From petrasem@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Mon Dec 1 10:39:29 1997 Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 13:39:26 +0100 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: petrasem@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu (Elizabeth Petras) Subject: Re: Request for Referrals Art, If you're interested, I'll try to locate someone who could speak about unions that are emerging in developing nations. I think it's more intimately linked to the welfare of U.S. workers, organized or not, than we sometimes recognize in today's globally integrated market. U.S. unionists would/should be interested in this phenomenon. Betty >Brothers and Sisters: On July 20 and 21 the World Futures Society will hold >its 1998 Annual Meeting in Chicago. On the Monday, July 21, at 2pm I can >have a >panel discuss for 1 and a half hours the future of unionism: PLEASE send me the >names and phone numbers or e-mail addresses of unionists you recommend for >this very important panel. Many thanks, fraternally, Art Shostak > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu Wed Dec 3 17:59:03 1997 Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 11:33:33 -0500 To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu (david croteau) Subject: personal checks Last week I posted a request asking if anyone knew where I could get personal checks with pro-union messages on them. I received six responses sent to my personal e-mail. Unfortunately ALL of them were from people who also wanted the same information! So if anyone actually has such info, it might be worth posting to the list as a whole. To those of you who asked me to pass along the information I received, sorry! ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| David Croteau Sociology/ Virginia Commonwealth University E-mail: dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu From jbranfman@loop.com Wed Dec 3 18:07:17 1997 for ; Wed, 3 Dec 1997 16:25:59 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 3 Dec 1997 16:25:59 -0800 (PST) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Judy Branfman Subject: Hidden Labor exhibit in L.A. Hello all, I'm a member of Common Threads, a group of women in the L.A. area who have been supporting UNITE and local garment workers in their efforts to better working conditions through unionization over the past three years. Edna Bonacich has talked about our work previously and how some of our more attention-getting efforts have been cultural/arts related (we got sued by GUESS the clothing manufacturer for a poetry reading supporting garment workers fired by GUESS contractors for trying to organize). On May 4 the Common Threads Artists opened a public art installation in nine storefront windows of a former department store in downtown L.A. about the history of L.A.'s garment workers. While wandering around the web the other day, I came across that project, called "Hidden Labor: Uncovering L.A.'s Garment Industry," on USC's site (their downtown L.A. public art tour)! So if you are interested you can see it at: www.usc.edu/Library/Ref/LA/PubArt/Downtown/Hidden Labor. The web site has photos, paragraphs that contextualize each window and the text from a timeline (that runs across the bottom of the entire installation) that's an overview of garment workers' efforts at organizing, mainly in L.A., along with some information about the development of the industry nationally. The exhibition is based on research and interviews with dozens of current and retired garment workers. It was blasted by many of the same garment industry officials who tried to shut down the Smithsonian's upcoming exhibition on sweatshops. But the funders (the public art program of the Community Redevelopment Agency) supported the project as an important piece of local history (we agree). The installation is up through May 1, 1998 - on 7th Street between Hope and Grand in downtown L.A. - visible 24 hours a day. Much of it is in both Spanish and English. We're glad to give "walking tours" to groups, classes, etc. We also have the script for a street theater "fashion show," which you are welcome to use - it's perfect for the holiday shopping season. I'd be glad to pass it on. Keep up all the great work everyone, Judy Branfman jbranfman@loop.com From bbyrd@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU Wed Dec 3 18:46:51 1997 Date: Wed, 03 Dec 1997 09:51:53 -0800 From: bbyrd@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (Barbara Byrd) Subject: Job Announcement To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu Please make the announcement below available to anyone who might be interested. OTN is doing important and exciting work here in Oregon. >Date: Tue, 02 Dec 1997 21:49:15 -0800 (PST) >From: landowne@teleport.com >Subject: job announcement >X-Sender: landowne@mail.teleport.com (Unverified) >To: bbyrd@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU >MIME-version: 1.0 > >Dear Friends - We are asking your help in spreading the work about this >exciting job opening. > > >Job Description > >Oregon Tradeswomen Network seeks assistant director for full time salary >position with some evening and weekend hours are required, and some >flexibility in schedule. OTN is a small, private non-profit that "promotes >the success of women in the trades through education, leadership and >mentoring". We do extensive work with tradeswomen, adult women job seekers, >young women, apprenticeship programs, unions, employers, schools and other >Community Based Organizations. The assistant director would assist the >director on the work of the organization, with a special emphasis on >development and implementation of programs involving young women and girls. > > >Qualifications >There are some essential skills that this person must have. >MUST HAVE >Experience as a tradeswoman OR work/extensive volunteer experience around >issues of work, ie. industrial arts teacher, union staff, worker rights >organization staff, OSHA inspector, school-to-work staff, civil rights >division staff, or similar experience. >Able to work with adult women and men and young women from all walks of life. >Administrative skills -including planning, report writing, public speaking, >computer literate on data base and word processing, meeting facilitation, >communication. >Transportation > >There are a range of skills we would like this person to have. >SHOULD HAVE four or more of the following - >Desktop publishing experience or training >Implemented a diversity plan within an organization >Bilingual >Community organizing experience >Work with young people >Work with volunteers >Fundraising and development experience >Curriculum development >To apply please send us: >1) Your resume >2) A cover letter describing your experiences and training in the Must Have >areas. >3) A short paragraph detailing your expertise in each Should Have items >applicable. >4) Application form >Applications should be in by 12/15/97. For more information call Connie >Ashbrook at (503)281-0495 x 271 From natcav@ix.netcom.com Thu Dec 4 14:51:02 1997 by dfw-ix3.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma009651; Thu Dec 4 08:56:39 1997 Date: Thu, 04 Dec 1997 08:56:04 -0600 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Bryan Thompson Subject: Re: personal checks At 11:33 AM 12/3/97 -0500, you wrote: >Last week I posted a request asking if anyone knew where I could get >personal checks with pro-union messages on them. I received six responses >sent to my personal e-mail. Unfortunately ALL of them were from people who >also wanted the same information! Try The Union Shop PO Box 9867 Baltimore, MD 21284-9867 Questions 1-888-864-6625 No phone orders, but they sent me a packet of info depicting available checks. 240 for $8.95, or 480 for $17.50 Both single and duplicate styles available. They have several styles and are union printed with union designs. Bryan Bryan Thompson H: 630-860-7423 Staff@NATCAVoice.org http://www.NATCAVoice.org Editor - The NATCA Voice 800-SKY-TALK ; Pin 114-9137 From Urthman@aol.com Thu Dec 4 09:36:33 1997 From: Urthman@aol.com by mrin42.mx.aol.com (8.8.5/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) Thu, 4 Dec 1997 11:36:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 11:36:32 -0500 (EST) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: personal checks This is for those Individuals who want to put their union label where their money is... To request an order form for union-made checks and return address labels with a pro-union message, call 1-888-8644-6625 (1-888-UNIONCK) (9 am to 5 pm, ET, Mon-Fri). I think they still have a "Union Yes" style (although the material from my union just refers to a "Buy union - Buy American" message). Ed Ramthun AFSCME Indianapolis, IN From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Thu Dec 4 16:08:41 1997 Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 15:11:53 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Aaron Subject: What is a 'developing nation'? (was: Re: Request for Referrals) Peter Montague >Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 13:39:26 +0100 >From: petrasem@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu (Elizabeth Petras) >To: Labor Research and Action Project > >Art, > If you're interested, I'll try to locate someone who could speak >about unions that are emerging in developing nations. [SNIP] This is in response to the use of the phrase 'developing nations'. Rather than testing my writing talents anew, I will quote from an exchange I had last year with Peter Montague, editor of RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY (a very worthwhile publication -- see ). >Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 16:11:40 -0700 >From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) >Subject: Re: Rachel #516: Measuring Progress > >... >The term 'developing country' should not be used except by apologists for >capitalism/imperialism. Both 'developing' and 'underdevoleped' imply that >countries that are not as industrialized as the Europe/USA/Japan axis are >not full countries. 'Developing' additionally implies that what is >happening to the more exploited countries is that they are becoming more >like the 'developed', i.e., imperialist, countries. > >In fact, the 'development' of capitalism in both the imperialist and >imperialized countries is increasing the poverty and misery of the majority >of people. The only 'first world' 'advantages' that are spreading to the >rest of the world are television, the automobile, and meaningless >elections. > >Let's not let ruling-class ideology manifest itself in our language! > >--For world revolution, >--Aaron >From ???@??? Sat Oct 19 13:17:59 1996 >Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 13:17:35 -0700 >To: Peter Montague >From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) >Subject: Re: Rachel #516: Measuring Progress > >>> The term 'developing country' should not be used except by apologists >>> for capitalism/imperialism. Both 'developing' and 'underdevoleped' >>> imply that ... >> >>So what's the correct terminology? --Peter > >'The correct terminology' for what? Since I have shown, in the paragraphs >reproduced [ABOVE], that 'developing country' doesn't mean anything, it's >the responsibility of the person considering using that term to think about >what she really means and to use a term that carries the intended meaning. >That could be something like 'poor', 'neo-colonial', or 'super-exploited' >(modifying 'country' or 'nation'), or it could be something like 'country >on the verge of enjoying the wonderful benefits of advanced capitalism, as >seen in New York and Los Angeles, if it can find some other, weaker, >countries or peoples to exploit'. > >--For the revolution, >--Aaron >-- From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Sun Dec 7 13:20:43 1997 labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu; Sun, 7 Dec 1997 15:19:03 -0500 (EST) 07 Dec 1997 15:19:02 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 15:19:01 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Clawson Subject: input for pamphlet on campus-labor To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu December 7, 1997 FROM: Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) TO: students and faculty interested in labor RE: pamphlet in preparation on how to work with labor Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice (an organization primarily composed of academics, with the aim of hooking up with the labor movement), together with the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute, is putting together a pamphlet on how students and faculty can work with labor. The pamphlet is being written now, for mass (ten thousand copies) distribution early in 1998. Your input would be much appreciated, and could help to make a better pamphlet. The Organizing Institute has prepared a long questionnaire, but basically the issue is: what are your experiences? what have you done? what worked and what didn't? what advice, if any, do you have to pass on to others? Send your thoughts (THIS WEEK!) to Kim Medina: MEDINAOI@AOL.COM Here are some examples of issues you might address, but this list is only to stimulate thought. If you have just one experience or idea you'd like to see incorporated, PLEASE PASS IT ALONG NOW. Then later, if you wish, you can address more issues. 