While helping to organize last Friday’s True Diversity Dinner, I was contacted by a very nice woman named Amarjeet (spokeswoman for Unite Here Local 878; a union representing roughly  200 Hilton workers). She was trying to get in touch with people in my camp regarding the Mayor’s “Unity Dinner” (I know, it’s all becoming a giant word salad at this point), and the fact that it was taking place at the Anchorage Hilton.

Her email contained a press release with the headlines: “Mayor to Cross Boycott Picket Line at Hilton in Anchorage!”

The two weeks of planning our alternative event also resulted in Heather and my sleep schedule being somewhat akin to that of college students before finals, which was ironically compounded by the fact that we actually are college students and were preparing for midterms. A lot of coffee was involved. But when I received this email, my first reaction was one of horror, because part of our reasoning for our dinner was to avoid the sentiment that had been expressed by some that we should demonstrate outside of the “Unity Dinner.” I thought that someone had gone ahead and planned one such protest anyway, and my heart sank.

Courtesy of Janson Jones

But, attached was a press release that stated very clearly the intent of the picket line outside the Hilton during the Mayor’s event:

“The new Anchorage Mayor, Dan Sullivan, plans to hold his ‘Unity’ dinner at the only boycotted hotel in Alaska.  After being alerted to the labor unrest at the Hilton Anchorage, the mayor knowingly plans to cross the workers’ informational picketline this Friday.  In May, the Hilton workers overwhelmingly voted to place their hotel under boycott because their employer continues to degrade their quality of life, which also threatens to do the same to industry standards in Anchorage.

“During this week of supposed empowerment, Mayor Sullivan is knowingly stripping the diverse workforce of some of their bargaining power.  While electeds in other cities across the country continue to take stands against hotel employers who provide poverty-wage jobs, the Anchorage mayor hides behind the guise that this is a private matter.  In Baltimore, their City Council passed a resolution in support of the boycott at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel which is also owned and operated by the same employer as the Hilton Anchorage – Columbia Sussex.

“The hospitality industry is known for employing a diverse workforce.  The Hilton Anchorage is no exception.  Workers hail from the Philippines, Mexico, Korea, Central America, Africa, South America, and beyond.  While continuing to negotiate with their employer, Columbia Sussex, for over one year, this eclectic group of workers has joined together and are speaking the only language their company seems to understand – money.  While workers know that asking customers not to eat, drink, sleep, or meet at their hotel hurts their pocket books now, they do so to keep their jobs good jobs in Alaska for years to come.”

Interestingly, Mayor Sullivan responded to this news by telling ADN that there was not enough time to change locations. Because, somehow, a group of bloggers were able to organize the True Diversity Dinner in two weeks out of their own pockets, but the Mayor of Anchorage and the full weight of his administration couldn’t keep stride? Okay…

The workers did in fact hold a picket line outside the Unity Dinner in the rain. And they need help, because the Mayor is staying indoors and leaving their voices locked outside in the cold.

Amarjeet and her colleagues, in the absence of leadership from Mayor Sullivan, recognize that they need to raise their voices. As Mel over at Henkimaa writes:

“Hilton workers have been trying since August 2008, when their last contract expired, to negotiate for a new contract.  But Kentucky-based Columbia Sussex, which took over the Anchorage Hilton in 2006, has been dragging its feet as much as it can, while simultaneously imposing — unilaterally — new demands on the workers, including increased workloads without additional pay. For example, workers who once were previously expected to clean 15 rooms in a day are now expected to clean 17 rooms per day — and if you’ve ever cleaned a hotel or motel room, you know that’s imposing quite a bit more work for no additional compensation.  Workers are also being asked by management to pay a far larger share of their health costs.”

Columbia Sussex, who’s slogan is “Excellence in Hospitality,” is trying to strong arm union workers  into accepting the status quo of stagnant wages and refusing to negotiate a new contract; instead negotiating their workforce out of a rent check. And while some might clamor that, in the midst of a recession, workers should just be happy that they have a job, and not complain about a few new job functions being added, I would remind you of a famous quote from Cesar Chavez: “The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.”

