CtW Connect

Organizing 2.0

2009-11-20T19:50:38Z

I’m happy to announce that Change to Win is sponsoring the Organizing 2.0 Conference — the first-ever conference explicitly aimed at the intersection between community organizing and online organizing — which is coming up on December 5 in New York City. Details here.

Registration only costs $10, and the list of confirmed speakers is pretty exciting and getting more so every day, so if you’re in New York (or can get up there for a day) and passionate about organizing offline or online, I hope to see you there!

Stay Classy, Tom

2009-11-19T21:40:41Z

Speaking of U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue, the New York Times profiled him and shared this story of what motivates the man who compromised “the voice of business”:

BACK in the 1990s when Thomas J. Donohue was president of the American Trucking Associations, a subordinate raised a question at a staff meeting.

Some of the association’s members, the aide said, wondered whether it was really necessary for the group’s president to fly on a private jet.

Mr. Donohue, a scrappy Irish-American born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, turned to his chief of staff and asked how many seats his jet had. “Well, eight, sir,” the aide said. “Tomorrow morning I want you to call and get a 12-seater,” Mr. Donohue shot back. The subject never came up again.

Mr. Donohue, 71, now the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, still flies on private jets and enjoys a chauffeur-driven car in addition to his $3 million annual salary.

Hear that, haters? Don’t ask if it’s “necessary” for him to have a private jet! He is Tom Donohue; the question answers itself.

Or as Patrick Swayze might have put it: nobody puts Tommy in a corner!

U.S. Chamber Extremism Protested in San Francisco, Too

2009-11-19T20:56:24Z

Two weeks ago, Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce brought their extreme right-wing road show to Philadelphia, only to be met by grassroots protests against their cynical attempts to block reform in health care, the financial sector, and climate policy.

Well, yesterday they tried again in San Francisco, and Bay Area residents — including small businesspeople incensed by Donohue’s claims to speak for them while simultaneously shilling for the giant megacorporations they struggle to compete with every day — weren’t having it either:

Scores of activists from environmental, labor and small-business groups took to Huntington Park and the Fairmont Hotel on Wednesday afternoon to demand the ouster of U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue over what they said is the group’s resistance to legislation on climate change, health care and workers’ rights…

“I am perplexed by the U.S. Chamber’s opposition to transitioning our economy from dirty coal and oil to a clean-energy future … from putting our national security at risk to devastating local economies,” Jonathan Kevles, senior representative of the Sierra Club’s Clean Energy Solutions Campaign, told the gathering…

“The Chamber of Commerce is so 20th century,” said Danny Kennedy, co-founder of Sungevity, a Berkeley solar energy firm. “The story of the 21st century is solving climate change, creating green-collar jobs and a clean economy. We need to kick (the chamber) into the dustbin where they belong.”

Meanwhile, Donohue’s dodgy history as a member of scandal-ridden corporate boards and determination to stand by policy proposals so right-wing that even corporate America — the very people the Chamber is supposed to represent — shuns them led Nell Minow of The Corporate Library to dub him “America’s Worst CEO”:

“He’s a terrible CEO,” she said, with her typical bluntness. “I think he is a virulent force in the field of business and corporations. I think he has hijacked capitalism on behalf of executives rather than investors.”

Why? It turns out that Donohue has served as a director of three public companies, all of which have had problems.

He’s a director of Sunrise Senior Living, which suffered from series of accounting problems, a plummeting stock price and a decision to settle shareholder litigation. Two well-respected governance groups, Risk Metrics and Proxy Governance, recommended that Donohue be voted off the board for “failing in is oversight duties,” according to Bloomberg News.

Donohue was also a director of Qwest, the telecom firm which paid $250 million to settle SEC charges that the company fraudulently booked $3.8 billion in revenue over three years, the Washington Post reported.

Finally, Donohue serves on the board of Union Pacific, where, according to Nell, the board “supported the bonuses of executives by attributing revenue from the sale of a division as operating revenue.” Donohue’s role at Union Pacific has left him open to the charge that he has a conflict of interest on the climate-change issue because the railroad carries so much coal, as Pete Altman of NRDC has said.

Said Nell: “Hey, three strikes and he’s out and he should be replaced on those boards. And he should be replaced at the chamber of commerce.”

16 Deaths Per Day

2009-11-19T20:37:34Z

Even one is too many. But in America today, every day, sixteen workers are killed on the job because of their employers’ negligence.