1. What successes or difficulties have you had in making connections to labor and what can you suggest about the reasons for either the successes or problems? To what degree was it the approach/behavior of the student or faculty member, and to what degree was it the character of the union? 2. What are experiences in working with campus unions, and the special strengths or problems of that? 3. What sort of relation do students want to faculty, and faculty to students? To what degree is the problem that faculty are too interfering, and to what degree is it that they need to be more engaged? Would students welcome more or less faculty input? What role, if any, should faculty have in SLACs (Student Labor Action Coalitions)? 4. What are the difficulties of maintaining continuity in a SLAC? Does it tend to work much better in one year than another? 5. How do faculty connect with students in situations where there is no SLAC (=most campuses)? 6. If you've had workers or union staff in your classes, how did that work? 7. What experiences have there been creating internships with unions or other labor organizations? What kinds of things have people done? 8. To what degree do courses incorporate labor, and what are the advantages and problems in doing so? How significant a fraction of the course concerns labor, and what are the difficulties of building labor issues into courses that are not primarily about labor? To what degree, if at all, does a course help foster campus activism? 9. What have been the experiences in organizing one-time events, whether teach-ins, or panels, or speakers? 10. How strong are the links between labor and the campus community? What strategies help create better information flows? What problems are there of people not knowing what's going on, and wishing there were better ways to keep connected? 11. What are experiences in connecting students to jobs in the labor movement, or to Organizing Institute recruiters? What works and what doesn't? What advice do students have about approaches that would and would not engage them? OR ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SUGGEST -- WHAT KINDS OF IDEAS, RESOURCES, EXPERIENCES, STORIES WOULD HELP YOU IN BUILDING A STRONGER CONNECTION BETWEEN CAMPUSES AND LABOR? Thanks for whatever help you can provide. A good pamphlet will be an enormous asset for others; anything you can do to make it better will help build a stronger labor movement, and will foster activism on campuses. -- Dan Clawson work = 413-545-5974 home 413-586-6235 Contemp. Sociology = 413-545-4064 fax 413-545-1994 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu consoc@sadri.umass.edu From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Sun Dec 7 14:21:52 1997 Sun, 7 Dec 1997 13:17:48 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 13:17:46 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: JazzDemoc: Prisons for Profit (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 09:54:50 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: JazzDemoc Mailing List Subject: JazzDemoc: Prisons for Profit On Sun, 7 Dec 1997 command@echo-on.net wrote: > PRISONS FOR PROFIT > > CRIME PAYS FOR MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONSTHAT WANT TO BUILD AND > RUN ONTARIO'S JAILS > > By SCOTT ANDERSON > > And the only thing outpacing the proliferation of private prisons in > the U.S. is the number of civil actions launched by prisoners > claiming that their > constitutional rights have been violated. > > What critics don't like is the introduction of monster, for-profit > prisons that would make prisoners into commodities, as they've become > in the > U.S. and other countries that have adopted the private model. > Lengthy article clipped. Now, what is the difference between forced prison labour in Canada/U.S. and China if we factor out the difference in standard of living? But let me say this. I am in favour of requiring employable unemployed on welfare to work and requiring prisoners to work. What I am not in favour of is slavery. Slavery is essentially a contract of employment which says,"Do as we say or we may discontinue your necessities of life". Therefore such forced labour programs can very easily be converted into a means of sentencing individuals and whole populations to death. The alternative is to tailor welfare and prison labour to the multitude of talents you will find in such populations and to make it voluntary. I believe work is natural to humans and every other species. Give unemployed welfare/prison people a chance to work and they will work. FWP. From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Sun Dec 7 15:00:20 1997 Sun, 7 Dec 1997 14:00:14 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 14:00:12 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: A Shocking TV Ad! (fwd) Is there any objection to including in a social contract or charter of rights the "right to eat"? Would that be overwhelmingly radical? FWP. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 13:53:53 -0800 From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: A Shocking TV Ad! Last night I watched a TV ad (Ch. 41 here in Vancouver) which I found shocking. The ad was sponsored by the Canadian Association of Food Banks. It depicted a grim game of musical chairs being played around a dinner table by men, women and children. The words? "Which of 3,000,000 of us will go hungry this year?" That figure, 3 million is probably about the number who do go hungry each year in Canada, the Land of the Big Lie, and "Musical Chairs" is an apt description of Canadian Economics in general. Or, let's "elbow smash our neighbours out of a job in the great game of job competition". FWP. ***** Usenet on Future Villages: vcn.false-creek; listserv on Future Cities: send an email to khadija@wn.apc.org with "subscribe your-email-address" in the body; URL updates: ***** From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Tue Dec 9 20:28:09 1997 Tue, 9 Dec 1997 19:27:20 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 19:27:20 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: "The Right to Eat" Clause in the South African Constitution. To: ndpadmin@fed.ndp.ca ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 17:40:43 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: canada-l@vm1.mcgill.ca Subject: Re: A Shocking TV Ad! Then what? (fwd) I have been receiving Indaba/Rainbow from the SA Embassy in Otawa for ten years. They tell me the SA Constitution is the world's first to be significantly shaped by internet. Thank you for the info. It sounds very "civilized" as the TV ads say. I think we should include it in a Constitutional Amendment in Canada. What do you think? FWP. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 17:26:02 EST From: James Edward Lawson Jr. Subject: Re: A Shocking TV Ad! Then what? Is there any objection to including in a social contract or charter of rights the "right to eat"? Would that be overwhelmingly radical? FWP. South Africa Constitution Chapter 2 has the provision. Notice the phrase "progressivew realization". This is a recognition that the mere existance of the words do not convey the right, BUT the state is nevertheless mandated to work toward it as rapidly as possible. Health care, food, water and social security 27. (1) Everyone has the right to have access to \055 a. health care services, including reproductive health care; b. sufficient food and water; and c. social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants, appropriate social assistance. (2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. Children 28. (1) Every child has the right \055 a. to a name and a nationality from birth; b. to family care or parental care, or to appropriate alternative care when removed from the family environment; c. to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services; Jim From aikya@ix.netcom.com Tue Dec 9 23:56:31 1997 by dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma001889; Wed Dec 10 00:55:05 1997 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'Franklin Wayne Poley'" , Labor Research and Action Project Subject: RE: "The Right to Eat" Clause in the South African Constitution. Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 22:15:02 -0800 How about adding the right to decent housing? The U.S. actually signed an international agreement saying that should be considered a basic human right. Funny how we aren't applying it here. Aikya Param, Publisher, Women and Money Economic Justice and Empowerment Monthly http://www2.netcom.com/~aikya/womenandmoney.html mailto: aikya@ix.netcom.com Send snail mail address for sample copy. ---------- Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 1997 11:27 AM To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: "The Right to Eat" Clause in the South African Constitution. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 17:40:43 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: canada-l@vm1.mcgill.ca Subject: Re: A Shocking TV Ad! Then what? (fwd) I have been receiving Indaba/Rainbow from the SA Embassy in Otawa for ten years. They tell me the SA Constitution is the world's first to be significantly shaped by internet. Thank you for the info. It sounds very "civilized" as the TV ads say. I think we should include it in a Constitutional Amendment in Canada. What do you think? FWP. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 17:26:02 EST From: James Edward Lawson Jr. Subject: Re: A Shocking TV Ad! Then what? Is there any objection to including in a social contract or charter of rights the "right to eat"? Would that be overwhelmingly radical? FWP. South Africa Constitution Chapter 2 has the provision. Notice the phrase "progressivew realization". This is a recognition that the mere existance of the words do not convey the right, BUT the state is nevertheless mandated to work toward it as rapidly as possible. Health care, food, water and social security 27. (1) Everyone has the right to have access to \055 a. health care services, including reproductive health care; b. sufficient food and water; and c. social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependants, appropriate social assistance. (2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. Children 28. (1) Every child has the right \055 a. to a name and a nationality from birth; b. to family care or parental care, or to appropriate alternative care when removed from the family environment; c. to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services; Jim From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Sun Dec 14 10:30:31 1997 for ; Sun, 14 Dec 1997 11:29:13 -0600 (CST) Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 11:29:13 -0600 (CST) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Kim Scipes Subject: 3 CD set of Phil Ochs' music Folks-- Rhino Records has just released a three CD set of Phil Ochs' music. It is extremely well done, lists groups to get active with, plus includes Phil's wonderful music, a good discography and strong musical and personal biography of Ochs' life. I think it's wonderful, and HIGHLY recommend it. If you don't know who Phil Ochs is (or more properly was--he committed suicide in April of 1976), for my money, he was the most political folk singer to come out of the '60s in the US. Listen to songs like "Links in the Chain" (about the need for unions to join with the poor and oppressed to change society) or "I ain't marchin' any more" (about refusing to fight in imperialist wars for the imperialists) and tell me he's not STILL relevant today! Kim Scipes From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Mon Dec 15 09:16:48 1997 Mon, 15 Dec 1997 08:14:47 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 08:14:46 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Eco-Restructuring and Future Cities. (fwd) And why not ask these "construction giants" to design and build a network of "Union Cities" (union owned) for North America? With Canada/U.S. increasing in population by >2,000,000/year that is quite feasible. FWP. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 18:01:34 -0200 From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Eco-Restructuring and Future Cities. On Sat, 13 Dec 1997, Franklin Wayne Poley wrote: > PS-If you are in Japan why not ask Shimizu for a solution in the context > of one of the many Future Cities Shimizu has designed, for this planet > and for space. Ask them for a food-production system so that the city > will produce all of its own food. Let me just clip the footnote from my last post to "Eco-Restructuring for Sustainable Development". There is a world-wide movement toward more "urban agriculture". I see no reason that Future Cities could not be self-sufficient for food. I owned a small farm in Surrey, B.C. for 10 years. Surrey is about 11 mi. x 11 mi. and has a population of 300,000. I think it is likely a net exporter of food. But that much land could support an even greater population. Next consider the "zero waste community" which has recently been put forward on public educational TV by Dean McDonough from Virginia and by Bechtel. You know I'll bet the construction giants like Shimizu, Bechtel and Kaevarner-Trafalgar (Davy) could design zero waste cities which would be self-sufficient for food as well as other necessities of life, if not individually, then at least in a co-operative complex of cities. If U.N.U. were to put out a competition to these and other construction companies worldwide I think the replies would prove to be most interesting. Sincerely-FWP. PS-On a more philosophical note, to Dean McDonough and staff-does "zero waste" mean "zero pollution"? From Herejobs@aol.com Tue Dec 16 17:27:00 1997 From: Herejobs@aol.com by mrin51.mx.aol.com (8.8.5/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0) Tue, 16 Dec 1997 19:26:52 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 19:26:52 -0500 (EST) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Organizing : Good News, Victories, & Jobs I would like to share and post both some encouraging news and organizing victories in our union. There is definitely some good news to reflect on for the Labor Movement in 1997--while looking forward to the new year. For those who are job seeking--or have friends who are -- there are postings for Organizers, researchers, and eand an attorney position --as well . IN SOLIDARITY, PAT LAMBORN, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union, Oakland CA. GOOD NEWS The Dec. 9, 1997 Business page of the LA Times reported that union membership in California ROSE to 2.08 million during the first 10 months of 1997 ( up 21,000 from the 1996 level) -- and attributed the growth to organizing victories among low wage, immigrant workers. Of course the article also points out that with job growth we need to organize 40,000-50,000 new members a year just to keep the unionzation rate steady--The percentage of California workers belonging to unions fell from 16.5 % to 16.3% in 1997, but hey-- that's good news of a sort too --more workers to organize . VICTORIES NEWS from Las Vegas - - yes the end is in sight for the 7 year long strike at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new owner of the hotel has signed an agreement guaranteeing that all the strikers can return to their jobs and that he will sign the standard union contract once he secures his gaming license and takes over the hotel . Until then the picket line is up until early 1998 and -- donations to the Frontier Strikers and Families Christmas Fund, greatly appreciated: mail to : 1630 S. Commerce,Las Vegas, NV 89102. Also in Vegas......... On the heels of the strike settlment is the Contract Victory and Ratification Vote at the MGM Grand Hotel -- a major organizing win, for the 3,000 workers. The contract includes povision for an on-site day care facility-- the first ever- a pattern we hope to set in other Las Vegas Strip contract settlements this year ! ORGANIZING NEWS HERE organizing Committees at both the Reno Hilton and Flamingo Hitlon Hotels, representing 1600 workers in Reno Nevada , presented a demand for union recognition through a card check in Nov. 1997 HERE Local 2-- San Francisco . Sir Francis Drake Hotel- workers voted 64-28 for the union in an NLRB Election Nov 19--a great win in light of the local's ongoing campaign for a first contract at the Marriott Hotel-also in San Francisco. The message is loud and clear--the union is growing and getting stronger in the Bay Area! The HERE organizing committee at Yoshi's Jazz Club and Restaurant in Oakland,Callifornia, also kicked off their organizing drive with a delegation and demand for direct union recognition fromt their employer in November. HERE Local 100- New York -New York members and community supporters rallied and some were arrested Nov. 18 at Smith& Barney to demand corporate responsibility in the ongoing organizing drive for union recognition for their office cafeteria workers Nationwide: 567 workers joined HERE in the month of NOV through either elections or card checks. MORE TO DO-- JOB OPENINGS -- TO DO IT ! The following HERE locals are hiring across the country to meet the ongoing challenge -to organize, organize, organize. Please post or spread the word. ORGANIZERS: BILINGUAL HERE, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, is seeking organizers bilingual in Spanish/English for organizing campaigns in California ( Oakland and Los Angeles), Washington D.C. , New York City and Hartford, CT. HERE seeks an organizer bilingual in Haitian Creole/English for Stamford CT. HERE has an excellent training and leadership development program for both staff and members: entry level and experienced organizers encouraged to apply. Salary depends on experience and location and includes complete benefit package: medical, dental, vision, pension and car allowance. ORGANIZERS : CONNECICUT The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union is seeking organizers for Local 34, the Clerical/Technical Union at Yale University, New Haven, CT. and for local 217, a statewide local in Connecticut. Must have commitment to organizing the unorganized, and demonstrated ability to develop and recruit leaders in internal and external organizing drives. Salary depends on experience, entry level and experienced organizers encouraged to apply. Positions permanent and full time, include complete benefit package. RESEARCH ANALYSTS Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union seeks (2) Research Analysts for our Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, CA offices and (2) for New England Region. Analysts provide corporate research and campaign development for organizing and collective bargaining programs. Must have committment to union organization, demonstrated research skills, comfort with basic financial concepts, excellent writing ability and activist experience. Salary :DOE, includes complete benefit package. STAFF ATTORNEY : NEW YORK Hotel employees and Restaurant Employees, local 100, New York, NY, seeks attorney for Manhattan office to handle arbitration,wage and overtime violations, unfair labor practice cases and legal support for organizing campaigns. Local 100 represents over 6,000 restaurant workers and has launched an organizing drive in downtown New York office cafeterias. Must have committment to union organizing, exposure and some experience with labor law, NLRA and NLRB, and union contract enforcement. Salary: $30,000-36,000, Depending on experience, plus benefit package. To Apply Send Resume to : WEST COAST: PAT LAMBORN,HERE 548 20th St. Oakland, CA 94612 FAX # (510) 893-5362 or EAST COAST Ellen Thomson, HERE P.O. Box 322 Granby, CT. 06035 FAX #(860)251-6049 From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Tue Dec 16 19:14:59 1997 Tue, 16 Dec 1997 18:03:55 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 18:03:54 -0800 (PST) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: MacLeod-Mondragon Book. (fwd) To: gmacleod@sparc.uccb.ns.ca Please note that the email address is ns, not n.s as stated at the end. Dr. MacLeod is considered as one of the leaders in this field of community economic development in Canada. Seems to me there is nothing to stop him from telling unionists how they could have their own economically self-sufficient chain of union cities across Canada. "Decanting" a few million from the 25,000,000 increase in Canada-U.S. over the next decade would suffice. Such a network of cities would be immune to NAFTA/GATT/MAI/APEC predations. FWP. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 97 21:32:19 -0500 From: Greg MacLeod To: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Re: Book. -- [ From: Greg MacLeod * EMC.Ver #2.5.02 ] -- Dear Franklin attached is a summary and the us. contact for ordering, greg Mondragon Book by Greg MacLeod 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS 2. SUMMARY OF BOOK AND POST-SCRIPT 2. AND WHERE IT CAN BE PURCHASED OF INTEREST ALSO, BCA WEB SITE : http://www.uccb.ns.ca/bca CHAPTERS 1. Inside Mondragon A: Background B: Mondragon: The Parts C: Structures and Governance 1. Single Enterprise 2. The Zone Group 3 The General Congress 2. The Strength of Mondragon A: Mission Statement B: Ten Principles C: Enterprise Creation And Development D: Providing For Continuance 3. New Vision A: Sources 1. The Church Tradition 2. The Basque Social Tradition 3. Socialism and Personalism B: Don José Maria's Synthesis. 4. A Critique of Private, Social and State Enterprise A: Capitalist Corporation B: Traditional Cooperatives C: Soviet Model D: Towards a New Model 5. A New Model A: The Cooperative Corporation B: A New Role for Management C: Role of Workers D: Evaluation and Replicability 6. The Valencia Experiment A: Beginnings and Development B: The Parts C: Evolution to a New Phase D: The Future E: Basic Principles 7. North American Glimmerings A. Community Business Corporations B. Alternative Financial Initiatives C. Mexico: A Sustainable Development Project 8. Practical Reflections for Community Economic Solutions A: Community Economic Development B: Getting Started C: Person-Centered Economics Appendix I: Biographical Sketch of Don José Maria Appendix II: List of Mondragon Companies Appendix III: Useful Addresses Abstract CHAPTER ONE describes the facts about Mondragon, what the visitor will see on a visit there or what one will read in the annual business report of the Caja Laboral Popular (Credit Union or Cooperative Bank) which for many years served as the glue to hold the complex together. The description includes how the components function and relate to one another. Mondragon exists as a concrete, functioning and profitable enterprise. CHAPTER TWO explains how the strength and success of Mondragon is rooted in the founders' vision of society and their guiding value system. Aggressive expansion in response to community needs is seen as a virtue. The complex techniques of enterprise creation are described in detail. Also analyzed is their freedom from bankruptcy. CHAPTER THREE responds to interest in the original intentions and innovative ideas that gave rise to all this activity. The researcher will find that none of the components is original but that each was proposed by some earlier thinker.1 The genius of Don José Maria was to construct out of these elements an original synthesis which proved to be applicable to the world in which he lived. Syntheses are extremely important for the advancement of knowledge. The synthesis of ideas behind Mondragon is important because it triggered a collaboration among a variety of institutions that are normally divided and in competition. CHAPTER FOUR contains a critique of different models for a business enterprise: capitalist, communist or communitarian. With the fall of the communist systems in Eastern Europe these questions are important. An extremely simplistic attitude might assume that the capitalist model has 'won'. However, problems like chronic unemployment, pollution, and events such as the Los Angeles riots, indicate that traditional capitalist systems have not provided a formula for human wellbeing. CHAPTER FIVE presents the new model as envisaged by Don José Maria, the communitarian model which has yet to be widely tried in the Western world. An examination of its success in the Mondragon complex reveals that it is neither simply cooperative nor simply capitalist. The chapter shows how Mondragon takes elements from several models and results in a community- based business system which is very flexible and adaptable to changing social needs and circumstances. CHAPTER SIX describes the Valencia experiment as an example of the transferability of Don José Maria's model. Founded by a group describing itself as followers of the Mondragon approach, the Valencian experiment consists of a community bank, a string of cooperative retail stores, an insurance company, employee-owned factories and a professional school. CHAPTER SEVEN examines how the original motivation which inspired the Mondragon experiment is shared by many groups in North America, including one in Mexico, who are struggling to fight unemployment and economic decline in their own communities. Also discussed are examples of other community businesses which contain, in various degrees, some of the values associated with the Mondragon experiment. CHAPTER EIGHT explains how technology is a way of thinking and a way of organizing. Based on his involvement in community economic development in Atlantic Canada during two decades, as well as his visits to the Spanish projects, the author proposes that basic guiding values and good technology are essential in making a new economy for a sustainable future. Appendix II is a useful list of the 96 member-enterprises of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation, including product lines and addresses. Postscript - THE DEBATE Like so many founders of social-economic movements, Don Jose Maria would be surprised and puzzled by the giant international Mondragon Cooperative Corporation