Congress may be taking up the Columbia Free Trade Agreement soon. I don't know a lot about it, so I am putting this question out to knowledgeable readers on the blogs. What's your take?
My gut tells me this agreement would be a disaster. Reports of between dozens (from Wikipedia who sourced Congressional hearing numbers) to thousands (reported by labor groups) of workers trying to organize there have been murdered. My understanding is the US industry most wanting to have this FTA is the beef industry -- an industry that is responsible for enormous environmental devestation, and should be regulated, curtailed and discouraged more, not less. (The beef and pork industries are huge and powerful, and their products kill people -- but that is another diary.) Historically, Republicans have favored this proposed agreement and Democrats have been against it, citing concerns over human rights violations in Columbia.
A friend just sent me this link from the Presbyterian church, which argues that such an agreement would add to the problem of extreme poverty in Columbia.
According to this website, the President supports the Columbia Free Trade Agreement because he believes it will create jobs. I respect, admire, and honor the President, and intend to work hard toward his re-election, but on this note, he may be wrong, IMHO. I want to know if I am missing something before I voice my own opinion on this matter to my elected officials. Is there a compelling and responsible reason some Democrats might be reconsidering this bill? Dialogue here may help to educate all of us a little. Thank you.
"We are thrilled to offer interested job seekers diverse positions with limitless opportunity at a global company," said Kelly Frieze, store manager of the future IKEA Centennial. "At IKEA, we realize that the ability to do the things in life that bring success and happiness is extremely valuable to our coworkers. It also is as fun to work at IKEA as it is to shop at IKEA."
IKEA plans to hire 400 people in Centennial, officials said.
Dex One wants to send their graphics design jobs to the Philippines. This is irresponsible, un-American, and will negatively impact the quality of Dex One's products and services. Sending jobs overseas will also harm the local businesses that Dex One claims they care about.
Dex One states that they are made up of "local people, with local knowledge, serving local businesses." Contract workers in the Philippines are NOT local, they do not know our local businesses, nor do they contribute any way to our local economies. It is the lack of American jobs that is hurting our citizens and local businesses. If Dex One ships more jobs overseas, there will be even fewer people to support local businesses, and therefore, fewer local businesses will be able to advertise with Dex One. It is a vicious cycle.
The graphics employees at Dex One create outstanding designs that speak to their customers. In this video, Dex Oneemployees talk about their work and their lives.
At what point does your work make you a target for political harassment? As a blogger I get a small amount of hate mail and a moderate amount of harassing mail (the two are different, one you can see the person foaming at the mouth, the other you can see their grin at wasting your time), but that is kind of par for the course.
However a troubling trend has started from the Right with regards to State University professors. They are nominally State employees, so the Right as begun to use Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to look at all of the e-mails of professors.
It all started with Ken "the Cooch" Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia, talking about going after a climate science researcher in the totally discredited "climate gate" incident. Since then there have been FOIA requests of a William Cronon of University of Wisconsin in connection with the illegal and unethical actions of the Republicans and Gov. Walker in that state.
Now it is spreading.
Talking Points Memo first reported and now the
New York Times is picking up the story of several conservative groups in Michigan who are asking for a wide swath of e-mails from three professors from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.
Thank you for your assistance in bringing together workers from every walk of life: teachers, firefighters, police officers, government employees, nurses, union members, people of faith, civil rights activists, environmentalists and many others. Thank you for giving us a reason, and a renewed commitment, to publicly declare that we stand together in solidarity to protect the middle class, and to ensure justice for workers. Thank you for helping us find our voice for democracy, and our passion for equal opportunity to the American Dream.
I am very glad that the political backbone has stiffened up in opposition to Republican led efforts to strip bargaining rights or introduce draconian budget cuts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio.
But I am troubled with what i am seeing in Colorado. Here our 'Democratic' Leadership in the office of the Governor, Senators and even some of the Mayoral candidates are taking a page from the Republicans and doing the same kind of things.
Our Governor, Former Mayor John Hickenlooper has introduced a budget that is as bad as some of these Republican Governors.
