Labor Day 2013 Message from MWRO

Across Michigan, Churches, Synagogues, Temples, Meeting Rooms, assorted places of worship, and in residences everywhere, the message of labor was spoken on the Sunday before Labor Day, and that message is clear... "we will not go back!!"

No matter that at present the Koch brothers and their partners have the upper hand -- destroying the lives of millions, putting profits before people and making our today's and our tomorrows miserable. Our numbers are greater so in the end, we will win out and we will craft a world where we can live with dignity and without fear of hunger or homelessness.

Poverty is on the rise but we will meet it at every juncture and turn it back block by block until that word is just a memory. Workers...Stand Strong and Garner Hope! The enemy is powerful, but righteousness is more powerful. These pirates from the corporate world had best celebrate these recent victories because our army grows day by day, angered by the series of assaults against us and soon - very soon - we will rise up and take control of the earth. Arab summers, Baptist summers, Urban summers, Youth summers, Rural summers, Senior summers, Worker summers -- it will be hot everywhere once we all agree that the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.

Victory is near, colleagues...Courage to us all and stay focused!

MD Taylor, State Chairperson
MI Welfare Rights Org.

Frederick Douglas quote fist image from Tai's Tees

BROKE-BACK DEMOCRATS!

'Cipients Speak!
by Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO

Workers entered a new world yesterday, one that will have ramifications for their futures forever. The legislation called “RIGHT TO WORK” means that workers will forever have the right to work for lower wages, for missing benefits, for non- existent safety regulations, and for no job protections against workplace offenses.

Michigan joins the rest of America and the 23 other states who have already passed similar legislation. The Governor of Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder, was quite candid as he analyzed what the “true” meaning was of this significant vote that has shaken the entire world. Gleefully, he explained that this was not an attack on organized labor but was, in fact, a measure that supports a worker’s right to choose! He went on to say that this legislation allows unions to demonstrate why they are important. If they are unable to convince workers that they are still relevant, workers should be able to stop paying dues. Contracts negotiated by those who decide to stay will still cover non-union employees.

Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac – these are all cities that are synonymous with the birth of organized labor. The powerful unions from that era marked forever the strength and the influence of blue-collar workers for years. There was a time when the General Motors worker was the highest paid worker in the world. All contractual agreements negotiated by municipalities, schools, and organizations from city to state were modeled after those written by organized labor. Why? Because these words took into consideration both the health and safety of those covered by those contracts. Wages that separated workers from poverty were negotiated. Health benefits that addressed the medical needs of workers and their families were settled. Time off, continuous training, all kinds of community services programs, blood drives, holiday fund-raisers, events for children and seniors alike – this is the legacy that organized labor has given millions of middle income families.

Yesterday, that world was changed forever. The race to the bottom has been fueled, the back of the Democratic Party - which depends on unions at election time - has been broken. Republicans, who depend on corporate dollars, have secured electoral victories for decades to come. Is this the battle we want to fight? Time to analyze what just happened, and why.

Help exploited Mexican workers in Michigan

Forwarded from a friend in the labor community:

Mexican workers are being exploited by many US and foreign companies, especially auto parts suppliers. One of the largest is TRW which is headquartered here in Michigan. In Reynosa, Mexico they pay workers, many of them women, about $1.50 an hour to make seat belt systems for GM, Ford and Chrysler, and other automakers. It is nearly impossible to live on that kind of money even in Mexico.

And on top of that the company has unilaterally imposed a change of location on them, disrupting their transportation and child care arrangements without any compensation. On top of unsafe conditions and threats to their job security, and inaction from their company union, about 600 workers organized to fight back. The leadership was soon fired and blacklisted. Sound familiar?

