WFTU Statement for the racist presidential decree of USA Government

31 Jan 2017

USA

The WFTU representing 92 million workers in every corner of the world strongly condemns the racist presidential decree of USA Government which prohibits the entry of travelers from seven countries (Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen) in USA blaming them for “Islamic terrorism”, separating the peoples of the world according to religion.

Has President Trump forgotten that the ISIS was created, was financed, was armed and was supported by the USA governments headed by President Obama? The USA policy was the one that bloodied the peoples in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

Racism and intolerance promoted by the capitalists and their governments intend to separate and to group the workers of the world turning against each other and not against them and their class.

In their effort, the capitalists exploit the terrorist attacks in Turkey and European countries and the recent murder of six Muslims while praying in Quebec, Canada. Ultimately aiming to take new measures against the peoples’ struggles and those who are resisting the plans of the imperialists.

The World Federation of Trade Unions, loyal to its internationalist principles, calls the workers of the world, regardless of religion, color and language to unite themselves under the banners of the class-oriented organizations and struggle against their common enemy, the capitalists and their class for a world without wars, poverty and racism. For a world without exploitation of man by man.

The WFTU demands the racist decree against the 7 countries to be withdrawn and expresses its solidarity to the families of the six Muslims that unjustly lost their lives in Quebec.

THE SECRETARIAT

WFTU statement on the tens of children lost their lives because of the bad weather in Afghanistan

27 Jan 2017

AFGHANISTAN, ASIA

During the last 2 days at least 27 children lost their lives because of the bad weather in Afghanistan. The poor people of this country,have experienced for years the worse face of capitalistic barbarity. The long-standing war, the poverty and the low living standards create the huge humanitarian crisis of the last many years.

During all these years the people of Afghanistan struggles for its survival from the arms, the hunger, and the weather conditions without even the minimum measure for its protection. The first victim of this situation is the working class and the poorest part of the population and of course the most vulnerable society group, the children.

The World Federation of Trade Unions representing 92 million workers in all the five continents firmly denounces and condemns the double capitalistic crime which imposed by the force of weapons and the economical policies, the two sides of the same coin. The WFTU calls the working class in Afghanistan and Worldwide to struggle for a society that the people will not die without reason.

The Secretariat

Statement from TWU Local 100 President John Samuelsen on President Trump's Executive Order on Immigration

On every level, I am descended from immigrants and refugees.  The Transport Workers Union was built by immigrants and refugees.  So was NY's subway system. The founder of our great union, Michael J. Quill, fled Ireland in the 1920's, the victim of political and religious persecution.  The Irish men and women who formed the backbone of my union in its earliest days came to the US to escape these same forms of discrimination.  They came for the economic opportunity they were denied in Ireland. My granny came from Derry City in the north of Ireland. She was part of the great successive waves of immigration to the US from Ireland. She came seeking freedom and an opportunity to raise a family in peace. I would be dishonoring her memory, and the memory of the founders of the TWU, if I did not speak out against the inhumane and discriminatory Executive Order on immigration signed by President Trump last week. The story of the TWU is intertwined with the story of immigration. In its earliest days, immigrants from Ireland, Italy, England and Germany provided the bulk of our members and leaders.  As the face of immigration has changed, so has the TWU.  Chapters of our story were written by Black workers who migrated from the US South to escape persecution and violence.  New chapters are being written by members and officers from the Caribbean, Bangladesh, countries of the former Soviet Union, Nigeria and dozens of other nations. Like our founders, and all of my grandparents, they are coming for economic opportunity and to be free from religious and political persecution.  They are welcome in the TWU. I am not someone who always wears his religious faith on his sleeve, although anyone close to me recognizes how my Irish Catholic upbringing and adult Christian faith impact my life and the decisions I make every day.  They help guide me as a father, a husband, a worker, a citizen and a union president. These beliefs have combined with my sense of personal and institutional history to lead me to speak out against barring refugees from entering the US, against giving a preference to members of one faith over another, and against denying sanctuary to people in desperate need of it. President Trump's order is in opposition to traditional Christian values and teachings. Personally, organizationally, and spiritually, I am the descendant of immigrants and refugees.  I am proud to be such.  I stand with my Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and non-believing sisters and brothers against efforts to demonize every Muslim as a potential terrorist.  I stand with all those calling for a fair and humane immigration policy that provides welcome and comfort to the victims of war and persecution. This is a real American response, the correct response. And it's the reason my granny was welcomed with open arms when she sought refuge from the persecution against Catholics in the north of Ireland all those years ago.