of today. By 1997 Mondragon had established subsidiary factories in Argentina, England and China. These resemble subsidiaries of General Electric or any other large multi-national corporation. Also in Spain, the cooperative retail systems of Eroski of Mondragon and Consum of Valencia have joined forces to create a holding company called Erosmer. Erosmer is now setting up subsidiary supermarkets throughout Spain as private stock companies. The Eroski group owns 51% of the shares with the other shares being owned by venture capital groups such as ONCE, a managed fund owned by the national organization for the blind in Spain. The reality of the retail food business is that small companies do not survive well. The Eroski group is now one of the giants. It is number three in Spain. The two top grocery chains are multi-nationals. Number four is another multi- national. If Eroski did not go big there would be very little Spanish control in the food business. However, it should be noted that, even if the Eroski chain looks like the multinationals, there are important differences. Within the Mondragon and Valencia areas the retail stores are still co- operatively run. Both Eroski and Consum have central elected boards. The central Eroski board, like the Consum board, has 12 members, six employees and six consumers. The consumers are usually delegates from other cooperatives. While each local consumer store does not have a management board, it does have a consumer quality-committee. The consumer committee provides continual input into management concerning quality of products and services. The multi-nationals do not do this. Also, the Eroski system promotes locally produced products, especially products from its own community- owned producer systems. On the shelves of Eroski stores one will find a surprising high percentage of Eroski produced goods. A further difference is the policy of selling 8% of the shares to the supervisory staff of each non-cooperative Eroski supermarket. The debate about the seeming contradiction in philosophy is deeply rooted. It is similar to the debate among the personalist philosophers in the early part of this century. Some said that cooperative, democratic businesses could not survive in a capitalistic dog-eat-dog society. Others said that it is possible to organize democratic, socially responsible businesses in a hostile competitive economy. Don Jose Maria took the optimistic side, hoping that new democratic businesses would influence the others. Leaders in Mondragon and Valencia say that they hold to their original philosophy of promoting participation and serving the larger community but they recognize the hard, cold realities of the international economy. If they did not expand the Eroski cooperative store system to the whole of Spain then they would have been swamped by the multi-national grocery chains who have lower prices through economies of scale. They judged it impossible to maintain a small chain of worker and community owned stores and still remain competitive in price and product range. The only options they saw was to go big or disappear altogether. To organize worker-owned supermarkets in other cities like Madrid and Grenada was simply not practical. With multi- nationals analyzing every city for market penetration decisions had to be made rapidly and these decisions involved many complex factors which are beyond ordinary citizens and ordinary workers. It involves much sophisticated technology. So, the end result is that a cooperative, community owned complex is flourishing in Mondragon but its health and even survival depends to some extent on its non-cooperative subsidiaries in other centres and in other countries. There is a parallel situation in the area of electro-domestic products and automobile parts. Huge multinationals have the dominant control. Over 30% of the Mondragon production is exported. If they stay as there are they will be put out of business by the competition; the original factories in Mondragon simply would not last if they relied on the local market. Yet they cannot organize democratic factories in England or the United States. So they simply buy subsidiaries sometimes in strategic partnerships with other corporations. Also, they will accept contracts to produce components for large capitalist corporations like General Electric. It is a very real dilemma. If they stick to their original worker-owner system, then harm will be done in that workers in Mondragon will eventually lose their jobs. If they participate in the capitalist, multi-national system then they will go against their original democratic philosophy. I think that Don Jose Maria Arrizmendiarrieta would have seen this as a classical problem of life. In such a dilemma where one is faced with an evil on both sides, the rule was to choose the lesser of two evils. This, the leaders of Mondragon have done, but they have done it reluctantly. They did it, not because they wanted to , but because they were forced to, and that is a good ethical stance. The trend towards mergers and giant conglomerates became very clear during the 1990's. For example, in May of 1997, when the Grand Metropolitan Corporation and Guinness Corporation announced what soon became known in London as the blockbuster merger of the year. It involved combining under one corporate umbrellas such diverse companies as Haagen Daaz ice cream, Bell Whiskey, Burger King, Johnny Walker Whiskey and Guinness Stout. This new corporate combination was valued at over 50 billion dollars (23.8 billion pounds sterling). Part of the rational was that 2000 jobs could be cut from the combine workforce of 85,000. This last fact brings out a fascinating difference between the traditional corporation and the Mondragon corporation. In its five strategic plan for 1997-2002 MCC projected the creation of 8000 new jobs. While the traditional capitalist corporations merge to reduce jobs, the community oriented Mondragon corporation merges to create jobs. This manifests a very fundamental difference in the underlying philosophies. Professional management and efficiency can be instruments to impoverish communities or they can be instruments to enrich communities. The difference lies in the vision and the philosophy. The debate in Mondragon concerning the tension between efficiency and participation is not unique. The same kind of dilemma exists in Eficoop in Mexico, in New Dawn/BCA in Canada and in most cases where community-based groups organize business enterprises. There seems to be an inherent tension or even a contradiction between efficient wealth creation and democratic participation. Professional management is necessary for efficiency and wealth creation, but professional management can only function with authority delegation and indirect democracy. It has often happened that cooperative, community businesses destroyed themselves in resisting outside control and insisting on local decision making. The worthy goal of local democratic control led to incompetent people attempting to make decisions in highly technical matters that they simply did not understand. It is not a question of being malicious or self-seeking, it is simply a fact of life that most businesses in our technological age require systems and networks with highly trained, sophisticated managers. This kind of debate is an ongoing one. It is paralleled in our general political system. The ideal kind of political system would be one of continual referendums where every citizen has an equal say in all decisions. Thomas More in his Utopia of the 16th century designed a marvelous democratic system, but it depended upon all citizens becoming well educated and morally enlightened. No one has been able to implement such an ideal system up to now. Most countries have chosen a system of representative democracy with a great deal of indirectly delegated powers. It works more or less for most people, but is certainly not satisfactory for the poor and the unemployed. For some activists in the cooperative movement the essence of cooperatives is participation. Some cooperatives refuse to participate in larger networks and ventures through fear of losing control. They would rather remain small and democratic than grow bigger and have to submit to outside control. A good number of cooperatives are commercially successful following this formula. They have their qutonomy. However, some could consider this a selfish view. It can happen that such a cooperative is providing wealth and security for its five hundred or so members but that outside that cooperative there are masses of poor and unemployed. Perhaps Kropotkin was thinking of this when he signaled the danger of cooperatives becoming exercises in collective egoism. The Mondragon leaders would say that each cooperative has a duty to expand and create jobs as long as there are unemployed people in the community. If a cooperative is profitable, it has all the more obligation to set aside part of its profits and to invest in the development of new businesses. Likely, the International Cooperative Alliance was thinking this way when they added as one of the basic principles of the cooperative movement: "Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members." ` In this book we have looked at Mondragon, Valencia and a number of smaller examples of community initiative to set up businesses dedicated to the common good. The ones that survive seem to be the ones that maintain a set of ideals and values but who admit that they cannot be all achieved. Rather , they hold the ideals as a kind of horizon which we aim at. Progress is judged not simply in attaining the ideal, but rather coming closer and closer to the ideal. The danger is that the incomplete, compromise situation will be accepted as the ideal and that no effort will be made to change and improve what we have. While almost every other corporation in the world is cutting back and reducing the number of employees, MCC has as part of its five year plan the goal of creating at least 8,800 new jobs in Spain. This is accepted as a duty to the general community which is suffering from unacceptably high levels of employment. While for the Guiness Corporation, the priority is to increase profits, the priority for Mondragon is to increase jobs and preserve the community. This manifests the over-riding fidelity of Mondragon to its most basic distinguishing characteristic: THE PRIORITY OF PEOPLE OVER CAPITAL. Merger.. Times of London, p. 31, May 13, 1997 "From Mondragon to America- Experiments in Community Economic Development" by Greg MacLeod. UCCB Press, sydney, ISBN 0-920336-53-51- $24.95 cAN. Available from Coles Book Stores and most other bookstores. or Goose Lane Editions 469 King St. Fredericton, N.B. Canada E3B 1E5 TEL 506-450-4251 FAX 506-459-4991 General Distribution Services Don Mills, Ont. Toll Free Order Desk.. Ont/ Quebec tel 800-387-0141 Eastern/Western Canada 800-387-0172 Electronic Ordering vis Canadian Telebook Agency (CTA) S 1150391 In USA: General Distribution Services Buffalo, N.Y. tel 800-805-1083 fax 800-481-6207 or fax 800-481-6207 OR WRITE DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLISHER UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON PRESS P.O. BOX 5300 SYDNEY, N.S. CANADA B1P 6L2 -------- REPLY, Original message follows -------- Date: Wednesday, 12-Nov-97 12:41 AM From: Franklin Wayne Poley \ Internet: (fwpoley@vcn.bc.ca) To: gmacleod@uccb.ns.ca \ Internet: (gmacleod@uccb.ns.ca) Subject: Book. Dear Dr. Macleod: Does that $24.95 for your book include postage? FWP. ***** Usenet on Future Villages: vcn.false-creek; listserv on Future Cities: send an email to khadija@wn.apc.org with "subscribe your-email-address" in the body; URL updates: ***** -------- REPLY, End of original message -------- -- Greg MacLeod University College of Cape Breton P.O. Box 5300 Sydney, N.S.