That’s what we were trying to say at the True Diversity Dinner. That is what Amarjeet and her fellow workers were saying out in the rain. And that is what the Mayor is refusing to hear, instead choosing to do nothing. In his short time in office, he has already managed to alienate

• the LGBT community with his veto of Ordinance 64 and conflation of diversity and unity; Pride Month and the 4th of July,
• the fire department with his decision to end the “Fill the Boot” Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser by deeming it “unsafe,” despite its success over the past thirty years,
• the police department for cutting $1 million dollars out of the budget,
• the Hilton workers, by crossing the only picket line in town to promote “unity,”
• and just about everyone else working for the city by kindly asking, unsuccessfully, for the work week to be scaled back to 37.5 hours.

It is no small wonder that the Mayor sided with the Anchorage Baptist Temple’s phone banks to drown equality in a bathtub and make diversity a gray-scale image. The fortress on Northern Lights may sooner than later end up the only sympathetic place left for him. Until he inevitably does something to annoy them, like eating shell fish or watching Will and Grace.

The Hilton Workers need our help, as a neighborhood; as a community. They have come together as “Hotel Workers Rising,” and come complete with a nifty logo and an important message, asking for help with “lifting one another above the poverty line.” And we need to step up and do just that.

This coming Wednesday should present us with a good starting point. At 4:30pm, the group will be starting a procession from the Sheraton Anchorage (5th & Eagle) to the Hilton Anchorage (3rd & E st). And we need to be there with them. Let the teabaggers email Senator Murkowski demanding to keep the government out of medicaid. In the meantime, let’s continue what we’ve started, in standing up for each other as a family here in Anchorage.

As Amarjeet eloquently lays it out on the table:

“The campaigns at the Sheraton Anchorage and Hilton Anchorage escalate.   Union hotel workers and community supporters will march together this Wednesday to send the message that they are holding the line at the two hotels.  When Sheraton and Hilton workers win, all Alaska hotel workers win.  If they have to give something up, the industry will demand the same from all and living standards will drop for all hospitality workers.  Our goal is to keep good hotel jobs in Anchorage!

“This Hotel Workers Rising March illustrates the importance of these two fights for the 1,000 Alaskan, union hotel workers and thousands of non-union workers also affected by industry standards.  Anchorage workers continue the historic Hotel Workers Rising movement that earned major victories for workers across North America in the last four years.  The movement is about workers standing in solidarity for affordable healthcare, reasonable workloads, job security, better compensation, and a good retirement.”

“Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.” – Eugene V. Debs

(Sorry, I guess I’m a little quote happy today)

Let’s move this mountain. See you Wednesday.

LAZY
When you can’t even walk in a picket line…

(A protester)

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MEATWORKS SUNRISE

This, now defunct, little abattoir within Kakadu National Park was the catalyst for a huge change in the Australian Union movement. In 1985, the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union were forced to pay 1.5 million dollars to the owners of  Mudginberri Meatworks to compensate  for costs and lost earnings due to Union picket lines halting production.

This led the ACTU to call three National strikes. The press turned the  AMIEU into public enemy number one. Ian Mclachlan, (president of the National Farmers Federation) said at the time that Mudginberri  ”changed the nature of industrial relations in Australia”

The Barrister acting for Mudginberri at the time was Peter Costello.

So, this little slaughterhouse was the beginning of the end of union power in Australia. It’s demise was brought about by the refusal of meat inspectors to cross the picket line. In a sense, the meatworks became the sacrificial lamb to cripple  union power

Feral water buffalo entered through a door at one end of this room and exited frozen and packed in small cardboard boxes at the other end.

The Buffalo would enter through the door, lower right and be dispatched by the slaughter-man. The white steel petition would be lifted and the carcass hoisted from the grate beyond, to be conveyed through the processing room

25 years after the demise of Mudginberri, a pile of buffalo horns lie beaten and bleaching in the sun where a picket line once stood.

Yesterday, a bright and early Monday morning, the maintenance workers for a downtown office building management corporation began picketing the office towers they work in. They lined the street in front of the entrances and parking garages, not preventing anyone from entering, but passing out flyers, picketing with signs and flags, talking to one another over a couple of bullhorns, sounding a hand-held siren every few seconds, and generally making noise to get themselves noticed.

The building management set out about a half dozen young men in white shirts, black pants, and ties (looking like waiters at the tony restaurant in one of the towers), to advise drivers and pedestrians of what was happening. They also arranged for people to videotape the picketing, I think to make sure that the strikers didn’t cross onto company property.

And, there was a film crew. Movie production trucks, a familiar sight in the downtown core, parked in a row on the same street.