Issued By: Transport Workers Union, Local 100 195 Montague St 3rd flr, Brooklyn NY 11201 212.873.6000 | www.twulocal100.org

Solidarity With the Metalworkers of Turkey
The Trade Union of Metalworkers of Athens and Shipbuilding Industry of Greece condemns the Turkish Government for the banning of metalworkers mobilizations and strikes in Turkey, under the Emergency Situation Act.
This proves that the bourgeoisie in every country utilizes any opportunity, even the issues with terrorism, in order to increase suppression against the trade union movement and guarantee cheap workers.
We express our solidarity with the just struggle of our colleagues in Turkey, in their fight for jobs with rights, based on workers’ needs and Health and Safety Regulations in the workplaces.
For us there is only one way, the path of the uncompromising class struggle against the exploiters, with Workers’ Internationalist Solidarity.
Trade Union of Metalworkers of Athens and Shipbuilding Industry of Greece


Metal İşçileri Grevininin Yasaklanmasını kınıyoruz
Yunanistan Gemi İnşa Sanayi ve Atina Metal Sendikası Türk Hükümeti tarafından alınan kararla “Milli Güvenlik” gerekçegösterilerek Metal İşçileri Grevininin Yasaklanması, Ertelemesini kınar.
Her ülkede burjuva sınıfı sendikal hareketine karşı baskıyı artırmak ve ucuz işçi sağlamak için terör ve diyer sorunları fırsat sayarak işçi sınıfına karşı kullanmaktadır.
Biz Türkiye'deki meslektaşlarımızın sağlık,güvenlik, ücret ve sendikal hakları için verdiği mücadeleyi destekler ve dayanışmamızı ifade ederiz.
Tek yol Sermaye sınıfının sömürüsüne karşı dik duran işçilerin haklı mücadelesi ve tüm dünya işçilerinin ortak dayanışmasıdır.
Yunanistan Gemi İnşa Sanayi ve Atina Metal Sendikası

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW! Tell them Oppose Andrew Puzder

A Department for Labor or a Department Against Labor?

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A Department for Labor or a Department Against Labor? Weigh in on Andrew Puzder's nomination for Secretary of Labor by calling your Senators at 877-607-0785.

In late July 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression and early months of FDR’s presidency, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins spent time touring steel mills, listening to workers’ concerns and visiting their families living in company-owned housing. She made it clear that Roosevelt’s Administration was paying attention. Shortly after, she’d declare, “I have come to the conclusion that the Department of Labor should be the Department FOR labor, and that we should render service to the working people.” Reforms made during Perkins’ tenure would ultimately help grow unions – including our own – and build the middle class. In stark contrast, today’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, has a track record that suggests he’d create a Department AGAINST labor: His company breaks the laws he’d be in charge of enforcing – Puzder is corporate attorney and CEO of CKE Restaurants (Hardees & Carl’s Jr.). Employees report they’re pressured to work “off the clock” as they approach 40 hours so the company can avoid paying overtime. Sixty percent of CKE restaurants had at least one violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA covers overtime, minimum wage, child labor and more). He’s in favor of creating jobs . . . for machines – Puzder declared support for replacing workers with machines in Business Insider last March, saying machines “always upsell, they never take a vacation, they never show up late, there’s never a slip-and-fall, or an age, sex or race discrimination case.” He fails workers – Workers from Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have come forward with stories of mistreatment, including sexual harassment. Many say management failed to act on their complaints. Puzder’s said a new overtime rule that would expand protections to millions of low-wage workers classified as “managers” isn’t needed, saying what they lose in overtime pay they gain in “stature” and “sense of accomplishment.”