One of the leaders is in the US, and part of his purpose is to present the grievances directly to TRW leadership in Livonia, Michigan. That will take place on Wednesday at 10am...here's how you can help the workers:

Please write or call the company president and CEO on Wednesday morning. The details on how to do so follow. And a more detailed explanation is attached in a flyer. On Wednesday, email or call TRW supporting workers’ demands c/o: John C. Plant, TRW President and CEO John.plant@trw.com 734.855.3871(office), 734.748.0676 (cell), 734.855.2473 (fax)

It should only take a few moments to take this action but it would mean a lot to the workers, and to our belief that we are in one common struggle and we can reach out across the world to help each other.

Image reposted from Plawiuk Blog

Wake The Hell Up!!

‘CIPIENTS SPEAK
by Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO
May 2009

On Thursday, May 14th, 2009, most Americans woke up to the grim news that in order for Chrysler to save itself, 25% of the current dealers needed to be sacrificed. Some 789 Chrysler dealers were on a list to be closed, some as early as June 9th, after having served the master for decades. Never mind the hundreds of thousands of new families who are now facing unemployment, never mind the many community programs underwritten by these dealerships over the years, never mind the feeder businesses near by who rely on the traffic created by these car dealers - with one swipe of the pen, they will soon be “toast!”

Next comes the dreaded list issued by General Motors who will name the fate of thousands more GM dealerships that must close to save GM. All the while these horrific announcements are being made, a psychotic Wall Street reacts by closing higher, happy at the news that the Big Two are being saved by the sacrifices of millions. Is there not something insidious, sick, and diabolical about these happenings?

Perhaps what is most disturbing is the ease in which millions of car-related workers accept the premise that for America to be better, they must starve, lose healthcare, have homes taken from them, and in other ways stand “mute” while their very lives are being wrecked. The incomes offered to the next generation of workers is woefully lower than what their predecessors earned and will not allow the purchase of these hi-priced cars of the future.

The question is, where are the blue-collar and no-collar visionaries who have the answers to these current economic issues? Welfare Rights firmly believes that the solution to this deepening crisis is not to be found in the direction which we are all being pushed that calls for us to lose everything for the sake of the company. Don’t our lives and the future of our children count? Every response to the growing international crisis is one that suggests that we must bear the pain…closing schools, reduced wages, loss of retirement funds, loss of retiree health coverage, mounting foreclosures, rising domestic violence, rising suicide rates among children and veterans, rising incidents of police brutality…all things connected to rising stress levels. What do we get for our pain?

The time to bring up new ideas is now. The time to suggest a new and different course of action has arrived. The 6.5 million workers who now receive unemployment benefits must soon decide what is to be done when that last check arrives and a job has not been secured. The only answer to this greed-driven, corporate crisis is to engage in building an organized society that rests on certain foundations. People must eat, no matter what. People must have access to clean drinking water, no matter what. People and families must have homes to raise children in, no matter what. Elders deserve respect and a level of comfort, no matter what. We take care of sick people, we educate children so that they can make wise decisions as adults, we care for animals, and we live our days to serve a higher cause that includes kindness and concern.

The time has come to make a choice – “which side are YOU on?” Massa won’t let you live with him, so we must live without him. Wake the hell up!

Bail Out The People — Not The Corporations

(reposted from the People's Tribune, March 2009)

Over the past year, more than 2.2 million homes have been lost to foreclosure, a record number. Some four million jobs have vanished, and jobs continue to be lost at the rate of about 650,000 a month. One American in three has suffered a job loss or a pay cut in their household. Those once stably employed are becoming destitute, and those who were already destitute are dying.

The question on everyone’s lips is, what is our government doing to stop the ongoing economic catastrophe that threatens us all? What should it do? Where do the interests of the people lie?

As this issue of the People’s Tribune goes to press, President Obama has signed an economic stimulus bill which, we’re told, will create or save a few million jobs and expand public assistance to the unemployed, among other things. The government is also pondering how best to bail out the banks, arguing that helping the banks will restart the flow of credit and help get the economy going again. And the administration announced a $75 billion foreclosure-prevention plan that it says could help up to nine million homeowners keep their homes.