Imagine…The film director or production manager trying to get his scene in the can, frustrated by the distraction of the siren and the noise; the strikers, frustrated by not being recognized as strikers; the commuters, frustrated at yet another film-crew gridlock situation.

My friend Steve commented on the activity as he and I entered the building – ‘Must be making a movie, rehearsing a strike scene. Can’t figure out why they have waiters out there too though.’

Today, the strike continues.

For the last 105 days I and the Union I am a member of ; The International Association  of Machinists have been on strike against Vought Aircraft Company. We finally accepted the company’s latest proposal  under duress and fear of ; being permanently replaced, the company moving our new Cessna contract to Dallas, and not having a job for another 6 months. People in our union were reportedly on the verge of losing their houses, cars, going bankrupt, and being served with divorce papers . I personally heard the testimony of one young fellow who with papers in his hand to inform the union he was getting out and crossing the picket line, said he had to because if he didn’t his wife had the divorce papers ready. He also claimed he had already gone through bankruptcy proceedings, and he was about to lose his house. That all sounded a little too dramatic but I don’t doubt that some of it was true.

My buddy Randy and I were on our gate: the Briley Pky gate where the FatCat (see above photo) blow-up guy and the Scab Rat were on display for so long. We walked every Wed morning from 4 am to 8 am.The Briley entrance to the plant was locked up so we didn’t have any action there. The only real action was when 11 busloads of replacement workers (scabs) came up Briley at about 6 am. I usually stood as near as I could to the slow-moving buses and looked them in the eye and waved to them (I know, I’m a real hell raiser). I figured that did as much good to try to bring shame to their little bitty, money grubbing hearts as cussing them and giving them the finger which my status as a follower of Jesus won’t allow me to do. I really, really wanted to though and I kept jokingly telling Randy (who’s a Christian too) ” If I’m wanting to do it this really bad, shouldn’t I just go ahead and do it”? We usually talked about the same stuff every week: The Titans, The Vols, our families, the bible, and the Strike. We drank a lot of coffee and had to pee a lot but since we were right there on Briley Pky  which posed a slight problem. But we solved it by walking across Briley to a street that comes out there, turned left, went down in a little ditch hidden to Briley by a vine covered fence but wide open to the subdivision in all other 3 directions. This was all before daybreak though so no problem. My head was on a swivel though every time but in spite of several close calls we never got busted. I bet they’ll wonder why the grass is growing so well there this spring!

Let me say one thing about replacement workers or scabs. A scab can be either a person from the union that crosses the picket line and goes back to work while everyone else is still out there or  a professional (I use that word lightly in this case) for-hire contractor who will traverse the country in his field working for the highest bidder. Also, scabs can be locals who are hired to do clean up, painting, and low-skill jobs,etc,.

I  don’t like calling anyone names even if they warrant it. People who cross a picket line who are desperate for work and their families are hungry I might could abide and I maybe  wouldn’t consider a scab. But the pros who are making great money to begin with, and they travel to Nashville to cross  our line? When we’re out there suffering and trying to improve our jobs? That’s about as sorry, low-down, and “no-count” as a man can be in my opinion. I equate it to to a man and woman having trouble in their marriage and another man, sensing weakness and need, makes a move on the wife, seduces her and wins her over, thus wrecking the marriage in the process. A home wrecker and a scab are brothers in this respect. 

Now while I’m on a roll, let me say this: the Salary people who have to cross our line I have nothing against. They have no choice. I have nothing but good will toward them and apologize for all they have to go through during the strike. It would be nice if all my union brothers felt the way I do and if most of the Salary employees supported us and some didn’t go out of their way to make a name for themselves by killing themselves to look good and us bad.

It’s kind of hard being a Christian and a union member. My friends and I talk about it a lot. You know,  like the passage where John the Baptist told the soldiers to be content with their pay. Paul basically said the same thing. Then there’s the scripture that talks about slaves obeying their masters and bearing up to wrong treatment with a good attitude It even said that God is pleased with that attitude.

But does that prevent seeking raises? Or negotiating the best possible benefit and pay package?