- B1P 6L2 CANADA FAX 902-567-0153 Univ. tel 902-539-5300 Res. 902-562-2420 E-MAIL GMACLEOD@SPARC.UCCB.N.S.CA From shostaka@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu Wed Dec 17 13:20:13 1997 Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 13:19:57 -0700 (MST) To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: F.Y.I. Brothers and Sisters: I thought this current message from a Los Angeles local union president to his thousands of UFCW members might interest you: His newsletter is at UFCW770.org The Infotech Revolution By Rick Icaza President, UFCW Local 770 Our nation is undergoing fundamental changes involving both ethnicity and technology. Nowhere are these changes more clearly visible than in the greater L.A. area. I'm writing to report how information technology will radically transform our union in the next five to 10 years. I have been talking with one of America's leading experts in this field - Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D.,sociology professor and director of employment futures at Philadelphia's Drexel University. He has helped open my eyes to the ways in which Local 770 will be servicing members in the 21st Century. Unions have generally not been on the cutting edge of new technology. Think about it. The retail industry has pioneered digitalized cash registers, computerized inventory control and high-tech check-out stations. Meanwhile, union business representatives come to stores with pen and pad. Management has dazzled employees and the public with mechanical innovations. That has to change. We can no longer play catch-up with the companies. Infotech, a variety of devices borne of computers and telecommunications, is fast sweeping across the country. E-mail, modems, faxes and this wondrous wealth of information called the Internet are now a part of daily life for millions of Americans. They are mainstays of the business world. The AFL-CIO and many international unions are now using the Internet to keep labor leaders and activists informed. Some forward-looking local unions have developed their own Internet Web sites. Local 770 is one of them. All union representatives should be using small portable laptop computers to effectively compete with management. This is especially true in complex arbitration cases. A number of Local 770 staff members have obtained their own laptops. The UFCW International Union is working on a program to equip business reps with laptops. Local 770 will be one of the first local unions to get them. With laptops, business reps will be able to visit stores and immediately call up complete profiles on Local 770 members: their seniority and eligibility for benefits, the number of people in a family. Another gadget, the palmtop, will appear during the next three to five years. This voice-activated, voice-responsive device will be small enough to take the place of a wrist-watch or a key case in a jacket pocket or purse. By talking into the palmtop, the person will communicate by voice with a computer and receive back information by voice. Local 770 business reps equipped with palmtops will input union members' Social Security or ID numbers and instantaneously retrieve detailed information. Instead of saying, "I'll get back to you," our business reps using laptops and palmtops will be able to resolve questions or disputes on the spot. They're Coming How far away are palmtops? Hitachi is already testing a model. Dr. Shostak says palmtops will be in use within three years. They will be commonplace in five years. Dr. Shostak predicts in the not-so-distant future, infotech tools will help conduct in-depth surveys of union members about negotiations, benefits or programs. They will largely replace the written questionnaires Local 770 now sends by mail. Through e-mail and the union's web site, rank-and-file members will be updated daily on the latest developments in contract talks or other activities. Our union's membership is very diverse. Overall, Local 770 members are more familiar with computers than workers in the average union. Many of our members have grown up with them. Some have personal computers at home. Employees, especially at retail stores, often work with the technology. But I also know other Local 770 members have not used computers. Many can't afford to own them. Some skeptics say this technology of the future is only for the wealthy elite. They claim working people are too busy trying to survive to bother with computers. They're wrong. Revolution Underway More and more, unionized employees face infotech on the job. New technology is being developed that will offer access to the Internet at home without a personal computer. And that doesn't include voice-activated/voice-responsive palmtops or other very small computers that could be widely available by the year 2005. Our business reps should be among the first to use palmtops, not the last. We should beat the employers to the cutting edge of technology, not follow in their foot-steps. Local 770 is now taking steps to prepare for the coming infotech revolution. There is a place on the Local 770 Web site - www.ufcw770.org - where union members can e-mail their own business rep with questions or problems. Each business rep's name is listed on the site. These messages go directly into the computers at our L.A. headquarters. E-mail messages are checked each business day, and immediately forwarded to the business reps who are indicated. Members who don't remember the name of their business rep can simply send their name, employer and store number, and the message will go immediately to the correct business rep. Union policy has always required business reps to promptly respond to members who contact them by e-mail, telephone or in person. I have instructed all Local 770 business reps to get back to members who contact them by e-mail within 72 hours after the communication is received. (There is one exception: our policy is not to take information about grievances by phone or e-mail. Some-times grievances result in arbitrations. Union members must personally speak with their business reps to ensure all the necessary facts are collected.) Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro; Director, Center for Employment Futures, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Thu Dec 18 00:25:58 1997 Thu, 18 Dec 1997 02:23:08 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 02:23:20 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA From: Aaron Subject: WA: Teamsters unionize screws! marxism-news@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU, fnb-l@tao.ca Let's celebrate! If a screw in the Washington State gulag ever faces getting his wrist slapped for excessive zeal in disciplining imprisoned proles, he'll now have a union to defend him! And when the issue of prison construction comes before the legislature and/or the voters of that state, the Teamsters will be among those lobbying for more! As an added bonus, Washingtonians may be treated to the kind of job action taken a few years ago by unionized guards at New York's Riker's Island. That display of militancy consisted mainly in beating up prisoners! And inmates forced to work for practically nothing will know that those doing the forcing are unionized, even if they (the workers) aren't! These "corrections workers" are clearly suffering from their low pay. In solidarity with these union brothers (and sisters), let's demand that the federal government pay them to store nuclear waste from nearby Hanford under their beds! - Solidarity Forever, - Aaron >Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 20:46:38 -0800 (PST) >From: Michael Eisenscher >Subject: 4000 Vote for IBT in WA Prison System;... > >Washington State Corrections Workers Vote Big for Teamsters >04:41 p.m Dec 17, 1997 Eastern > >WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 4,000 corrections workers >in Washington State will be represented by the Teamsters Union, the >nation's largest union, according to election results released >yesterday. > >In the election, 1,481 corrections workers voted for representation by >the Teamsters Union, 818 for the Washington Public Employee Association >and 189 for no union. > >The corrections employees, who work at 14 facilities across the state, >choose Teamster representation to fight for better pay and benefits >and more full-time jobs. > >Increasingly the state is hiring part-time prison security personnel >at lower wages and benefits to fill jobs vacated by full-time >corrections employees. Fighting this trend is a priority for the >workers who want more full-time jobs for their communities. > >Washington workers are paid 30 percent less than corrections officers >in neighboring Oregon and their pay and benefits lag behind Washington >state police and county correction workers. A sergeant at the top of >the pay scale who has three kids is $30 shy of qualifying for free >school lunches. > >Making their pensions more comparable to the state's law enforcement >personnel is another priority for corrections workers. > >30,000 Teamster public employees work in all 50 states and perform a >variety of jobs. SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters > >Copyright 1997, PR Newswire > From rjohns@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu Thu Dec 18 07:25:17 1997 Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 09:18:57 -0500 From: Rebecca Johns To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: WA: Teamsters unionize screws! References: Dear Aaron et al. Thanks for your spin on things, Aaron. It is a sad commentary on our society that prisons are the fastest growing employer in many states, and that we lock up more of our citizens per capita than any other industrialized nation. And more of a shame for the African-American community, with something like one in four young men incarcerated.....and, to add insult to injury, a rapidly rising rate of capital punishments actually carried out. Where is the public disgust over this state of affairs? "Since it is not for us to create a future that will hold good for all time to come, all the more so, what we need is an uncompromising critical evaluation of all that exists. Uncompromising in that our criticism fears neither its own results nor conflict with the powers that be." Karl Marx. Tiocfaidh ar la!! Rebecca Aaron wrote: > > Let's celebrate! If a screw in the Washington State gulag ever faces > getting his wrist slapped for excessive zeal in disciplining imprisoned > proles, he'll now have a union to defend him! > > And when the issue of prison construction comes before the legislature > and/or the voters of that state, the Teamsters will be among those lobbying > for more! > > As an added bonus, Washingtonians may be treated to the kind of job action > taken a few years ago by unionized guards at New York's Riker's Island. > That display of militancy consisted mainly in beating up prisoners! > > And inmates forced to work for practically nothing will know that those > doing the forcing are unionized, even if they (the workers) aren't! > > These "corrections workers" are clearly suffering from their low pay. In > solidarity with these union brothers (and sisters), let's demand that the > federal government pay them to store nuclear waste from nearby Hanford > under their beds! > > - Solidarity Forever, > - Aaron > > >Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 20:46:38 -0800 (PST) > >From: Michael Eisenscher > >Subject: 4000 Vote for IBT in WA Prison System;... > > > >Washington State Corrections Workers Vote Big for Teamsters > >04:41 p.m Dec 17, 1997 Eastern > > > >WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 4,000 corrections workers > >in Washington State will be represented by the Teamsters Union, the > >nation's largest union, according to election results released > >yesterday. > > > >In the election, 1,481 corrections workers voted for representation by > >the Teamsters Union, 818 for the Washington Public Employee Association > >and 189 for no union. > > > >The corrections employees, who work at 14 facilities across the state, > >choose Teamster representation to fight for better pay and benefits > >and more full-time jobs. > > > >Increasingly the state is hiring part-time prison security personnel > >at lower wages and benefits to fill jobs vacated by full-time > >corrections employees. Fighting this trend is a priority for the > >workers who want more full-time jobs for their communities. > > > >Washington workers are paid 30 percent less than corrections officers > >in neighboring Oregon and their pay and benefits lag behind Washington > >state police and county correction workers. A sergeant at the top of > >the pay scale who has three kids is $30 shy of qualifying for free > >school lunches. > > > >Making their pensions more comparable to the state's law enforcement > >personnel is another priority for corrections workers. > > > >30,000 Teamster public employees work in all 50 states and perform a > >variety of jobs. SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters > > > >Copyright 1997, PR Newswire > > -- "Rise and demand; you are a burning flame. You are sure to conquer there where the final horizon becomes a drop of blood, a drop of life, where you will carry the universe on your shoulders, where the universe will bear your hope." ~Miguel Angel Austrias, Barefoot Meditations Dedicated to Rigoberta Menchu ****************************************************** Rebecca A. Johns Assistant Professor Department of Geography University of South Florida 140 Seventh Avenue St. Petersburg, FL 33701 813-553-1556 From sdubb@weber.ucsd.edu Thu Dec 18 10:51:36 1997 for ; Thu, 18 Dec 1997 09:51:33 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 09:51:32 -0800 (PST) From: Steven Dubb To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Details on Han Young victory (fwd) To all, The effort to establish an independent union in the Han Young maquila in Tijuana was successful! More information below. Steve ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 22:08:52 -0800 (PST) From: Campaign for Labor Rights To: clr@igc.org Subject: Details on Han Young victory Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights To receive our email labor alerts, send a message to CLR@igc.apc.org Phone: (541) 344-5410 Web site: http://www.compugraph.com/clr Membership/newsletter. Send $35.00 to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Sample