The only difference instead of saying "I'm the boss so shove it" he says
"Aw shucks, the budgets in trouble, we have to do tough things" like pass a budget that will lay off 3,600 teachers and public employees after campaigning on creating jobs. Sound familiar?
Our Democratic Governor says the budget is in trouble and this is the way it has to be. But that's not so, to quote Michael Moore,
COLORADO IS NOT BROKE there is just a problem with who is getting the tax breaks and who is getting the paying dearly with these budget cuts.
This is old news in the scheme of things. I posted it elsewhere but it didn't seem to take, and it hardly needs confirmation, but Republican Über Strategist Ed Rollins confirmed on AC360 a few weeks back something we all know about the continuing and coordinated hit on Unions, Democrats, and The Middle Class:
COOPER: He (Wisconsin Governor Walker) can still go after collective bargaining rights six months down the road if he wanted to?
SPITZER: Absolutely. Absolutely.
ROLLINS: He's going to get this. He's got a Republican majority that wants the same alteration that he does. And so, you know, it may take a month. It may take three weeks, whatever. And I think at the end of the day, the public is behind him in Wisconsin, and the public's behind him nationally. And I think the 29 Republican governors all have fiscal problems. This is going to be a role model.
If anyone knows anything about Republican stategy beyond the Koch Brothers and Karl Rove, it's Ed Rollins.
He was there for Reagan, he was there for Bush I and Bush II, and he's here now doing his dirty work under the covers and behind the scenes. President Bush was surprised to see see us hippy scum protesting his visit to Colorado Springs in 2004, and I'm sure few noticed, but I saw the Bastard Rollins come in early to prep the World Arena in Colorado Springs for Bush's final push toward re-election.
Republicans are looking at 29 laboratories for the cold-blooded murder of the middle class. If they fail in Wisconsin, they'll try elsewhere. And if anyone thinks they won't try it in Colorado they have another thing coming. So long as Ed Rollins can make his Lexus payment he'll be plotting the demise of America's Middle Class..... come hell or high water.
The thing about being particularly defensive about education or any of the other issues around the mayoral race this year, is that Denver has great potential and I don't want to see it squandered because some Mayoral candidate who is a power-hungry sell-out has it in mind that they really want to be governor, or that they ultimately want to get their foot in the door with the lobby for education privatization because it's job security.
If DPS is proven to be going in the wrong direction, the Mayor should take responsibility and work towards shared governance or Mayoral control of the city's public schools (like Chicago, DC, NYC, Boston, LA(partial) and a growing number of cities).
Now, if that isn't a loaded question, I dunno what is. First, what's proof? Who gets to decide? Second, it assumes that concentrated Mayoral power is a viable option which indicates that organizations that would support such takeover are more than willing to compromise community power and input so as to further whatever agenda they have. Third, big city name-dropping pressures candidates into thinking well FUCKSTICKS! I don't want Denver to not be like those big cities. Everyone who's anyone wants Denver to move away from being a cow metropolis and more towards a massively-sprawling-rent-too-damn-high-perpetual-importer-of-resources-at-the-expense-of-the-natural-world-killing-machine! I have to say yes to concentrated Mayoral control now or I'll look like a dirty hippie!
Anyhoo, below the fold is a related comic from Salon which I found via Joel's Hindbrain:
"And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself.
I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America.
Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner."
Pulte Homes received $900 MILLION in stimulus funds as part of the economic package that prevented a near-miss with a new depression. This money was intended to hire or keep workers.
Shouting "Where are the jobs?" and "Where is the money?" the protesters from the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, many in overalls and helmets, said taxpayers have provided $900 million in tax breaks to Pulte with the aim of creating jobs. They said they haven't seen the results they were promised.
"Those tax breaks were supposed to create jobs," Wayne Peworchik, one of the protesters, said. "That was President Obama's and Congress's intent."
"Instead, Pulte laid off workers," Peworchik said
.
When is enough enough for these big-time corporations? And if the government won't hold them accountable, how about we do?