Notwithstanding,If I owned the company would I appreciate it if the employees said they weren’t going to do anything else until I negotiated with their representatives a contract they were happy with? I’d probably  feel like firing then all and get some more people who appreciated their job a little more. I don’t know. There is a certain honor in making sacrifices for others like we did in this strike. The thing is, beyond a couple of issues involving overtime and  job language, most of us who had significant seniority were pretty pleased with the original proposal . We refused to accept the company’s proposal and struck because Vought wanted to take away the defined pension of those employees with 16 years or less. That’swhy we did it. For them. Not us. So all these people on the Tennessean blogs etc,. who were ridiculing us and calling us greedy so and so’s come off to me as cowardly big mouths who have no idea what they’re talking about.

I’ll say this. I retrospect,  we were probably pretty stupid for not accepting the original proposal (but we refused it for the reasons given above) but I also blame Vought for being so asininely stupid and arrogant for choosing this time in history to try to cram the 401K down our throat.

At a time when when we, members of our families, friends and  people everywhere were losing tens of thousands of dollars, large % of their retirements, and in some cases all their 401K retirement nest eggs.

Please, Vought. Why not give it up this time and get your 401K next time?

Most of the real progress in negotiations is done in the last few hours before the stroke of midnight or at the end of the preceding contract. The impending moment has huge significance for both parties.If something isn’t settled the company has no workers, but also the bargaining unit has no jobs. So, both sides use that deadline to put a very real pressure on the other side. So, again,don’t think the unions  are the villains. It absolutely works both ways. It’s standard company practice  to try to make the workers look greedy and themselves as poor, innocent lambs. They slant their press releases and only reveal publicly the gains by the workers and none of the negatives.

It’s popular to say that Unions once had their place but that their time is past. Is that true? Do you think that there are less ruthless, money-hungry, business owners now than there were in the 1800’s? People who would work 10 year old children 18 hours a day on bread and water if it meant bringing their profit margin up? What about business owners who subject their employees to dangerous working conditions? I worked around constructions sites one summer and it was mind-boggling to see the crazy-dangerous things people were doing because their bosses told them to. Where was OSHA?

The thing is, normally in the course of a job, if a person feels like they need, deserve, or warrant a raise or they want to ask for some improvement or another to their compensation package they go to their boss and ask for it. They do so if they have more responsibilities or maybe  a certain amount of time has passed on their job since their last raise. But with a union job, that’s not possible. Lets say, the contract between a company and the union is for 3- 5 years. Whatever is negotiated at the time the contract is ratified is  for 3-5 years. There are no changes after ratification. So its imperative for the collective bargaining unit to get the best possible contract possible. I think any normal, intelligent person wouldn’t have any problems at all with that concept. It’s only when the union walks off their jobs and “holds the company hostage” that people get their panties all in a wad. How dare those union bums do that! Who do they think they are! I hope they get their butts kicked!!

Well, I think these statements reveal an ignorance of the basic rules of negotiations and contracts. I would bet that if the details of a good percentage of business deals and high dollar contract negotiations were made public they would be classified as cut-throat.But those type negotiations are considered normal, admirable and justified. Why are unions vilified for the very same tactics?

Canada’s public service – can’t be fired, can’t be satisfied

In the Canada where most of us live and work, it’s a time of economic uncertainty and feelings of powerlessness. Everyone — miners, farmers, factory workers, retail employees, forestry workers, journalists — is wondering what 2009 will bring, and when the roller-coaster will hit bottom.

But in the other Canada, the Canada of the public-sector worker, it’s a time of exhilarating struggle to consolidate the gains of the past. In Ottawa, for instance, the Amalgamated Transit Union’s local 279 is holding Christmas shoppers hostage and freezing retail traffic during a season that many vendors were counting on to propel them through the tough year ahead.

Ottawa residents, who have had their OC Transpo options taken away during a time of wretched weather and university exams, are especially furious about the fact that the union turned down a relatively generous offer after a short negotiating period. The city (whose mayor admittedly took an overly theatrical hard line in negotiations) was prepared to give ATU 279’s workers a 3% retroactive pay increase for most of 2008, 2% increases for 2009 and 2010, a $2,000 “productivity improvement” bonus, more sick days and enhanced rights to bank sick days. That’s pretty good, given the current economic climate. But the union is holding out for a total of 10.5% over three years instead of the proffered 7%.

Meanwhile, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) administrative and customer-service workers at Canada Post are out on a highly confrontational strike. Although the mail has continued to go through, the union leaders have stubbornly rejected the monopoly carrier’s suggestion for a rational short-term disability program with a small waiting period; they hope to hang on to their existing system, which gives employees 20 days of paid sick and family leave per year and allows those days to accrue indefinitely.