newsletter available on request. ********************************* See ACTION REQUEST at end of alert ********************************* MORE ABOUT THE HAN YOUNG VICTORY December 17, 1997 [Information provided by staff of the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, who ask that local activists seeking updates contact Campaign for Labor Rights: (541) 344-5410, ] Those who have been following the Han Young/Hyundai situation know from our previous alert that the workers won official recognition of an independent union yesterday. This alert gives some details on that development. This is a complex situation. We apologize if what follows is confusing. This victory was not due to concessions on the part of the Mexican federal government, the state government of Baja nor the management of Han Young. Instead, all of these players conspired to lure the workers into a trap. For two days leading up to the election, management had been offering 1,000-peso bribes to any worker who would vote for what management was claiming was a different "independent union," going by the name "Revindication for the Working Class." However, the director of this supposed independent union is known as an operative for the CTM, the government-affiliated labor federation. During intense negotiations on December 16, the government and Han Young management insisted on a new union certification election, even though the workers already had indicated their preference in an earlier election on October 6, when they voted overwhelmingly to be represented by a union not aligned with the government. The new election would not just include the CROC, the government-affiliated union which previously had a contract with the company, but also the CTM union that was posing as an independent union, even though it apparently did not file appropriate papers or have standing to be in the election. Knowing that they were taking a huge risk - given the recent bribe offers and attempts by management to sow confusion and given how long the struggle already had dragged on - the workers agreed to a new election, but only on condition that the government commit in writing before the election to certify an independent union (a state industrial union not affiliated with any federation) whether STIMAHCS (part of the independent FAT union federation) won or not. The government agreed, believing there was no chance that STIMAHCS would win the election. Apparently the government figured that the workers would lose face when STIMAHCS was defeated during the second election and, with the workers in this weakened position, the company and the government could withdraw their recognition of the unaffiliated independent union. And so, STIMAHCS, a member of the Frente Autentico de Trabajo (FAT), has been certified as the legal representative of the workers to negotiate a contract. In addition to that, the workers have a signed agreement that they can also register a state industrial (unaffiliated) union if they choose. International solidarity played a crucial role in this struggle. Although the government and Han Young management did not intend to have justice served by the second union election, that does not mean that our pressure was ineffective. Quite the contrary: The usual response of these forces would have been outright repression. However, they felt constrained to negotiate precisely because of intense international scrutiny. They schemed. Their scheme failed. In spite of every effort on the part of the wealthy and the powerful, justice prevailed for these workers. The hunger strike was called off and the workers are gradually preparing to return to solid food under doctors' supervision. In addition to the above, which mostly resulted from negotiations between the workers and the government, workers also reached an accord with Han Young management, the terms of which are close to those of the agreement struck on Friday but not ratified on Saturday: * Reinstatement of fired workers with back pay. * Pay raises - not the 30 percent across-the-board raises agreed to on Friday, but raises based on job category - essentially, the equivalent of the earlier raise. * Establishment of a health and safety commission. These commitments do not constitute a collective bargaining agreement. Negotiations for the latter are to begin when workers return from their Christmas break. We should expect the power structure to try to derail this process. There may be attempts to crush the union. Han Young may renege on its promises to bargain a contract in good faith. The Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers will continue to monitor the situation closely. Campaign for Labor Rights will continue to notify international solidarity activists of unfolding events. Given the behavior of both the government and Han Young management during the negotiations on Monday, we have to be prepared that these parties still have something up their sleeves. Until a collective bargaining agreement is signed, we need to keep up the pressure: THE BOYCOTT OF HYUNDAI MOTORS IS STILL ON! ["Boycott Hyundai" bumper stickers are still available. Contact Labor/Community Alliance: (209) 226-0477 or .] ****************** ACTION REQUEST ****************** 1) The Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers is asking people to publicize the victory and the reasons for it, including the role of international solidarity. It would be helpful to get stories about the victory into union newsletters and progressive community newspapers. If local activists were involved, give credit for their part and get the word out to local mainstream media. This kind of follow-up is helpful for building the basis for further support from your community when it is needed in the future. 2) Please send a letter to Hyundai Precision America. Sample: Ted Chung, President Hyundai Precision America 8880 Rio San Diego Drive San Diego, CA 92108 Telephone: (619) 574-1500 Dear Mr. Chung: I have been following the situation at Han Young. While I am pleased that the workers were able to win official certification for an independent union, I am also aware that collective bargaining for a contract is still to come. I urge you: Bring to bear on Han Young management all of the considerable pressure at your disposal so that Han Young: * Engages in good faith bargaining with the union immediately after the Christmas holidays. * Abides by the agreements it signed with the workers on December 16. * Undertakes no illegal actions against the union. The Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers advises me that the boycott of Hyundai Motors is still in effect until a collective bargaining agreement is signed between Han Young management and the union truly representing the workers. I will continue to support that boycott until I hear that your contractor, Han Young, has fully complied with its obligations to the workers. Sincerely, Diego, CA 92103 From chrisb@atwork.org Fri Dec 19 13:36:56 1997 for ; Fri, 19 Dec 1997 12:36:47 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 1997 12:40:34 -0800 From: Chris Benner Reply-To: chrisb@atwork.org To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Two Job Announcements (I just joined this list, so my apologies if this is a repost) Please Circulate and Repost/Forward. JOB ANNOUNCEMENT (Two Positions) Working Partnerships USA, a dynamic labor-community partnership in San Jose, California, is currently looking for people to fill two key positions in the organization: ** Research Director-to manage all aspects of Working Partnerships USA's research and policy program; and ** Education Coordinator-to oversee the design and delivery of all Working Partnerships USA's education and training program. Both positions and the organization are described below. Please forward this message to anyone you thing might be interested. If you are interested in applying, please indicate which position you are applying for and send a resume and cover letter to: Working Partnerships USA 2102 Almaden Rd., Suite 100 San Jose, CA 95125 (408) 269-7872 Fax: 266-2653 Salary and Benefits for both positions are competitive, with a growing organization, and include generous benefits package including health, dental, and vision coverage and pension plan. WHO WE ARE: Working Partnerships USA, a labor-community partnership, was founded to bring a wider range of voices to the table in discussions around regional economic development, and state and national employment policy. Through grassroots campaigns, research, education and a broad community planning process, Working Partnerships USA is changing the terms of the debate to ensure that the social and economic well-being of community residents be the central concern in strategies for economic development in the Silicon Valley region. JOB OPENINGS: RESEARCH DIRECTOR The Research Director will be responsible for developing our research, publication and dissemination program aimed at improving the social and economic well-being of all working families in Silicon Valley. Primary areas of research interest include: the regional economy and regional labor markets; income and wage dynamics; employment practices and employment policy; impacts of globalization and the rise of information technologies; workforce development and training; work and family policies; affordable health care and quality child care. Responsibilities * Manage all aspects of Working Partnerships USA's research and policy analysis program * Work closely with Senior Research Associate in planning, designing and conducting research projects, using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies * Lead research team, including research interns, academic advisors and volunteers * Help summarize and analyze quantitative and qualitative data from research findings * Develop a publication and dissemination strategy for research findings and policy recommendations * Write positions papers, reports, briefing papers, and articles on findings of research projects * Brief local, state, and national policy makers on research findings and policy recommendations * Work with local unions and community organizations in strengthennig their own research capabilities Qualifications * Advanced degree in public policy, economics, urban planning, labor relations, business, sociology, or related field. (PhD preferred. Master's Degree with demonstrated experience also considered) * Proven strong management and organizational skills * Demonstrated quantitative and qualitative research skills * Familiarity with basic economic and demographic data sources * Demonstrated writing ability for both an academic and a popular audience * Ability to interface with public, and wide range of labor, community, public policy organizations and elected officials. * Willingness to make a long-term commitment to the organization EDUCATION COORDINATOR A primary goal of Working Partnerships is to develop and implement an economic development strategy which puts community well-being at the center. Economics and political education aimed at community and labor activists as well as policy makers is a critical means toward that end. Our training program is building the leadership and organizing skills of broad and diverse constituencies. We are committed to working with our base to design and implement programs which advance community well-being Responsibilities of the education coordinator include: * Cooperatively develop and design the education and training program of the organization. * Oversee the design and delivery of all Working Partnerships trainings. * Organize community, labor, religious, and small business leaders to participate in Working Partnerships trainings and campaigns. * Coordinate a participatory needs assessment process to identify training needs of our base, and identify and supervise contracted trainers. * Oversee Working Partnerships' training budget. * Coordinate the Labor/Community Leadership Institute, a biannual eight-session training on economic and social policy designed for labor and community leaders and policy makers. Responsibilities include: working with a training team to develop curriculum focusing on popular economics and policy making, delivering training modules, recruiting participants. * Design and deliver training modules which build the capacity of grassroots organizations and unions. * Research and integrate best training practices from around the country. Qualifications: * Experience designing, coordinating, and leading trainings * Experience managing staff and projects. * Ability to lead and to work well in teams. * Strong written and verbal skills. * Experience working with diverse constituencies * Community and/or labor organizing experience. * Bilingual in Spanish a plus! -- ================================================================== Chris Benner, Research Associate Working Partnerships USA (408) 269-7872 2102 Almaden Rd. #100 fax: (408) 266-2653 San Jose, CA 95125 email: chrisb@atwork.org http://www.atwork.org ================================================================== From Urthman@aol.com Wed Dec 24 11:30:30 