The reason? The laws that are supposed to protect workers are simply inadequate.

The Protecting America’s Workers Act would fix that. But it needs your help to become law.

Learn more about this important legislation and how you can help it pass: visit 16DeathsPerDay.com.

Senate HELP Committee Approves Nomination of David Michaels To Head OSHA

2009-11-18T21:05:54Z

I told you back in August how President Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Dr. David Michaels to be the new head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was a good one for working people:

In 2008 he published Doubt is Their Product, a book that exposed how industries such as asbestos and Big Tobacco used multi-million dollar campaigns of biased “science” to delay regulations that would have protected the public from the dangers of their products…

Dr. Michaels was also a leader in the fight to protect consumers and food workers from the dangers of exposure to diacetyl — a chemical commonly used to provide a buttery flavor in microwave popcorn…

After eight years of Bush-era neglect, I’m still getting used to seeing people getting nominated to lead government agencies who actually believe in both the letter and spirit of those agencies’ missions. So it’s exciting to see President Obama tapping someone to lead the agency responsible for worker safety who actually believes that workers should have safe workplaces, and has fought consistently to make that a reality.

So I was cheered to hear today that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee gave bipartisan approval to pass Dr. Michaels’ nomination on to the full Senate:

The voice vote crossed party lines, with Republican Senators Isakson, Enzi, Alexander, Gregg, Murkowski, as well as all the Democratic Senators voting in favor of sending the nomination on to the full Senate. Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) recorded their votes as no.

Now that the HELP Committee has approved his nomination, it can be taken up by the full Senate, where hopefully it will swiftly get the approval it deserves so that Dr. Michaels can get down to the business of ensuring that every American worker has a safe and healthy workplace.

Congratulations, Dr. Michaels!

Sweatshop-Free Gifts For The Holidays

2009-11-17T20:54:16Z

Last month I told you how to buy union-made treats for Halloween. But now Christmas is coming, and that means even more shopping — and for a wide range of stuff beyond just chocolates.

With the rise of globalization and outsourcing, the shopper’s dilemma is especially acute when buying clothes. You don’t want your holiday shopping dollars enriching an absentee CEO who takes advantage of the North Pole’s weak labor regulations to force his workers to churn out product night and day year-round. (His apologists will tell you he’s “jolly.” But there’s nothing jolly about a repetitive stress injury.)

What’s a conscientious consumer to do?

Never fear! The International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities have stepped into the breach with the latest edition of their Shop With a Conscience Consumer Guide, which lists tons of places you can buy sweatshop-free clothing for everyone on your list. And their 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame is a handy list of retail outlets that don’t deserve your business until the way they treat the men and women who make their products moves from “naughty” to “nice”.

They’ve even got these materials available as PDF brochures (Consumer Guide, Hall of Shame), suitable for printing out and taking with you to the mall. Heck, you could even print out some extra copies and hand them out to other shoppers while you’re there, you know?

So this year, don’t give lumps of coal to the men and women who make the gifts you give — shop sweatshop-free!

OSHA Audit Flaws Drop Workplace Accidents Down the Memory Hole

2009-11-16T20:22:12Z

A new report (PDF) from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the processes used by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to verify reports of workplace illnesses and injuries have sizable holes — holes that corporations can use to underreport health and safety risks on the job:

OSHA overlooks information from workers about injuries and illnesses because it does not routinely interview them as part of its records audits. OSHA annually audits the records of a representative sample of about 250 of the approximately 130,000 worksites in the high hazard industries it surveys to verify the accuracy of the data on injuries and illnesses recorded by employers. However, OSHA does not always require inspectors to interview workers about injuries and illnesses—the only source of data not provided by employers—which could assist them in evaluating the accuracy of the records. In addition, some OSHA inspectors reported they rarely learn about injuries and illnesses from workers since the records audits are conducted about 2 years after incidents are recorded. Moreover, many workers are no longer employed at the worksite and therefore cannot be interviewed. OSHA also does not review the accuracy of injury and illness records for worksites in eight high hazard industries because it has not updated the industry codes used to identify these industries since 2002.