OK, no one is 100% happy with TSA and what we have to go through at airports before getting on a flight. Obviously, the first blame must go to George Bush and Dick Cheney who allowed 9/11 to happen on their watch. This has forever changed the way we fly to our business meetings and overdue vacations. Bush and Cheney were sufficiently warned of the dangers of terrorist attacks by hijacking and ignored those warnings completely.
The next set of blame must also be laid at the feet of Bush/Cheney as well as Tom Ridge and Karl Rove, who implemented TSA protocols for political reasons, who've kept the pay scale down, and who surely intimidated and influenced management from Day 1 to always keep TSA wanting for resources and as a target of anti-worker sentiment.
"If you look at [the TSA's] performance, have they ever stopped a terrorist? Anyone can get through," Mica said in an interview. "We've been very lucky, very fortunate. TSA should focus on its mission: setting up the protocol, adapting to the changing threats and gathering intelligence."
None of us should allow this to happen and this will be the constant fight of the next congress: preventing the complete defunding of government and dismantling of the key services it provides by Republican anarchists like John Mica and Jim DeMint, brought to you by a political party on the steroid of pure green cash given in fatal doses.
Sometimes stories happen because of planning; other times serendipity intervenes, which is how we got to the conversation we'll be having today.
In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.
If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.
Since I just thought this up myself, I'm really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.
It's a new week...so let's all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?
When one is looking at a statistic it is always worthwhile asking if the statistic is really measuring what you want to know. Take for example, a rating of dangerous jobs. In most of these lists you will find the number of deaths per 100,000 workers per year. This is an important statistic, since dying for your job is something we can all agree is something that is to be avoided. Still does it tell the whole story?
Mine workers have a 34.8 per 100,000 fatality rate in the United States (in 2008 the last year that statistics are available) with a serious injury rate of 6.5 per 100 workers per year. Those are really high numbers (though mining is only the fourth most dangerous job behind logging, commercial fishing and strangely enough farming), but they do not tell the real story.
(I'm seeing more and more derision for SB191. What's going on? - promoted by Fong)
I don't know what it is that attracts them, but people who want to run experiments on other people's kids seem to like Colorado. Maybe it's the scenic vistas, maybe the skiing - more likely that we're a profoundly purple swing state with a lax ballot initiative process and no statewide collective bargaining agreement - but regardless, sometimes it seems like every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a plan to bust the unions and fix the schools eventually makes an appearance here. What's even worse is when the barn-burner turns out to be a native son with a - on the surface, anyway - spotless resume.
Michael Johnston, an "idealocrat" school "reinventor," former Obama advisor, and recently-minted state senator, is Colorado's designated water-carrier for a faction of reactionary school reformers with dark, data-driven plans for the future of schools. He has recently introduced Senate Bill 10-191 (pdf), the just-as-evil cousin of the odious Florida Senate Bill 6. Though we did not seek the battle, it seems it's the turn of Colorado educators to fight off a vicious, mean-spirited power grab by a gang bent on blaming and punishing teachers for every ill in the public education system.
(Remember kids: You don't have to fight if you don't want to. - promoted by Fong)
I've been arguing all day with Romanoff supporters that Andrew's attempt to derail the reconciliation bill by insisting Michael Bennet only vote for it if the public option is included is dangerous. The AFL-CIO just described the situation far better than I could:
For Immediate Release
Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
On Health Care 'Poison Pill' Amendments
March 23, 2010
"A 'NO' on amendments is a 'YES' on health care."
As senators prepare to take up fixes to the historic legislation passed by the House late Sunday night, they cannot allow process, technicalities, or cynical ploys to derail the legislation. Republicans are going to use a "kitchen sink" amendment strategy, throwing everything they can at the bill to try to sink reform. This will include amendments on issues that we would otherwise strongly support.
Any amendment offered during this process is nothing more than a poison pill. A 'NO' on amendments is a 'YES' on health care.
Working families won't be fooled by dirty tricks from the opponents of health reform out to do the bidding of the insurance companies. And US Senators should not be fooled either. Just as we did in the House, unions will employ all our resources to support Senators in passing the reconciliation package and taking the last step on the path to health care reform for all Americans. We will make sure that constituents of Senators who do the right thing and vote "no" on all amendments know the score about what really goes on in the Senate.