From York University to the B.C. ports, public-sector workers are on strike or considering strikes over old-fashioned perks that are gradually disappearing in the world of private business — and that were never available to small-business owners, contract workers, entrepreneurs and the self-employed.

What one notices about these situations is that the public-sector bargaining process has a logic of its own: Hard times don’t really frighten unfireable lifers, so the weakness of the labour market doesn’t do anything to promote peace between governments and their comfortable unionized workforces. Indeed, our vulnerability to economic shocks gives them a stronger hand. At Christmastime, what incentives were there for the ATU to back off from a showdown with the City of Ottawa? What, aside from general public outrage, prevents them from demanding 20% or 30% over three years instead of 10.5%?

Last month, when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released his controversial fiscal update, it included a proviso preventing federal public service unions from striking for higher compensation until fiscal 2010-11. To the political parties that depend heavily on the votes of those who enjoy tax-funded incomes, this was almost as provocative as the Conservatives’ more nakedly self-interested changes to party funding. What few mentioned is that Mr. Flaherty intended to lock in 1.5% annual budget increases for those workers between now and 2010-11; in exchange for the temporary loss of the right to picket, they were getting a guaranteed wage increase at a time of low inflation, to go along with their relatively lavish pensions and ironclad job security. We can think of a few auto assembly-line workers and lumberjacks (not to mention copy editors and columnists) who wouldn’t mind that kind of deal.

When the fiscal update came down, Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti had the nerve to put on a baffled expression and ask: “How does taking away public employees’ right to strike stimulate the economy?” The answer, which any poor bastard trying to get a lift to work in Ottawa could have given him, is that the private sector has to cover the salaries of the public sector by creating wealth in an environment of risks and changing price signals. But increasingly, tax-funded workers act as if they’re doing the general public a favour by allowing us to pay for their lifestyles.

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Make sure your letters to Santa go out soon, or he might not get it in time!

Escalating postal picket action means slower mail

Striking members of the Union of Postal Communications Employees are escalating picket action by targeting several Canada Post outlets in Metro Vancouver, today.

The union, a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has been on strike for the last three weeks, fighting sick leave and other benefit changes.

Members plan to picket postal station D (at Broadway and Pine) in Vancouver, as well as the Richmond, delivery centre (on River Road) and the Port Coquitlam postal depot.

The union says pickets will offer handouts to fellow Canada Post employees, affecting the mail as it arrives at the plants — meaning slower deliveries to letter carriers and the public.

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Canada Post Strikers

Day three of Canada Post’s strike is seeing a rise in attention from the media. Although Canada Post continues to tell the public that the upcoming Christmas rush will not be affected by the PSAC strike, it seems everyone is questioning how a strike of 2,100 employees can not have an impact on productivity.

Postal workers hit picket lines

Postal workers are picketing across the nation, but the situation shouldn’t affect Christmas mail delivery, insists Canada Post.

At 6 a.m. Monday, 2,100 Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE) went on strike in protest of a short-term disability section in Canada Post’s latest contract offer.

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are supporting the much smaller union, but as of Monday went to work at Canada Post sites across the Capital Region.

The dispute between UPCE members and the corporation is over proposed changes to employees’ short-term disability program. Currently UPCE employees are granted 10 hours of sick leave per month, which they can bank. But in the latest package offered by the corporation, that rule would be replaced with an annual allowance for sick leave.

Employees taking more than that would have their cases administered by Manulife Financial.

“So (Canada Post) wants to completely wash their hands of sick leave,” said Dave Jackson, Victoria representative for the Public Service Alliance of Canada, parent union to UPCE.

The union broke off talks with Canada Post on Nov. 7 and the workers have been without a contract since Aug. 31. UPCE is keen to get back to the bargaining, Jackson said.

Christmas season is busy for Canada Post, he said, adding “a long strike this time of year will certainly have an impact on that.”

Canada Post disagrees.

UPCE employees perform mainly administrative and technical support for Canada Post. Since employees responsible for the collection and delivery of mail are CUPW members, mail delivery will not be affected, the corporation stated in a press release.

Canada Post spokesperson John Caines said the corporation presented an offer Nov. 16 to the chief union negotiator.

