OK: so I’ve been working what is, on one level, a Jay Inslee story (Inslee is the Congressman from Washington’s 1st District, now running for Governor in ’12), and, on another level, a story of why Democrats are having all kinds of problems with what should be “natural” constituencies – and why those problems might not be going away anytime soon.
I thought the two elements of this narrative would come together last Monday, when I attended the “announcement event” that marked the beginning of the Inslee Gubernatorial Campaign, and in fact they did…but it wasn’t in a way I would have expected, and that’s why we have something to talk about today.
I reached out to some helpful outside voices, including Inslee himself; all of that will be brought to the discussion – and as another news organization famously offers to do, I’ll report, and leave you to decide.
The nation’s main firefighters’ union, long a strong supporter of Democratic candidates, announced on Tuesday that it would indefinitely suspend all contributions to federal candidates out of frustration with Congressional Democrats who, union officials say, have not fought harder against budget cuts and antiunion legislation.
The leadership of America’s Bravest telling Democrats “We’re feeling taken for granted” is a much bigger story than it sounds like. For many years many workers in all unions wanted to give up on Democrats because of campaign promises elected officials never intended to keep. Union leadership has always dragged us back into support with promises from the Democrats. Now the leadership of one of the most respected Unions is not only cutting of the Dems in Federal government, they are also sending the message to not just firefighters but all workers that Democrats are not worthy of personal donations or volunteer time.
Harold A. Schaitberger, the president of the 300,000-member union, said in an interview that he was dismayed with Democrats in Congress for not fighting harder against Republican budget cuts and efforts to weaken unions in more than a dozen state legislatures.
“We’re tired that our friends have not been willing to stand up and fight back on our behalf with the same ferocity, the same commitment that our enemies have in trying to destroy our members’ rights,” he said. “Quite frankly, our enemies are trying to kill us as a labor movement and union trying to represent workers and help the middle class.”
This morning after my workout I passed a newstand and noted this headline in the Sun-Times:
RAHM WARNS UNIONS (Teachers to work longer Hours)
Day Laborers to show up in greater numbers
Surprised boobala! Really. He was a DLCer when he was an alderman in Chicago and Washington DC only strengthened that line of thought. Note also that the stats show more working class, AAs, Latinos are moving out to suburbs and the wealthier are moving into the City of Chicago. I was chased out of my little bungalow in Chicago, so that a $2 million house could be built. I can attest to how the working class, lower middle and now middle were chased out of the City. Rahm was alderman of one of the north side areas during this time period.
Rahm Emanuel warns teaching, labor unions about changes
Mayor-elect RE is layin down the law to two unions whose cooperation he needs to turn Chicago around: teachers he wants to work a longer school day and laborers he wants to simply show up at work in greater numbers. During the campaign, he declared his support for curtailing teachers’ right to strike. He also made it clear that, if teachers won’t agree to work longer hours for extra pay, he’ll ask the Illinois General Assembly to mandate it.
My guess is (and I was a long time resident of Chicago) the “extra pay” will fall by the wayside and charter schools will benefit from this someway.
Also, the use of the word “laborers” troubles me. Nothing wrong with laborer – we’re all laborers in a sense but it cuts down to size certain unions – say carpenters, plumbers – who are rightly proud of what it is they do. It lumps all into the Laborer camp. And we all know how laborers are respected in 2011 USA. Implicit in the wording is that the laborers are getting paid even though they don’t show up for work.
It’s unlikely Chicago’s elites will send their children to public school in any event. They’ll go to private schools where kindergarten for instance costs something like $14,000 a year. Class War, anyone!
LET THE PRIVATIZATION BEGIN. Because of course it will save the taxpayers lots of money! N.O.T.
Some of the most important changes that resulted from the tragic deaths at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were the reforms to work place health and safety conditions. Modern buildings now must conform to fire safety and occupancy standards. The Asch building loft were 500 women labored at overcrowded worktables did not have a sprinkler system, the exits were inadequate and locked, the passages were narrow and blocked and the fire escapes were unsafe. The fire compelled New York City to create the Bureau of Fire Prevention, which required stairwells, fire alarms, extinguishers and hoses be installed in all buildings and regularly conducts building inspection to insure compliance. The Bureau also determines maximum occupancy. The year after the fire the NY the legislature passed eight bills addressing workplace sanitation, injury on the job, rest periods and child labor. In 1913, the Factory Investigating Commission recommended that 25 new bills be passed mandating fireproof stairways and the safe construction of fire escapes, that doorways be a certain number of feet wide, and that older multi-storied buildings be inspected. In 1916, smoking was also outlawed in factories.
Frances Perkins, who would later become Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s Secretary of Labor, witnessed the women jumping from the windows that day. She would later comment that it was “the day the New Deal began.” In the ’30s, the New Deal included many of these provisions on the federal level. In 1933, Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act which also protected collective bargaining rights for unions.
This is going to be short. I have a clear and succinct point to make.
Wisconsin unions can now either give it all they’ve got, or they’re done for.