Please Call Your Senators The Department of Labor is a critical agency that oversees MSHA, OSHA and many laws that protect our rights on the job. A Senate hearing on Puzder’s confirmation is scheduled for February 2. Please make calls between now and then to raise concerns. We need a Secretary of Labor that will work for us on the job – not against us. Remember: calls only take a minute, but have a significant impact. Dial 877-607-0785. If you’re not sure of your Senators, the number will direct you to the correct lawmakers. Leave a message with the staff saying who you are, where you’re from and that you want your Senator to oppose Andrew Puzder for Secretary of Labor.

USW Rapid Response | 412-562-2291 | www.uswrr.org | facebook.com/USWRapidResponse

Greece":The Trade Unions Against the Fascist Attacks

https://cupe.ca/no-room-profit-seniors-care

Tuesday, 17 January 2017 (Solidnet)

The report by Afrobarometer on attitudes to democracy in 36 African countries, issued last November, reports among other things an increase in support for democracy in our country, Swaziland. The report reflects the views of people polled between 2014-2015.

Apparently, the demand for democracy in Swaziland has increased since the previous such Afrobarometer survey, which was conducted from 2011-2013. That earlier report put the demand for democracy in our country at 16% - low on the list of the 34 countries then covered.

The figure given in the new report is 25%, a slight improvement.

Swaziland does not figure in a couple of the core questions used to gauge public attitudes (such as the attitude to “Presidential dictatorship”). But under the theme of “support for democracy”, Swazi’s evidently take a dim view of the subject, coming in third from last with 45%. While under the rubric of “Rejection of one party rule” it comes fifth from last, with 65%. Under “Rejection of military rule”, Swazi respondents scored high, 86%, eighth from the top.

What do these figures tell us about how people in our country feel about democracy?

Given the lack of press freedom in our country and the many decades of consistently negative press propaganda against democracy, it is no wonder democracy has relatively few supporters. Views on one party rule also reflect this negative view: the existence of puppet parties – such as the Swazi Democratic Party and others - offering no opposition to the royalist autocracy (aka dictatorship), and apparently tolerated as nothing more than window dressing to suggest that political parties are tolerated.

Of course in reality opposition parties – at least real ones – are not tolerated. They are banned.

The CPS view is that polls such as Afrobarometer, though interesting at a certain level, provide little useful information. This is for two reasons.

First, the long established anti-democracy discourse of the monarchy, the lack of press freedom and general freedom of expression, and the lack of possibility for organisations such as the CPS to operate freely and to conduct political education work means that polls of Swazi attitudes to something they are denied information about are bound to yield results of dubious value.

Second, people polled and the Afrobarometer audience are offered no overview of what type of democracy we are being asked to consider. This is a general failing of the middle-class world outlook – often imported from Europe, North America etc–typical of the NGOs/civil society organisations that monitor and lobby on democracy and rights issues.

Does having a couple of competing political parties mean you have democracy? Not really, in our view. Look at the US, where the age-old tussle between Democrats and Republicans offers zero options to change society.

Where is the “people’s power”, which is the original meaning of the word democracy?

The CPS is most vocal in its demand for the unbanning of political parties in our country and for full rights of freedom of assembly. But we know well that the former is only one possible aspect of the democracy needed in Swaziland.

There is no democracy without opposition. The dynamic of political development demands a diversity of voices. This diversity may be offered by having plenty of political parties.

But it may – as the experience of the struggle years in South Africa’s townships and the situation in revolutionary Cuba showed – be even better assured by street and community-level people’s power, where decisions on how to run things are put to people directly, and ideas are thrashed out before being put into action.

Middle class ideas of democracy are light years from this sort of approach.

This is because they consider the running of the economy to be divorced from much political decision-making. They leave that to capitalist market forces. The result is that much real power is not in the hands of parliaments or local government but in the hands of the owners of capital.

But it is not only the macro economy is affected. People have little or no control over how budgets are amassed and spent and how resources managed. People’s power – real democracy – covers all areas of society: health care, culture, education, sports and recreation, agricultural and industrial policy, and human development in general.

So when we ask our people what they think of democracy, we are doing them a disservice if we don’t give them the full picture of what democracy can mean in its expanded and dynamic form. We also end up with opinion poll results that are of little value.