“We haven’t heard a thing back yet,” Caines said.

Speaking to the disputed item, he said the altered short-term disability program would fill some coverage gaps and provide better protection for employees.

“It will support them better during and (at the) beginning of any illness that they have,” Caines said.

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Never Cross a Picket Line by Zack Wilson

I found myself manning a picket line this week. Not a picket line outside a mine or crumbling mill, but outside one of the many office buildings of Sheffield City Council.

My comrades weren’t donkey jacketed steel workers, clustered round a burning brazier, seeking warmth under rain soaked flat caps. They were administration clerks and social workers. At other sites they were librarians and street cleaners, teaching assistants and care home workers, those of us who work in the unfashionable and generally poorly rewarded jobs in the public sector. ‘Municipal’ workers is probably the American term. In other words, the people who help to make the streets safer and cleaner, who look after children, care for the elderly, cut the grass in the park, provide counselling and guidance for the desperate or marginalised, who help to keep things running smoothly in the community. The people who you don’t notice until they’re not there.

Not violent, militant or dangerous extremists then, but decent working people whose reward for helping local councils in England and Wales make £1 billion of so called ‘efficiency savings’ last year is an offer of a 2.45% pay increase.

When you take into account the fact that the rate of inflation in the UK currently stands at 4.3% then you can see it’s a pathetically inadequate offer. When you also take into account that food prices are up 9%, energy bills 15% and petrol (gasoline) up 22% then you can see it’s not merely inadequate but actually insulting. The insult becomes unbearable when you realise that these workers are some of the lowest paid people in the United Kingdom, many earning under £15,000 per year.

Which is why picket lines sprang up all over the UK. From Belfast to Norwich, Newcastle-on-Tyne to Portsmouth, Unison members were making their voices heard.

Despite the high profile nature of the protest, I still sensed a reluctance to take part amongst colleagues in the days leading up to the strike. Colleagues seemed fearful to take a visible stand, to raise their heads, even when they were in favour of the unions’ argument. Intimidating emails were distributed by the bosses, highlighting the loss of income and pension rights, breaches of contract and the effect on colleagues. Misleading at best, and downright mendacious at worst, they did the trick with some workers. On the day of the strike itself, one manager was heard to tell a colleague that he’d made ‘a good decision not to strike’, a remark delivered with the kind of knowing nod that indicates career prospects could be affected. A kind of ‘positive intimidation’, if you will.

Yet many still made the decision to strike and some to picket and protest, realising that principles are not measured in pounds and pence and enough is enough.

There was a picket line at my place of work for the first time ever. A point was made, especially on the second day in the pissing rain. The consciences of colleagues who crossed the line were visibly pricked and excuses were fumbled for. It’ll make a difference for the next time. Maybe they didn’t expect us to show.

The majority of our group were, tellingly, women. A majority of workers affected by the strike are female and their wages are still not comparable with those of male colleagues.

Talk on the line touched on a variety of topics. All were pleased that we’d made a stand, and the presence of others seemed to harden resolve, to temper individual protest with a powerful alloy of collective outrage and pride in our action. There was talk of Sheffield’s radical past, of the anti-Thatcher protests of the terrible 1980’s when the heart of Britain’s industrial communities was ripped out in a vindictive series of ideologically monetarist policies that seemed designed to punish entire areas of the country for voting in a way that out megalomaniac Prime Minister of the time didn’t like. Memories are long in what used to be termed ‘The Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire’-this was the cradle of the 1984 Miners’ Strike.

Tony Blair’s ‘New Labour’ project, of course, desperately tried to finish off the privatisation of society that Thatcher’s Conservatives had begun, and there was also a feeling that this strike is a protest to a Labour government now under Gordon Brown that has taken its core support in the old industrial heartlands for granted for far too long. ‘New Labour’, with its cadre of middle-class liberals and privately educated petty capitalists, has managed to alienate the people for whom the original Labour Party was created. The recent debacle over disbanding the 10% tax rate for the lowest paid workers was only another step along this road. The pay offer to low paid council workers worsens things considerably. There was a feeling amongst colleagues yesterday that Brown is victimising the lowest paid members of society in order to fund tax cuts for the middle-class property owning voters that New Labour now clutches to its desperate bosom.