Right now, after Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Senate Republicans have pushed through this step in the decades-long corporate assault on labor, the unions really have their backs against a wall. Membership has declined, manufacturing has gone oversees, the national Democratic Party has abandoned them, and the cancer of the corporation has metastasized over not just government, but society. If the unions don’t rediscover their past, if they don’t turn around their more recent history of capitulation and infighting, they’ll die soon enough anyway. It’s their choice: militancy or death.
I’m enraged. Wisconsin’s union workers this evening were temporarily outflanked by a legislative maneuver of questionable legality. And of despicably sleazy intent. The Senate decided that, as everyone in opposition to it has been saying for months, the union busting bill really wasn’t a fiscal measure, the previous pronouncements that it was be damned. No, it wasn’t a fiscal measure. It was a union busting measure. And therefore, the bill didn’t need a quorum in the Senate. It could pass the Wisconsin Senate with no democrats voting. Or even appearing. So there. This wonderfully disingenuous piece of legislative legerdemain has– let’s call it what it is– temporarily screwed Wisconsin’s public unions by withdrawing their right to bargain collectively.
And now. And now, amigo@s, comes the real test. Will the unions and their supporters and the demonstrators and you and I all throw up our hands in defeat and despair and slink home? Will we say in words or actions, “Oh, we lost, it’s over, let’s just forget about it and move on?” Or will we stand up now and fight on (nonviolently) with ever renewed dedication to overturn this evil, unpopular, antidemocratic, antiunion measure?
I hope that hundreds of thousands of people show up in Madison tomorrow to demonstrate against Governor Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans. I hope an equal number will show up in Lansing. And in Union Square, New York. And in San Francisco. And Chicago. And in every town and city in America that recognizes the dignity of workers and their right to bargain collectively. I hope the recall efforts will be redoubled. I hope that the demonstrators inspire a nationwide high school strike tomorrow at 2 pm. And I hope the demonstrators will invite farmers to show their support, to come to Madison, to ride their tractors to and surround the capitol. And I hope that across Wisconsin and across America teachers and nurses and garbage collectors and firemen and bureaucrats and policemen will all link arms with other workers, students, progressives, anyone who supports the unions and sees that the withdrawal of public unions’ collective bargaining rights is a step back, a regression into the darkness of the Nineteenth Century.
Yes, I’m enraged. But I’m also hopeful. I’m hopeful that we, you and I, amig@s, will not let Walker and the Koch funded Teapublicans get away with this. I’m hopeful that this is the beginning not of a demonstration, but of an actual, popular movement. I hope that the movement will continue with increased strength and focus to preserve the rights of workers to organize and to bargain collectively.
Yes, I’m idealistic. And maybe pretty unrealistic. And not particularly practical. That doesn’t matter. I believe that what we are about to see is a real change. Coming from an organic movement. And that we will now begin in earnest to link arms and stand in Solidarity in the struggle for what I believe is the survival of the middle class. Here’s John Lennon:
I make no bones about it! I totally love Michael Moore!
Well, a few nights ago, Michael sat down around 12:00 midnight to do some writing and then, said to himself, why am I doing this, why not just go to Madison, Wisconsin? Well, he did just that and spoke to the huge crowds in Madison, on Saturday, March 5, 2011. He shared his humility and gratitude with those crowds, as well as cheered them on in solidarity!
What with all the attacks on Labor in states like Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, there has been just so much misunderstanding out there these past couple weeks about what things are actually like for State workers.
Are the conditions decent?
Is there excessive pay?
Is there even a need for State workers?
Well, I can’t answer every question, but I can sure tell you what it’s like in our house…and the reason my words carry the “voice of authority” is because The Girlfriend has been working for the State of Washington for the past 16 years.
Bona fides established, let’s get to telling the story:
These happenings on Madison’s Capitol Square are exhilarating — and exhausting.
They are both inspirational and emotionally draining.
Saturday, March 5, was just another day in Madtown. Not much planned, just a little rally. The formal part, with speakers and musicians, was just announced about 24 hours before it began.
So my expectations were low, having seen last Saturday what the biggest demonstration in Wisconsin history looked like, 100,000 strong.
There weren’t 100,000 again today. Maybe there were 40,000 or 30,000 or something in between. It really doesn’t matter at this point. It’s now in the third week, with no end in sight.
The movement lives, and it is growing. Every time Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican cronies commit another outrage, the coalition grows and the opposition gets stronger.
No need to say much as to an intro to this discussion, they, as usual, do a great job.
One thing I would like to say is that think Keith would be doin great if he picked up Laura and gave her a spot on the rebuild of that Gore and company TV Station.
She’s always done a great job when doing radio, her books, and now with this GRITtv venture, though to a to small an audience and Rachel’s still under contract to MSNBC.
The AFL-CIO has called for another massive demonstration today in Madison, Wisconsin.
If you’re too far away from Madison to participate in person, please stand in Solidarity with the demonstrators by doing something to show your support. Buying pizza is always good. Posting on a blog is good. Organizing your own demonstration is great. You get the idea. Let’s do it.
Some of the most important changes that resulted from the tragic deaths at the 
These happenings on Madison’s Capitol Square are exhilarating — and exhausting.