CtW Health and Safety Coordinator Eric Frumin explains the real-life consequences of underreporting:

Underreporting is not just a technical violation of the law. Resource allocation, from inspections to the targeting of specific hazards, depends on accurate reporting. Injuries and disease, that could have been prevented, needlessly take a toll in workers’ lives and well-being as a result…

This is an unparalleled abuse of a basic workplace law that is fundamental to the lives and health of America’s working families. Congress should act now on the Protecting America’s Workers Act. The Act would specifically prohibit current underreporting abuses, and give OSHA the means to correct the abuses. Workers must also have a voice at work. Too often employers can easily silence workers and suppress their rights. A worker voice means safer workplaces.

In Historic Vote, House Passes Health Reform

2009-11-09T19:22:13Z

Another historic landmark in the struggle to reform America’s broken health care system was reached this weekend, as H.R.3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was passed by the House of Representatives:

After a daylong clash with Republicans over what has been a Democratic goal for decades, lawmakers voted 220 to 215 to approve a plan that would cost $1.1 trillion over 10 years. Democrats said the legislation would provide overdue relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.

“This is our moment to revolutionize health care in this country,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and one of the chief architects of the bill… Democrats say the House measure — paid for through new fees and taxes, along with cuts in Medicare — would extend coverage to 36 million people now without insurance while creating a government health insurance program. It would end insurance company practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people when they become ill.

Republicans condemned the vote and said they would oppose the measure as it proceeds on its legislative route. “This government takeover has got a long way to go before it gets to the president’s desk, and I’ll continue to fight it tooth and nail at every turn,” said Representative Kevin Brady, Republican of Texas. “Health care is too important to get it wrong.”

On the House floor, Democrats exchanged high-fives and cheered wildly — and Republicans sat quietly — when the tally display showed the 218th and decisive vote, after the leadership spent countless hours in recent days wringing commitments out of House members.

“We did what we promised the American people we would do,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, who also warned, “Much work remains.”

The passage of H.R.3962 marks the first time in the nearly seven decades that progressives have been working towards meaningful health reform that a reform proposal has been passed by a chamber of Congress.

Before the vote, President Barack Obama explained why this moment is so significant:

What’s in our grasp right now is the chance to prevent a future where every day 14,000 Americans continue to lose their health insurance, and every year 18,000 Americans die because they don’t have it; a future where crushing costs keep small businesses from succeeding and big businesses from competing in the global economy; a future where countless dreams are deferred or scaled back because of a broken system we could have fixed when we had the chance.

What we can do right now is choose a better future and pass a bill that brings us to the very cusp of building what so many generations of Americans have sought to build — a better health care system for this country…

I just came from the Hill where I talked to the members of Congress there, and I reminded them that opportunities like this come around maybe once in a generation. Most public servants pass through their entire careers without a chance to make as important a difference in the lives of their constituents and the life of this country. This is their moment, this is our moment, to live up to the trust that the American people have placed in us — even when it’s hard; especially when it’s hard. This is our moment to deliver.

And after it passed, he applauded the House’s action and urged the Senate to follow suit:

Moments like this are why [the American people] sent us here — to finally meet the challenges that Washington has put off for decades; to make their lives better and this nation stronger; to move America forward. That’s what the House did last night when it brought us closer than we have ever been to comprehensive health insurance reform in America.

Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people. And I’m absolutely confident that they will.

UPDATE (5:30PM): CtW Chair Anna Burger on the House’s vote:

The leadership, determination, and commitment of President Obama and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to deliver on the promise of the 2008 election helped clear an important hurdle on the path to final enactment of health care reform. The more than 5 million working men and women of the unions of Change to Win thank the President, the Speaker and all House Members who voted for passage. They stood up to the insurance companies and the special interests. They kept faith with America.

Now is time for the Senate to act.

Retrofit Roadshow Brings Drive for Good Green Jobs to Maine

2009-11-09T18:55:48Z

I’ve told you before (here and here) about the innovative work the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) is doing to jump-start a whole new category of good green jobs in weatherization — improving the insulation of homes and office buildings so less heat escapes, reducing their carbon footprint and our dependence on foreign oil. So you might be interested to hear that last week they brought that effort to the state with the greatest dependence on heating oil in America — Maine.

Here’s a report from New England Cable News:

Unemployment: 15.7 Million Out Of Work

2009-11-06T15:48:12Z

It’s the start of a new month, and that means new unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And once again, they ain’t pretty:

The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.

In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points.

For perspective, 15.7 million unemployed is roughly equivalent to every single adult resident of the states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Idaho — all of them together — being out of work.