Of course, those middle-class voters, bored with the Labour Party, are now going back to the Conservatives, leaving Brown with no one to vote for him. If he is to recapture the votes he and his predecessor have lost amongst working-class voters then he, and his lackeys in local government management, must listen to the kind of protest that this strike has delivered and realise that low paid workers are not merely drones who will allow themselves to be silently manipulated into the unfair pay and restructuring policies of a government and party that seems to have forgotten who it was, for what it stood and by whom it was founded.

Of course, the Conservative Party are no help at all. Eric Pickles, Tory shadow secretary for communities and local government, commented “…the only people that will suffer from these strikes are hardworking families who are themselves struggling to make ends meet.” Strangely, he ignores the fact that we strikers are, in fact, the same ‘hardworking families’ to whom he refers. He also sidesteps the issue that his party colleagues control 80% of local authorities who are stopping those ‘hardworking families’ from making ends meet by not offering fair pay. It probably doesn’t matter too much to him, he knows that not many trade unionists would vote for his lot anyway.

After the picket, we joined colleagues from other sites across the city on Devonshire Green in the centre of Sheffield and marched along Division Street to City Hall.Here, a rally took place, under the stern gazes of the ordinary soldiers cast as statues on the War Memorial, reminding us of the freedoms for which they gave their lives and health. Not only the freedom to protest as we were doing, but also the freedoms that remain central to the lives of working-class people everywhere. Freedom from want and poverty, from anxiety and poor health, freedom to be well educated at no cost, the freedom of a safe childhood and a dignified old age and the freedom to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage.

Unison members work hard to make sure these freedoms are effectively provided. Without us, our communities would not be the places they are and have no chance of becoming the places they aspire to be, places that are not perfect but are improving thanks to the hard work of Unison members. Hard work for which we should be fairly rewarded. A two day strike is a fair way to make this point.

What would be a fair reward? Well, a 6% pay offer would be a good way to start.

(You can find out more about our struggle here: http://www.unison.org.uk/)

The leadership of the Screen Actors Guild might be saying publicly that talk of an impending actor’s strike is a “distraction” during their difficult ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP, but if you ask me, SAG created this distraction on their own, and they are loving every minute of it.

But if the rumors are true, and SAG truly is readying their troops for war, then why not just call a spade a spade and get on with it. Ain’t no shame in your game, SAG, just come out with it already!

Sure, another major strike right now would suck, but if you ask me, I say burn that mutha down, actors! After watching the DGA, my beloved WGA and even SAG’s crazy-eyed sister-union, AFTRA literally take it up the ass from the studios, I’m aching for someone to take a real stand against those greedy bastards.

And who better to do it than the biggest guild out there? SAG has 120,000-plus members, which is like ten times the size of the WGA. That is some serious union muscle, baby! And while the studios are always quick to undercut writers and directors, if they skimp on actors, well, they’re gonna feel that burn pretty quick.

With the ratings for last year’s TV season pretty much demolished by the WGA strike, I’m guessing the AMPTP might actually give this guild what they want this time. And, if it takes a strike to do it, then strike away, amigos. Like I’ve said before, I know a lot of writers who will be out there supporting your pretty faces on the picket lines every day, and, trust me, we have plenty of red t-shirts.

So, do what you gotta do when that deadline hits, Mr. Rosenberg — SAG’s current deal ends at midnight tonight — and know that whatever happens, we got your back! Go, union!

www.marcvallee.co.uk/london_lecturers_skrike/09.06.08.html.

“College lecturers go on one-day strike over pay” – The Guardian.

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Images : “London Lecturers Skrike – (09.06.08)”

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Archive Link : www.archive.marcvallee.co.uk

So, the areas of my pelvis where my ovaries live are especially tender today.  Not in the ‘ovulation pain’ kind of way, but in the ’someone-with-a-really-big-invisible-stick-has-been-poking-me-in-my-overaies’ kind of way.  A dull ache if you will, whenever I use my ab muscles.

That’s weird right?

Never felt this before.

Does that means my ovaries which have been on strike lo these many (many) months are gearing up to come off the picket line and get back to work?

Dare I hope.

At the very least I wish they’d quit waving those signs around because it’s geting hard to concentrate over here.

Replicating the strategy they used with us writers last year, the cheap bastards at the AMPTP have walked out of the negotiating room (again!) eighteen days into their negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Claiming that SAG’s “unreasonable” demands for modest increases in payments for DVD sales and online downloads has left them with no other choice but to discontinue talks “at this time”.