This is why the CPS aims to foster a full, countrywide campaign of political education in Swaziland to bring the ideas of democracy to our people. Such a campaign is crucial to the democratic development of our country in a post-Mswati setting.

That way our people will have the power of knowledge to wield against the likes of the dictator Mswati and his regime who propagandise against democracy. And they will be able to shrewdly ask “What do you mean?” when some smug pollster comes along to find out what they think of the big “D” word.

Struggle against the Imperialistic Interventions and Violence in Yemen

14 Jan 2017

MIDDLE EAST, YEMEN

The continuous imperialistic attacks in Yemen, causing the death of thousands of civilians, among whom little children, on a daily basis, provokes the anger and indignation of all the workers.

Since the imperialistic intervention of Saudi Arabia in Yemen, almost two years ago, for the interests of the western and the eastern monopolies, several attacks have taken place against hospitals, schools, factories, heavily populated areas, open markets, with 1.400 children dead, over 2.140 children injured and over 1.300 children recruited by the two main rival forces, i.e. the Shia Houthis, supporting the interests of Iran on the one side, and the President Hadi and his allies of Saudi Arabia and the USA on the other.

Moreover, more than 2.200.000 children have died of malnutrition in the poorest Arab country during this war.
The situation in Yemen is a “living example” of the terrible crimes of capitalism against the peoples. The working class, organized and united, must always fight for their own interests, and direct the grass-root and workers struggles and demands against fear, fundamentalism and imperialistic attacks that reign in so many societies.

Memorial Held for Worker Killed by G Train as Co-Worker Recalls Incident

Local 100 continues to press our case to the public regarding the dangers faced by transit workers every day on the job and why we deserve a fair contract. NY1 Reporter Jose Martinez covered our solemn remembrance in Brooklyn above the tracks where Construction Flagger Louis Gray was killed. 

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/transit/2017/01/11/memorial-held-for-worker-killed-by-g-train-as-co-worker-recalls-incident.html

Thousands Of UC Workers Go On Strike For Fair Wages, Pensions

James P. Hoffa
Teamsters General President

Today, thousands of University of California (UC) administrative, clerical and support workers are on strike across the Golden State, taking a stand against a UC system that has turned its back on them by not paying them a wage that allows them to support themselves and their families.

More than 12,000 workers, members of Teamsters Local 2010, walked off the job Tuesday to protest the numerous unfair labor practices and violations of state law committed by UC. It is the culminating act of five days of action that began last Friday at UCLA when some 600 skilled trade workers, also members of Local 2010, went on strike there.

These hard-working Californians have had enough because the UC system refuses to give them respect when it comes to providing fair pay. While executive compensation has increased 58 percent, total operating revenue is up 80 percent and in-state tuition has soared by a whopping 332 percent during the past decade, real wages for administrative, clerical and support workers has actually declined 24 percent during the past 20 years.

The state of pay is so bad for these workers, in fact, that a 2015 Economic Policy 

Why do people freeze to death in Europe of the 21st century?

09 Jan 2017

EUROPE

During the last days, the wave of bad weather is affecting Balkan and other European countries. Several people died of cold in Bulgaria, Italy and Poland, while in other countries like Turkey and Croatia, people are seriously affected by the low temperatures and snowstorms. In Greece, we all remember the tragic death of a 13 year old girl from Serbia, who died in Thessaloniki few years ago, because of the fumes of the brazier that they used in order to keep their house warm, as it was the case for two students who died from the same reason in Larissa.

All workers in Balkan and the rest European countries, must fight through their trade unions for protection measures of the working class against adverse weather conditions. Otherwise, the poor, the homeless, the refugees will continue paying the price of the lack of protection measures and indifference of all the governments.