1997 From: Urthman Date: Wed, 24 Dec 1997 13:25:39 EST To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: WA Teamsters unionize "screws" Last week, in response to the news about Washington State corrections officers voting for Teamster representation, Aaron wrote: "Let's celebrate! If a screw in the Washington State gulag ever faces getting his wrist slapped for excessive zeal in disciplining imprisoned proles, he'll now have a union to defend him!" For what it's worth, the Washington State CO's were already unionized. At the time of the recent election, they had been represented by an independent association (and prior to that had been represented by AFSCME). They voted to decert the independent in order to be represented by the Teamsters. It is also worth noting that the individuals labelled by Aaron as "screws" are at least as worthy of the label of "proles" as the prisoners to whom Aaron gives this label. My experience with correctional officers in several different states (mostly as union rep/organizer, but also a few days as inmate) is that they tend to be working class men and women who happen to have found jobs carrying keys. Are there too many prisoners and too many prisons in the United States? No doubt about it in my mind. But that does not mean we should dehumanize the people that have been hired to do what is often a stressful and dangerous job. Likewise, although individual CO's may do things which make them subject to discipline, as workers they deserve due process and representation... Seasons Greetings -- and Solidarity! Ed Ramthun AFSCME Indianapolis, Indiana From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Dec 26 16:34:55 1997 Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:33:18 -0800 (PST) Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:26:35 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:26:35 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Clinton Signs New Restrictive Cyberspace Copyright Law Sender: meisenscher@igc.org To all those who have received articles from me, who periodically repost new articles themselves, or who run newsgroups: This article recently came to my attention. It seems that the "Fair Use" Doctrine, which I contend covered much of the material I have been posting (which others may dispute), may have been nullified by a new law recently signed by Clinton. While the article indicates that the primary target of the law is software piracy, it is by no means limited to that. If this new law is interpreted restrictively, any reproduction of an article from a website (NYT, WSJ, etc.) via the Internet, whether to individuals or to a newgroup listserve, would constitute a violation. The Fair Use exclusion that allows partial excerpts for scholarly citation, review or commentary would likely still apply, but reproduction of an entire article would be precluded under most circumstances. There is no restriction on posting URL (web addresses) that allow others to go to the source to see the article in its entirety; however, that assumes the site is not restricted to paid subscribers (e.g., WSJ Interactive Edition). It also will mean that each person will have to take the time to chase down their own copies. (This generally takes me from 30-60 minutes per day to locate, reformat, combine, and distribute.) For those who have asked to be included on my distribution list, and newsgroups to which I have posted selected articles, this new set of restrictions constitutes a considerable restraint. As this Act is only very recently signed into law, it remains to be seen who will be prosecuted, for what kinds of alleged violations, and what happens when test cases go to the courts. Stay tuned. [Technically, I am very probably violating the law by posting this report in its entirety. It was passed on to me without a URL.] In solidarity, Michael E. (The Pirate of Agitprop) ============================================= Published Thursday, December 18, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News Penalties can apply to non-profit postings Clinton signs tough digital copyright law WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has signed the first law directly cracking down on unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material such as books, software and music in cyberspace. The No Electronic Theft Act makes it a crime to possess or distribute multiple copies of online copyrighted material, for profit or otherwise. Penalties include fines of up to $250,000 and five years in prison. The law closes a loophole in criminal law that had allowed the distribution of copyrighted material as long as the offender didn't seek profit. Under the law, a person who ``willfully'' infringes on copyrighted material worth at least $1,000 could be subject to criminal prosecution even if he does not profit. Software and entertainment groups, including the Business Software Alliance, the Motion Picture Association and the Association of American Publishers, said the change was essential to protect software, music recordings and other creative products easily pirated over the Internet. They cited a 1994 court case dismissing criminal copyright charges against a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student who posted copies of popular software programs on the Internet for free downloading. But last month, a leading group of scientists, the Association for Computing, wrote to Clinton asking him to veto the bill because it might inadvertently criminalize many scientific publications available over the Internet, and might limit the ``fair use'' doctrine. Other digital copyright issues, including international intellectual property protection, await Congress in 1998. And some who had opposed this law because of its potential to impede research remain wary: ``We will see how the legislation is implemented,'' says Lauren Gelman of the U.S. Association for Computing. Targets of this law are not Web site creators or teens sharing software, says Shari Steele of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ``This is not intended to put people in jail for making one or two copies. It's for people committing commercial-scale software piracy.'' 1997 Mercury Center. The information you receive online from Mercury Center is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright-protected material. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Dec 26 16:36:23 1997 Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:33:22 -0800 (PST) Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:26:03 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 26 Dec 1997 15:26:03 -0800 (PST) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: ACTION ON MASSACRE; Govt. Troops Swarm Massacre Site; Who are the Paramilitaries? Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Date: Thu, 25 Dec 1997 14:09:45 -0800 (PST) From: National Commission for Democracy in Mexico Sender: owner-ncdm-ally@igc.org Subject: Urgent need for ballots (revised) To: ncdm-ally@igc.org URGENT: WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO COLLECT BALLOTS!!! Since the massacre of the 45 women, men and children the NCDM has been inundated with phone calls from all over the United States and Canada from people who are overcome with grief and anxious to take action. We would like to suggest that one of the most important ways you can help and show your support is by collecting ballots on the "Right to Live in Peace in Chiapas." This ballot could have a significant impact if we obtain our goal of more than 100,000 ballots before February 9th. Such a feat would send a powerful message to the Mexican and US governments that civil society here, will not tolerate another massacre of Indigenous peoples in Chiapas. In addition, these ballots, representing more than a 100,000 voices in the US, would convey the American people's urgent concerns and strong desire for a just peace and resolution to the war in Chiapas. We ask volunteers to make 100 copies of the ballot and return them to the NCDM before February 9th. Please join us our efforts to stop further blood shed and another Vietnam in Mexico. The ballot has been included below. For more information please contact the NCDM at (213)254-9550 Fax(213)254-9597 e-mail: moonlight@igc.apc.org mail: 5902 Monterey Rd #194 Los Angeles, CA 90042 POPULAR BALLOT ON THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN PEACE We ask you to please answer the following questions. The results will be tallied and sent to both governments after February 9th of 1998. Thank you for your act of conscience. 1. Are you alarmed or concerned about the human rights record of Mexico? Yes__ No___ I don't know___ 2. Are you confident that Mexican authorities will resolve these human rights problems on their own, without international pressure? Yes___ No___ I don't know__ 3. Are you in agreement with the militarization of Mexico as a response to the movement for human rights and economic hope? Yes____ No____ I don't know____ 4. Should the U.S. give or sell arms, military equipment or training to Mexico? Yes____ No____ I don't know____ 5. Are you willing to participate in a boycott against Mexican tourism and/or specific products that would end when clear signals are evident that the human rights situation has improved? Yes___ No___ I don't know___ 6. Do you want the Zapatistas to come to the United States to speak of the conditions of the indigenous communities in Chiapas? Yes___ No___ I don't know__ Optional: NAME____________________________________ ADDRESS_________________________________ CITY,STATE, ZIP CODE_____________________ DATE_____________________________________ SOCIAL SECTOR___________________________ =================================== Subject: Troops Swarm Over Massacre Site To: ncdm-ally@igc.org By Caroline Brothers SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Troops and police swarmed over the bloodstained camp in southern Mexico on Wednesday where 45 defenseless refugees were massacred by paramilitaries in a five-hour orgy of killing. The refugees, all Tzotzil Indians, were gunned down on Monday at their camp near the village of Acteal, about 450 miles (750 km) southeast of Mexico City. Twenty-one of the victims were women and 14 were children. Sickened by the slaughter of innocents just before Christmas, a local church leader accused the Mexican government of ignoring warnings that paramilitaries linked to President Ernesto Zedillo's party were preparing attacks in the troubled state of Chiapas -- scene of an Indian uprising in 1994 against the government. ``We are on the verge of a civil war and we don't understand why neither the Federal nor the state governments are really doing anything to stop this,'' Raul Vera, assistant bishop of the town of San Cristobal de las Casas, told reporters late on Tuesday. The bodies of the 45 victims were still stacked up in a morgue in the Chiapas state capital Tuxtla Gutierrez on Wednesday morning under heavy police guard. Relatives and reporters were not allowed access. The handful of Indians who managed to escape from the slaughter were recovering in local hospitals in San Cristobal -- the nearest major town to Acteal. Orphaned by the murder of her parents, 4-year-old Lucia Vazquez Luna lay in a hospital bed unable to walk after a bullet shattered her leg. Next to her stood her aunt Maria Vazquez Gomez, whose mother and brother died in the slaughter. Trembling uncontrollably and sobbing, she cried: ``I'm all alone, I'm all alone.'' Zedillo condemned the massacre and ordered federal investigators to Chiapas to hunt down the killers and calm tension between Indians, Zapatistas and paramilitaries backed by local landowners and politicians. The moves did little to calm local people, whose grief for the dead was mixed with anger at the government for failing to guarantee their safety despite a huge military presence in the state left over from the January 1994 uprising by the Indian Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN). Mexico's main left-wing opposition, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), called for the resignation of Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet, a hard-liner widely blamed for blocking attempts to get stalled peace negotiations between the Zapatistas and the government back on track. Chuayffet denied any responsibility but Bishop Vera released a copy of a letter he wrote to the minister on October 18 saying: ``We have information that paramilitary groups are multiplying ... former soldiers and police are training civilians to fight their brothers, ruling party congressmen are sponsoring the sale and the trafficking of weapons, acting as protectors and coordinators of the various paramilitary groups.'' Vera said the government never responded to the letter. Federal Attorney-General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, whose office has taken over the investigation of the massacre, said Tuesday night that his detectives were questioning four people in connection with the crime but was not yet sure of their role. About 25 men traveling in light trucks carried out the killings and