leave the AFL-CIO if his proposals weren’t adopted.

And it wasn’t just bluster. Internal documents, reviewed by SEIU’s executive council in January 2005, show that the union created a committee in late 2004 to explore the possibility of splitting with the federation, either with or without allies.

In fact, the documents show that whether or not SEIU leaves the federation, the union intends to seek “individual partnership agreements” with other unions. Such agreements would allow SEIU to pursue its goals without the support of the AFL-CIO.

PREPARING FOR RAIDS

SEIU is also preparing for the prospect of raids by AFL-CIO unions. According to these documents, in the event of a split, SEIU plans to set aside “a substantial portion” of the per capita dues it now pays to the federation to defeat attempts at raiding.

These documents address some important questions: How could an independent SEIU work with unions who remain in the AFL-CIO? How serious a problem would raiding become? How would SEIU’s members be involved in making the decision to split?

The possibility of a split raises many questions for the broader movement as well: Would an independent SEIU lead to further splits in the federation? Would a split force unions to be more accountable to their members, who might otherwise consider jumping ship? Would it have any effect on union members at all?

INVESTIGATION NEEDED: PRESSURE LED TO SHOOTINGS AT JEEP by George Windau

A worker at Jeep Toledo tells the tragic story of a co-worker driven to a shooting by conditions at the plant.

full story at LaborNotes.org

INTERVIEW with DAVE BROWN: FIGHTING RACISM AT WORK AND IN THE COMMUNITY by Marsha Niemeijer

Labor Notes interviews Dave Brown, president of the Carolina Auto Aerospace and Machine Workers Union, about his union's fight against racism at a North Carolina auto parts plant.

full story at LaborNotes.org

SONG OF THE MONTH: "We Speak Louder Than Machines" by Pam Parker

This song is from the jazz opera "Forgotten: Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant." Written and arranged by Steve Jones.

full story at LaborNotes.org

Legal Challenge to Labor Law Reforms in Mexico

Over twenty labor organizations from the Canada, the United States and Mexico joined together to file a legal challenge to the introduction of sweeping labor law reforms in Mexico. The comprehensive, 20-page petition submitted to the U.S. National Administrative Office (NAO)
alleges that the proposed reforms flagrantly violate the labor side agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement obligates the three signatory countries to "ensure that (their) labor laws and regulations provide for high labor standards, consistent with high quality and productivity workplaces," and to "continue to strive to improve those standards in that light."

The reforms are expected to be submitted to the floor of the legislature for a vote soon. The labor reforms, conceived of by current Labor Minister Carlos Abascal Carranza, greatly weaken core labor rights, such as the right to freedom of association, to organize and bargain collectively and to strike, and create new "flexibilities" that will substantially eliminate overtime pay and lessen job security. The reforms also do nothing to improve many of the laws and practices, previously criticized by the U.S. and Canada NAOs, that violate the worker`s rights protected under the labor side agreement.

The trade union petitioners are represented by Jeff Vogt of the Washington Office on Latin America. "The labor reforms are an unparalleled assault on trade union rights and reflect a complete disregard for Mexico's international and domestic legal obligations," said Mr. Vogt. "If Mexico is allowed to repeal those laws that protect workers and replace them with laws that violate the labor side agreement, ILO conventions and the Mexican Constitution, the obligations assumed by the parties under NAFTA would be rendered utterly meaningless." Petitioners are asking the U.S. NAO to undertake an expedited review of the labor law reforms and to recommend that any provisions found to violate the labor side agreement be rescinded.

The United Electrical Workers, one of the co-signers of the legal challenge, is asking that you send letters of protest to the Mexican political leaders. Contact Robin Alexander at international@ranknfile-ue.org for a draft letter.