And so, true to dickhead form, the AMPTP abruptly suspended talks with the actors, even after SAG announced on the website that they were willing to “work around the clock for as long as it takes to get a fair deal” and “keep the town working”. Sounds kinda familiar, huh?

Reverting to their union-busting handbook once again, the AMPTP is rolling out the old “unreasonable” bit in the media — which they totally own, by the way — and playing up the fact that they are also calling off talks to focus on their upcoming negotiations with SAG’s trouble-plagued sister union, AFTRA, which are set to begin today.

Hmm…kinda reminds me of that time the AMPTP abruptly called off talks with WGA leadership to focus on their upcoming negotiations with the Director’s Guild. And if I remember correctly, the AMPTP forged a quickie deal with the DGA and then left us looking like total jerks until we caved — Yes, I said “caved”. God love ya, Patric Verrone, but we totally caved — and took their lousy deal.

Complicating things further for SAG’s rocking negotiating committee — led by bad-ass actor/studio ball buster extraordinaire, Alan Rosenberg — is the fact that SAG and AFTRA had been at war with one another for years.

From what I’ve gathered, the feud centers around the fact that SAG feels they should have more of a say in their wobbly, co-union existence with AFTRA since SAG has more members who contribute more money to the union’s coffers. The far-less-powerful AFTRA — whose members work in such areas as radio, TV news, talk shows, and several soap operas — feels the decision making should remain 50/50 as it has always been. And therein lies the problem.

Many of the SAG members I met on the picket line — several of whom are members of both guilds — have a deep-seated mistrust of anything AFTRA does. And tensions grew so strained a few months back that AFTRA decided — for the first time in 27 years! — to break off from SAG and negotiate a new contract with the AMPTP on their own. Hmm…as Yoda would say: “Unwise this decision was.”

What really sucks for the actors is that now that talks with the AMPTP have predictably “stalled”, the studios are going to use their negotiations with AFTRA — as they so masterfully did with the DGA — to show how quickly the process can work when so-called calmer heads prevail.

Of course, AFTRA is so weak — with their concerns literally light years away from SAG’s — that they’ll probably take whatever crappy deal the studios shove down their throats. And if recent history repeats itself, I foresee the AMPTP joyously announcing a finalized deal with AFTRA in a week at the most. Hell, AFTRA hates SAG so much at this point, they might even take a shitty deal just to spite them!

Either way, SAG will be left looking like the “unreasonable” jerks the AMPTP is already painting them as, and they will more likely than not take a crappy deal to save face. I say, screw that! Whatever happens, in the next few days, I urge you, Mr. Rosenberg, to learn from our mistakes and stay the course!

To quote from an impassioned e-mail you yourself sent out to the entire WGA membership during the heat of battle last December: “…we know that this fight is for the rights of all creative artists, and our collective future is at stake. We share your sound and reasonable goals for fair compensation for new media formats and we believe you are doing the right thing by taking a stand.”

Of course when you said “we”, you were talking about actors. But those same words could just as easily apply to writers now. As the pictures above illustrate, you guys were out with us every day during our strike, so, no matter what happens in the coming weeks, know this…we got your backs, man. Seriously, I got a couple dozen red and gray shirts just itching to come out and play!

To paraphrase the finale of your rocking e-mail, Mr. Rosenberg, the WGA “will stand with you for as long as it takes”. So, keep on keeping on, actors…and remember, we’re all in this together!

Oh yeah, and for the record, that’s “Thirtsomething” icon David Clennon with Patty and myself in the first picture; “Freaks and Geeks” star Dave “Gruber” Allen in the second shot; and the fetching Penelope Whidmore from “Lost”, actress Sonya Walger in the final pic. I should also note that I saw all three of the SAG actors above on the WGA picket lines many, many times, so, gracias amigos!

I have just received an email regarding these rediculous gas prices! I heard on the news the other day that the gas price is going to be in the 5 dollar range by the end of the summer! Are you kidding me we are all going to have to learn how to take the public transportation system!!  I bet you that the prices of the busses and trains will go up as well! What is this world coming to? In this email that I just received it said to try to hit the biggest gas distributors in the US, which is Exxon & Mobil, so if you read this and if there is a chance that the gas prices might go down, dont pump gas in these gas stations! I am looking for releif anywhere… if this will work, hey why not try it!?!