We should be on guard. We should ask ourselves, what actually needs to be achieved? The end result of the government’s intervention should be to guarantee the necessities of life for anyone who is doing without them. If this isn’t happening, then we need to demand that the government do what is right.

The underlying cause of the crisis is that more and more production is carried on with less and less labor, because of the introduction of labor-replacing technology into the economy. This technology has wiped out jobs and driven down wages for those still working. Because people with low wages or no jobs buy less, the market for goods and services is being wiped out. As the market has been undermined, the economy was kept going with debt – the massive extension of credit to workers and businesses. Credit was also used to fuel a huge orgy of speculation in stocks, bonds, credit default swaps, mortgage-backed securities and all sorts of exotic financial instruments that really had no value. On a temporary basis, this speculation brought huge profits to the financial sector.

This house of credit, debt and speculation has been standing on a “real” economy that has been hollowed out by labor-replacing technology. Eventually the debt-based bubble had to burst, and now that it has, the real economy is falling to its true level.
In the short term, what is needed is to nationalize large parts of the economy, such as the banking system, in the interest of the people, not the corporations. We should be nationalizing the assets of the corporations—not their risks—and putting those assets to work in such a way as to guarantee every person has access to housing, health care and the other necessities of life.

In the longer term, we are going to have to decide whether we’ll have a society that serves the majority of the people, or a society organized to serve only the wealthy few. Either the people are going to have to take the corporations over and run them in society’s interest, or the privately owned corporations will decide whether the rest of us live or die. This is the ultimate question we must answer.
(Image courtesy of the People's Tribune)

No End in Sight for Working People

Excerpt from Commentary by the editors of Fight Back!, March 2009

...In Minnesota, welfare rights, labor, student and other community groups have formed a People’s Bailout Coalition to make the rich pay and to protect the interests of working people. In California, high schools students have walked out of class to protest budget cuts.

Looking towards the future, we need to reject capitalism and fight for socialism. Is all that we can hope for is a return to what existed before the crisis? A return to a capitalist economy where millions go without health insurance even when the economy is growing? An economy where working peoples’ incomes fall in the long run while the rich get richer? An economy where we have to go up to our necks in debt to make ends meet while always having to worry where the next paycheck is coming from? An economy that is drained by one or more wars thousands of miles away to protect the interests of big oil? An economy where more than forty years after the civil rights act, African American, Latinos and women still earn less than whites and men? We can do better.

Working and oppressed people need a socialist system where political power is in the hands of the working class and the economy serves the people.

So as we fight for our needs and rights today, we should educate and organize for a socialist government and economy that will benefit us, and not Wall Street and big business.

See Fight Back News for the full editorial.

Speakers for a New America

Streaming online tonight...
Speakers for a New America

Speakers from America's Rust Belt discuss the crisis in auto, the bailout, poverty and solutions.


Claire McClinton will be on KPFK Beautiful Struggle, at 7pm (PST), Tuesday, March 3, 2009 discussing the crisis in auto. Claire McClinton is an auto-worker from Flint, Michigan, a labor leader and community activist. She discusses the bailout and the crisis in auto. You can listen to the program live at or download the program from the KPFK archives after it airs.

"Ask Welfare Rights," with Maureen Taylor and Marian Kramer of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, will be on WHPR TV and radio from Detroit, MI tonight from 7-8:00 PM (EST). The lively weekly discussions deal with the growing poverty, the struggle for water for Detroit residents, politics, solutions and more.You can view the program on your computer each week.

See Speakers for a New America for a list of national leaders and activists who can speak to your group or community about grassroots solutions to U.S. problems and more.

For profit chain gangs in Michigan?

Having family and friends in prison teaches you a lot about what things are like from "the inside." MWRO's comrade and Benton Harbor political prisoner, Rev. Edward Pinkney, has been moved around to at least half a dozen Michigan prisons since he was sentenced a few months ago for quoting the Bible. Doing time is a difficult experience for all involved and the guilty should be punished. But punishment should be fair and not exploit an already marginalized group.