Insider's Report: Radical Agenda Underway in Congress to Cut Benefits

While you and I and millions of Americans insist that the promise of Social Security and Medicare be upheld by our government, the fact remains that a radical agenda to slash earned benefits and privatize these vital programs is moving forward in the new Congress:

The powerful congressional majority in Washington is pushing forward their version of how to fix or save Social Security and Medicare — and this really means cutting benefits and handing over control of these programs to private industry. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is leading the charge for ending traditional Medicare by privatizing it for the benefit of greedy insurance companies.   We anticipate House Social Security Subcommittee Chairman Sam Johnson (TX-03) will reintroduce legislation that would: 1) cut benefits by one-third, 2) raise the retirement age from 67 to 69, 3) change the benefit-computation formula in a way that cuts benefit amounts and 4) cut the Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA).   Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Tom Price wants to trigger cuts to Social Security and Medicare. His agenda would enable automatic across-the-board cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs for low- and middle-income Americans. This plan would rig the system and slash benefits without requiring the President or Congress to take responsibility for the result.

What's worse, the President-elect's cabinet is full of Social Security and Medicare privatization supporters. In fact, Vice President-elect Mike Pence is a well-documented privatization proponent. President-elect Trump, who promised "not to touch" Social Security and Medicare during the campaign, advocates "reform" on his transition website and nominated a fervent privatizer, former U.S. Representative Tom Price, as Secretary of Health and Human Services. There can be no doubt that harmful bills targeting your earned benefits will quickly follow in the new Congress. That's why the National Committee is gathering millions of petition signatures demanding that Congress keeps its hands off of earned benefits. We are organizing phone banks and letter writing campaigns to our elected representatives. Borrowing a campaign idea from Mr. Trump, we also need to build a wall — a firewall to be specific — in the Senate, to ensure that none of the privatization or benefit-cutting legislation makes it out of Congress and up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The forces aiming to destroy our treasured social insurance programs are more insidious. The stakes are higher. But we can protect Social Security and Medicare and keep them solvent for the future without cutting benefits for millions of Americans if we organize, mobilize and make our voices heard on Capitol Hill.

Kentucky Republicans Poised To Pass Right-To-Work Law, Delivering Blow To Unions

By Travis Waldron Sports Reporter, The Huffington Post

and Dave Jamieson  Labor Reporter, The Huffington Post

The election of Gov. Matt Bevin (R) in 2015 and a GOP takeover of the state legislature in November paved the way for the approval of right-to-work legislation in Kentucky.

Kentucky Republicans opened 2017 by introducing a slate of anti-union bills in both chambers of the state legislature, including legislation that would make the state the last in the South to adopt a so-called “right-to-work” law.

Targeting unions has been a priority for the Kentucky GOP in past years, though Democratic control of the governor’s seat and state House kept right-to-work and other legislation from passing. But Gov. Matt Bevin (R) won election in 2015, and Republicans swept their way to their first majority in the state House in nearly a century in November, paving the way for an ambitious agenda with right-to-work at the top of the list.

The proposed right-to-work bills, the first of which a state House committee approved Wednesday after a brief hearing, would end requirements that employees pay fees to a union. These bills would gut Kentucky’s unions politically and hurt their workers, local labor officials said.

“First of all, when you pass right-to-work you’re racing to the bottom in terms of wages,” said Larry Clark, a retired union electrician and Louisville Democrat who served as speaker pro tempore in the Kentucky House before he stepped down in 2014. “Statistics show that there’s less per capita family income. Statistics show there’s less tax revenue because there’s less money spent.”

Under U.S. labor law, a union must represent all the employees in a workplace it has unionized, even those who may not want representation. Unions say it’s only fair that all the workers in the bargaining unit pay fees to the union to cover the costs of bargaining.

But right-to-work laws make such arrangements illegal, allowing workers to opt out of paying fees to a union that will nevertheless represent them ― a situation that unions derisively call “free riding.” Backers of right-to-work laws argue that no worker should be required to support a union, even if it bargains on his behalf.

It’s devastating. It’s a blatant attack on union people.Charlie Essex, IBEW Local 369

By helping to erode union membership, right-to-work laws hurt unions financially and weaken them (and, by extension, Democrats) politically. Right-to-work laws used to be a hallmark of conservative states in the South and West, but they have spread rapidly in recent years, even in the industrial Midwest. Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and West Virginia have all gone right-to-work since 2012. West Virginia was the 26th state to pass such a law, marking a symbolic turning point for right-to-work proponents.