investigators were seeking to identify them, he added. But survivors of the massacre and local people said they knew who the killers were -- paramilitaries backed by local branches of Zedillo's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). There was no immediate reaction to the mass murder from the jungle hideout of Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos. But Javier Elorriaga, a leader of the Zapatista's civilian wing, accused the Chiapas state government of giving the paramilitaries money for weapons, uniforms and communications equipment. ``You can't explain how these people can walk around Chiapas with impunity with their arms and uniforms and the huge number of police and soldiers don't touch them,'' he said in a radio interview. ``The Chiapas government protects them.'' Both Chiapas state governor Julio Cesar Ruiz Ferro and national PRI leader Mariano Palacios Alcocer have denied any involvement with the paramilitaries. ^REUTERS@ ================================= La Jornada Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1997 by Andres Aubry and Angelica Inda translated by Duane Ediger Who are the "paramilitaries"? The conflict in Chiapas has given anthropologists a new task: to identify a new societal subject, the protagonist of violence, which arose first in Chiapas' northern zone, then spread to the highlands and canyonlands. A methodical inventory found different levels of "paramilitary" activity among five of Chiapas' nine indigenous ethnic groups: the Chol, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, with some activity among the Tojolabal, and timid beginnings among the Zoque. In Chenalhó alone, 17 townships are affected: one-third of the villages and half the population. The scope of the phenomenon, as well as its ravages and number of victims, point to its need for study under disciplined methods. By historical precedent, they were called first pistoleros (gunmen) or guardias blancas (white guards), for the wounds they have wrought in the collective memory of Chiapas. Though these are still present, the media began calling some paramilitaries to differentiate them from the former (agents from outside the communities, whereas the newer paramilitaries came from within them), because they act in an ambiguous and undeclared relation with the police, military and government, and they intervene with their own arms. Despite repeated shows of proof to the contrary, the state has denied the existence of paramilitaries, arguing that some local congress people and public opinion shapers refused to believe. For lack of a better term, and out of respect for the authorities, we will continue to name them after the fashion of the media, but in quotation marks. Who are the "paramilitaries"? They appear almost exclusively among young people frustrated by rural authorities. In the 17 townships of the municipality of Chenalhó in which we were able to document the existence of 246 of them, rural inertia combined with population growth provides neither land nor work, not even farm work, to the young people who reach the age of membership in an ejido. (An ejido is a communally held and worked parcel of land; it also refers to the land holders.) Married and the heads of their households, they find themselves in the same situation as their parents: unable to find work, surviving by miracle or by stealing land and harvests. Obligated to live as delinquents, they not only lack a subsistence, but also have no reason to attend the assemblies and for that reason they are excluded from decisions made by the ejido which considers them pariahs. First conclusion: these criminals are products of the system and of their economic, agrarian and labor options. Immediately "paramilitarization" offers them a way out and prestige. The way out is first the heavy war tax they levy (25 pesos, or US$3, biweekly per permanent adult, or a one-time payment of 375 pesos, or US$47, per person for those who don't pay the 25 pesos biweekly), which gives them an income; secondly, the booty of animals, harvested crops and domestic goods (including automobiles); these in turn legitimize the humiliating theft of corn, coffee and poultry. The weapons--and these are not light arms--bring prestige and confer upon them power and status unlike they or their landless parents have ever known. Because they have led an itinerant life looking for work, and have not been ejido members, they never had the civic education afforded through periodic assemblies in which the collective destinies of villages, townships and municipalities are decided, and they escaped all communal responsibility. For this reason, the "paramilitaries" have no social or political project. They make no proclamations; they simply impose themselves. The only masters they have had are the monitors of their military training, a condition they must meet in order to acquire the arms they carry. Their mentors, whether in encampments or on patrols, conduct themselves in a way very similar to the Kaibiles of Guatemala. They can be seen at their checkpoints, clearly affected by drug use. Their way of talking and carrying themselves betrays the fascistic nature of their formation. What is their aim? Why do they operate only within the close boundaries of the zone of influence within which they enjoy perfect impunity? The reason is strategic, and they themselves are probably unaware of it, for they would not exist were it not for the manipulation of a hidden Director. The villages that fill the local news form a wedge between the four contiguous municipalities of Chenalho, Pantelhó, Cancuc and Tenajapa. The warning signs that mark the training area of the group MIRA reveal the same tactical option: these "paramilitaries" are based at the convergence of the four municipalities of Huixtan, Chanal, Oxchuc, and Cancuc, anticipating an eventual bridge to the paramilitaries of Chenalhó. The commanders of the Paz y Justicia group, near El Limar, control the five Chol Indian municipalities and the entrances to Amatán, Huitiupán, Simojovel, El Bosque, and Chilón (via the Chinchulines of Bachajón). Taken together, they dominate the public policy space in nearly all of the municipalities administered by SEAPI (State Secretariat for Attention to Indigenous Peoples). The objective of all of them is to dismantle any and all--unarmed--opposition bases of support. After the military offensive of February 9, 1995, one of the military tactics denounced by the observer missions was the destruction of productive installations, crops and even farm implements to take away the dissidents' future. The "paramilitary" tactics employed in Chenalhó are the same. The operations began when the coffee was near ready to harvest, in a year when the price was high. Like flies shooed away, productive farmers were expelled en masse. Like undesirables getting the rug pulled out from under them, the indigenous of Chiapas' are robbed of their future. ____________________________ Andres Aubry and Angelica Inda are sociologists and historians living in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Duane Ediger is a resident of Dallas and a frequent traveler to Mexico From aikya@ix.netcom.com Mon Dec 29 11:16:17 1997 by dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id rma019167; Mon Dec 29 12:15:46 1997 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'Labor Research and Action Project'" Subject: FW: Workers Comp - Are You An Injured Worker Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 09:00:47 -0800 Please do not use your reply feature. Instead, reply directly mailto: medcheck@telepath.com Chime right in if you have expertise in workers' comp. Aikya ---------- Sent: Saturday, December 27, 1997 9:53 PM To: medcheck@telepath.com Subject: Workers Comp - Are You An Injured Worker Hi Everyone, The more involved I get in workers comp, the more it is becoming a itch in my side. I am in the process developing the website for workers comp, The MedCheck Project. It is very similiar to Florenc Project, except it will be on injuried workers getting a fair medical evaluation, timely treatment and pain control, plus patient rights. We need your input on information on workers comp, so we can help educate the injuried worker, so they can help themself get fair treatment. Also, information on the employers responsibilities when an employe is injuried. I project the website will be published in Jan 98. This site is for nurses and lay people. It is for anyone who is injuried on the job and needs information about their patient rights, the worker comp laws in their state, and steps to take. The goal of this project is to decrease the chronic pain and futher disablities that are caused because treatment was not given in a timely fashion or the injuried did not receive a proper medical evaluation because the doc worked for the insurance comp and commented fraud on the evalulation papers. If immediate treatment and proper treatment was received it could eliminate futher pain and disability. I have also seen patient rights neglected in the process. The injuried was involved in the plan of treatment, no pain management, no explanation or patient education, not able to choose our physician, confidential records are available to who ever, the injuried is not treated with dignity and respect by the employer, etc. I could go on and on. The "MedCheck Project" needs your input. Can you help? We need links to informative sites on the subject, do's and dont's when filling a claim, state laws, etc. If you have been an injuried worker, we would very much like to post your story. We also need members who will take on certain responsibilities for this organization. Thanks in advance! Kate Purcell,RN -- P U R C E L L E N T E R P R I S E S **** Award Winning Sites **** National NurseSearch Reduce Naturally Paid subscribers Weight Management Support On-Line ICQ # 5735952 $o?`?o$o,,,,o$o?`?o$o$o?`?o$o,,,,o$o?`?o$oo$o?`?o$$o?`?o$o,,,,o$o? PurKat Design & Marketing Solutions Kate Purcell, RN Office:405-691-5466 fax:405-691-8389 9208 S. Villa Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73159-6745 ICQ 6117794 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Dec 29 12:32:04 1997 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 1997 11:31:56 -0800 (PST) Mon, 29 Dec 1997 11:26:21 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 11:26:21 -0800 (PST) To: Labor Research and Action Project From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: FW: Workers Comp - Are You An Injured Worker Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Please do not use your reply feature. Instead, reply directly mailto: medcheck@telepath.com Chime right in if you have expertise in workers' comp. Aikya ---------- Sent: Saturday, December 27, 1997 9:53 PM To: medcheck@telepath.com Subject: Workers Comp - Are You An Injured Worker Hi Everyone, The more involved I get in workers comp, the more it is becoming a itch in my side. I am in the process developing the website for workers comp, The MedCheck Project. It is very similiar to Florenc Project, except it will be on injuried workers getting a fair medical evaluation, timely treatment and pain control, plus patient rights. We need your input on information on workers comp, so we can help educate the injuried worker, so they can help themself get fair treatment. Also, information on the employers responsibilities when an employe is injuried. I project the website will be published in Jan 98. This site is for nurses and lay people. It is for anyone who is injuried on the job and needs information about their patient rights, the worker comp laws in their state, and steps to take. The goal of this project is to decrease the chronic pain and futher disablities that are caused because treatment was not given in a timely fashion or the injuried did not receive a proper medical evaluation because the doc worked for the insurance comp and commented fraud on the evalulation papers. If immediate treatment and proper treatment was received it could eliminate futher pain and disability. I have also seen patient rights neglected in the process. The injuried was involved in the plan of treatment, no pain management, no explanation or patient education, not able to choose our physician, confidential records are available to who ever, the injuried is not treated with dignity and respect by the employer, etc. I could go on and on. The "MedCheck Project" needs your input. Can you help? We need links to informative sites on the subject, do's and dont's when filling a claim, state laws, etc. If you have been an injuried worker, we would very much like to post your story. We also need members who will take on certain responsibilities for this organization. Thanks in advance! Kate Purcell,RN -- P U R C E L L E N T E R P R I S E S **** Award Winning Sites **** National NurseSearch Reduce Naturally Paid subscribers Weight Management Support On-Line ICQ # 5735952 $o?`?o$o,,,,o$o?`?o$o$o?`?o$o,,,,o$o?`?o$oo$o?`?o$$o?`?o$o,,,,o$o? PurKat Design & Marketing Solutions Kate Purcell, RN Office:405-691-5466 fax:405-691-8389 9208 S. Villa Ave. Oklahoma City, OK 73159-6745 ICQ 6117794