To help the long-term unemployed make it through this crisis, Congress moved yesterday to extend unemployment benefits:

The measure provides up to 14 weeks of additional assistance to unemployed people who have exhausted their state and federal benefits, but up to 20 additional weeks to those in about 26 states with unemployment rates exceeding 8.5 percent. In the past two months, more than 600,000 out-of-work people have exhausted their benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project, a liberal advocacy group. The legislation will not restore aid retroactively.

The extension brings maximum state and federal unemployment compensation to 99 weeks, the longest ever, reflecting the severity of a recession that has thrown more people out of work for longer periods than at any other time since collection of such data began six decades ago, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

That’s a good start. But America needs more if we are going to turn around the worst employment crisis this nation has seen since the Great Depression.

Are our leaders listening?

Philly Rallies Against U.S. Chamber Extremism

2009-11-02T18:00:41Z

Last Friday, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue — the man whose leadership compromised the Chamber’s position as the “voice of business” — came to Philadelphia to give a speech.

He (and his audience) was met at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel by a diverse coalition of progressive groups, joined together with a single question: who does Tom Donohue speak for? As his use of the Chamber to expound extreme right-wing positions on issues like global warming and financial reform continues to drive more and more companies out, it’s a timely question indeed.

Marc Stier of Health Care for America Now, who was at the rally, has a good write-up of the proceedings on his blog, and got some video of several of the speakers as well, which I’m happy to share here!

Ken Weinstein, Philadelphia small business owner:

Hannah Miller, net neutrality advocate:

Adam Garber, clean energy campaigner:

… and John Meyerson of UFCW Local 1776:

House Health Reform Proposal Released

2009-10-29T21:03:11Z

Another step forward in the health reform process — the House of Representatives put forward its health reform proposal today:

House Democrats on Thursday unveiled an $894 billion package to remake the health care system, and celebrated by holding an outdoor rally at the Capitol where they asserted that tens of millions of Americans would soon gain affordable insurance.

The 1,990-page measure, which was months in the making, would broadly expand Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, by offering subsidies to moderate-income Americans to buy insurance either from private carriers or a new government-run plan.

“It is with great pride and with great humility that we come before you to follow in the footsteps of those who gave our country Social Security and then Medicare — and now universal, quality, affordable health care for all Americans,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi told a crowd of several hundred people.

Our UFCW brothers and sisters were at the rally and got some great pictures. Here’s a slideshow of them:

If you want to know the nitty-gritty details of the House proposal, the Education and Labor Committee’s Web site has everything you need, right down to the complete text of their version of the bill.

Union-Made Treats for Halloween

2009-10-27T15:46:11Z

It’s almost Halloween, and you know what that means: buying tons of candy.

But why give your money to a company that treats its workers like Oompa-Loompas? They were slaves who got paid in beans, remember! (Don’t be fooled by their catchy songs; that’s just a show they put on for the boss. You should hear the things they say about him in the break room.)

UnionPlus has a great list of yummies made by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW). Among them are:

Hershey’s Kisses
Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bars
Kit Kat Bars
Caramello
Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar
Jelly Bellies
Red Vines
Jawbreakers
NECCO Wafers
Clark Bar
Ghirardelli squares
Baby Ruth
Butterfinger

(Note that some of these are made both in union shops in the U.S.A. and non-union shops in Mexico; the list has details on which ones you’ll want to check the country of origin labels on.)

It’s perfect for printing out and taking with you on your big candy run. So what are you waiting for? Get the list here.

OSHA Moves Toward Action on Combustible Dust

2009-10-26T17:42:03Z

I’ve been writing for ages now on this blog on the danger combustible dust poses to workers, so it’s heartening to see after eight years of Bush-era neglect that OSHA is moving to establish a combustible dust standard:

The public will have an opportunity to offer its input toward establishing a combustible dust standard aimed at preventing disasters similar to the explosion that killed 14 workers at the Imperial Sugar Co. in February 2008, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said on Oct. 20…

OSHA has been conducting a Combustible Dust National Emphasis Program (NEP) since October 2007. The NEP has resulted in an unusually high number of general duty clause violations, indicating a strong need for a combustible dust standard, according to OSHA.

The general duty clause is not as effective as a comprehensive combustible dust standard would be at protecting workers, OSHA reports.

Since 1980 more than 130 workers have been killed and more than 780 injured in combustible dust explosions, noted acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab.