F. Vincent Vernuccio, the labor policy director at the Mackinac Center, a conservative think tank that supports right-to-work efforts, said he expects Kentucky Republicans to move quickly after their success in the November elections. Vernuccio said Missouri and New Hampshire could follow Kentucky this year.

“We may see up to 29 [states] before the spring,” Vernuccio said. “You’re definitely seeing a snowball effect, and more and more states are looking to give workers freedom.”

Kentucky, home to organized industrial plants for Ford and General Electric, among other companies, had held back the tide prior to last year’s elections. The state had nearly 200,000 union members in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Counter to national trends, its share of workers represented by unions has risen in recent years. And ahead of a Wednesday committee hearing, critics of the legislation pointed to data which they said showed that Kentucky’s manufacturing sector had outperformed neighboring Indiana’s since Indiana approved a right-to-work law in 2012.

But now, union officials in Kentucky say the package of legislation introduced Tuesday amounts to an even stronger attack on unions than laws passed in other states.

The House right-to-work legislation, for instance, would prohibit public sector workers from striking, while similar legislation in the Senate would prevent private sector unions from devoting union dues to political causes like political action committees.

A separate bill in the House, meanwhile, would repeal Kentucky’s prevailing wage law that applies to state construction contracts. That bill also passed a House committee Wednesday afternoon.

“It’s devastating,” said Charlie Essex, the business manager and financial secretary for Local 369 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, based in Louisville. “It’s a blatant attack on union people.”

While right-to-work has been a contentious issue across states, leaders from Kentucky’s construction unions are just as concerned about the repeal of the prevailing wage laws, which apply to between 30 and 40 percent of union construction work in the state, Essex said.

Such laws require that companies bidding on public works projects pay certain minimum wages to the workers employed on the resulting jobs. Unions say the laws are crucial to prevent bidders from driving down wages in the local economy.

Republicans have in the past argued that prevailing wage laws lead to unnecessary cost increases under state contracts, a point that union leaders have disputed. In 2001, the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission examined a period when the state’s prevailing wage law did not apply in certain circumstances and “concluded that prevailing wage has no statistically significant effect on construction cost,” with some caveats.

Clark said that repealing the prevailing wage provisions ― which some studies have shown lead to higher-than-median wages for the Kentucky workers subject to them ― will have a detrimental effect on apprenticeship and job training programs that businesses and unions rely on. The combination of changes, labor leaders said, would also hurt workers’ wages.

“They’re cutting workers’ pay through right-to-work and prevailing wage in Kentucky. That’s what we’re doing,” said Bill Finn, state director of the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council. “People voted for a change in this election, but they didn’t vote for this. They didn’t vote for pay cuts.”

More than 100 union members and activists gathered near the state Capitol on Wednesday, with plans to testify against the legislation in a last-ditch effort to stop it.

But with Republicans firmly in control of the state legislature, there’s little optimism that the bills can be halted. Union officials in Kentucky say the bills could become law as soon as this weekend.

“It’s on fast-forward. They can’t stop it,” Clark said. “We got our asses kicked in Kentucky. We never dreamed it would be this bad.” 

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: The WFTU on the side of Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU)

03 Jan 2017

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 92 million workers in 126 countries all over the world, expresses its class solidarity with the workers of Trinidad and Tobago State Petroleum Company, Petrotrin, who have decided to go on a strike, defending their right to a wage increase.

As the OWTU representatives have pointed out, for the past six years, Petrotrin had offered zero- zero-zero, denying workers of any wage adjustments. Therefore, after 19 hours of negotiations, the employers side didn’t show any spirit of compromise. The Petrotrin workers risk life and limb, working in varying dangerous conditions, to guarantee a reliable supply of fuel to the travelling public; the Trinidad and Tobago people know better than anyone that the country’s economy is based on products made possible by the tireless efforts of these workers. That’s why we call upon the workers and the simple people of the country to stand by the Petrotrin workers, ignoring the employers appeals to not struggle.

We once more reiterate our support to the Petrotrin workers and to any form of struggle they decide to follow, underlining that all the wealth belongs to those who produce it.