In Michigan, incarcerated men and women in many prisons work for Michigan State Industries (MSI)--a 1980 Dept of Corrections program that assigns jobs to all able-bodied prisoners. Fundamentally, MSI goals sound like a good idea, i.e., they provide "an opportunity for prisoners to learn marketable skills and to acquire sound work experience" while attempting "to address the problem of crime and the tension and idleness in prison resulting from overcrowding...." MSI has a map of all prison production locations where they sell and bid out items such as furniture, bed sheets, and outdoor banners online or through its Lansing showroom.

However, Rev. Pinkney's experience has given him and us some insights into prison conditions and prison work. Last week he wrote:

Prison officials can control virtually every aspect of a prisoner's life. They can decide her/his actions - when (s)he will awake and when (s)he sleeps, how much is spent on food, who can visit prisoners and for how long, whether to force a prisoner to sleep on a metal grating without a mattress, how long a prisoner waits for medical treatment, whether a prisoner spends 24 hours a day in a cell or 12 hours a day at back-breaking labor, and what arbitrary (useless) rules will be followed. How and when to punish prisoners in many different ways, including depriving them of all food except "nutri-loaf" (tasteless ground-up leftovers pressed into a loaf). It is all up to the Dept. of Corrections.

In many states there is a move to remove gov. administration of prisons and privatize them for corporate profit. The labor of the prisoners belongs to the state but when the state transfers their interest to a private corporation, the labor of prisoners belong to the corporation. A corporation will run the lives of prisoners and decide how they shall labor and what they shall labor at. Do you see chances for profit here?

Prison labor is not new. It's been used for centuries to help contain incarceration costs and keep prisoners disciplined and busy. But in recent times, it's being increasingly used in for profit ventures. MWRO opposes the slave labor practice of requiring incarcerated human beings to make or build products for the highest bidder. Not only do these conditions prevent a worker from demanding a fair price for his or her labor, it contributes to abusive and inhumane conditions beyond typical institutional incarceration.

(Image courtesy of Flickr)

Labor Notes Is Hiring

Labor Notes is now accepting applications Assistant Editor and Staff Writer/Organizer positions. We are looking for people with experience in or around the labor movement. A commitment to rank-and-file unionism is a must.

Job duties for the Assistant Editor include helping Editor with every facet of magazine production, including soliciting stories, working with authors, text editing and proof-reading. The Assistant Editor will also have organizing and administrative responsibilities as part of various Labor Notes programs, such as local troublemakers' schools. The ideal candidate will have experience in or around the labor movement, as well as experience editing a print publication. Past experience with project management, promotion, and/or fundraising also valuable. Bilingual Spanish/English is a plus.

Job duties for the staff writer include writing articles for our monthly magazine, following a number of "beats" (specific unions, industries, or topics), along with a number of administrative responsibilities. In addition to regular office hours, there are conferences, weekend schools, speaking trips, demonstrations, and other events to attend and
sometimes organize. The ideal candidate will have several of the following skills or experiences: conference organizing, project management, promotion, fundraising, administration, editing, international labor work or contacts, Spanish fluency, or public
speaking. Computer literacy and writing skills are required from all applicants.

The salary for both positions is $25,000 to $29,000, depending on experience. Labor Notes offers a generous benefits package. Women and people of color are encouraged to apply.

To apply for either position, please send a resume and cover letter to Mark Brenner at Labor Notes, 104 Montgomery St, New York, NY 11225-2008. You can fax applications to 718-287-3287 or email them to mark@labornotes.org.

For more information, call 718-284-4144 or go to http://labornotes.org/jobs.

Chris Kutalik
Labor Notes Editor
www.labornotes.org
313-842-6262

"I prefer to rise with the ranks, and not from the ranks." --Eugene Debs