Our brothers and sisters at the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) agree that this is encouraging:

“This notice is an important first step on the way to a permanent rule to ensure the safety of millions of American workers,” said Jackie Nowell, Director of the UFCW’s Occupational Safety and Health Office. “More than 900 workers have been killed or injured since 1980 because of combustible dust accidents. These are avoidable tragedies that must be stopped.”

The UFCW also urges OSHA to work quickly to issue a tough rule that will protect workers.

“We can’t wait any longer,” said Nowell, “the time for a tough, comprehensive rule on combustible dust is now. We hope that employers, unions, and OSHA can work together to make this badly needed protection a reality.”

The complete text of the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is available online (plain text, PDF); OSHA is accepting public comments on it until January 19, 2010. Comments can be submitted via regulations.gov.

Pity the Poor Rich: I Guess A Billion Dollars Doesn't Go As Far As It Used To Edition

2009-10-19T16:07:18Z

The saga of media outlets that really should know better asking us to feel sorry for people who are slightly less rich than they used to be continued last week, with Bloomberg News offering a shoulder to media mogul Ted Turner so he could cry about the indignity of having to get buy with used private jets rather than new ones:

While contemporaries such as News Corp. Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone and Viacom Inc.’s Sumner Redstone keep competing in the media industry, Turner says that he doesn’t have enough money to get back in the business. He now focuses on nuclear disarmament, global climate change, women’s rights, and the environment…

“If you were around at the time, I gave everybody a hundred thousand dollars if they came up with anything,” Turner said. “I just couldn’t hold onto it. I wanted to keep it moving. I get a dollar, I give it to you, you spend it, somebody else gets it. You know, pass it around. You know, it’s kind of like a joint — you just pass it around, light it up, you know, share with your friends.”

Turner said he has learned to live with less, yet he still bemoans the decline in his net worth.

“To drop out of that league, that was hard to do,” Turner said. “I’ve had the experience of being on top and riding the roller coaster down again, nearly to the bottom. You know, if you economize and don’t buy new airplanes or long-range jets, or that sort of thing, you can get by on a billion or two.”

“You can get by on a billion or two.” If you’ve been laid off in this sagging economy, I’m sure those words will come as great comfort to you.

Meanwhile, reporter Paul Sullivan takes to the pages of the New York Times with a warning for all those who e-mailed complaints about a slobbering piece he had written about the woes of the wealthy: class warfare is hazardous to your health!

The vehemence in these e-mail messages made me wonder why so many people were furious at those who had more than they did. And why are the rich shouldering the blame for a collective run of bad decision-making? After all, many of the rich got there through hard work. And plenty of not-so-rich people bought homes, cars and electronics they could not afford and then defaulted on the debt, contributing to the crash last year.

But in this recession, anger flows one way…

The line from my last column that prompted the most responses was about how the wealthy weren’t sleeping well either. The vitriol in the e-mail showed just how deep the anger against the rich is.

Yet put simply, this is not healthy. After all, if you’re wealthy and no one likes you, you still have lots of money. But if you spend your free time obsessing about the rich, you could end up in worse shape emotionally, personally and financially.

“People who get caught up in this paranoia spend all night reading these blogs, and six months later they haven’t done anything to better themselves,” [Manhattan psychologist Dr. Eric Dammann] said. “Even if they’re right, there is a lot of wasted energy put into this. They need to look at the mistakes they’ve made in their life.”

Gosh, Dr. Dammann sure seems concerned for our health! I wonder how he got that way? Another Sullivan column, this one from February, supplies the answer:

Mr. Dammann, the psychoanalyst, said he had many clients who after losing 50 percent of their net worth still had tens of millions of dollars left.

To them, lots of money in the bank was not freedom or security. It was who they were. “As their net worth shrinks, their self-worth shrinks,” he said.

And another clue comes from his profile in Psychology Today:

I have training in a number of therapy modalities (interpersonal psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, coaching), and have found an eclectic and flexible approach which takes into account the particular client and their goals to be crucial… One further area of specialization is Family Wealth Counseling, working with individuals and estate planners on balancing work and finances with other aspects of a meaningful life.

I’m sure that the fact that these poor, poor rich people are his client base has absolutely nothing to do with his advice to the rest of us that we’d all be happier and healthier if we just got off their case already.

What I’m not sure about, though, is why the New York Times feels the need to have a reporter dedicated to covering the pity parties thrown by Dammann and the other hangers-on of the plutocracy whom Sullivan covers with such tender concern.