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Vol. 1, Issue 18
Labor UpFront provides critical
labor news,
information, and ways to stay connected with the on-going
struggles of workers. You can also visit our
blog, http://laborupfront.blogspot.com/,
for further information on the stories in this newsletter and much more! Please
feel free to forward this to anyone
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Scott Marshall, Editor
Labor Commission Chair
In This
Newsletter:
Global
Labor Needs a
Global Stimulus
Autoworkers
demand action on bailout
Support
Striking
Teamsters
**********************
Global
Labor Needs a Global Stimulus
By Scott Marshall
“Workers of the World Unite” is back
by popular demand. And
not just by demand, but by necessity.
Global transnational corporations and
their partners finance
capital are working full time to craft an economic solution to the
world crisis
that preserves their enormous profits and power while putting the
burden of
recovery on working people. How could it be otherwise?
The capitalist beast has not changed
its spots. But it has
mutated into a much larger, globally interconnected, behemoth. Its
institutions,
the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade
Organization are in full swing. Not to mention the infamous G8 and G20
big
country summits. Of course, none of these even have seats at the table
for
labor.
The global nature of the economic
crisis, and the vast, new levels
of global economic integration all demand that labor develop its own
global
strategy.
(read
more here)
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to top
Autoworkers demand
action on bailout
DETROIT — The prospect of 3 million jobs lost; pension and health care
benefits cut for 1 million retirees, spouses and dependents; thousands
of other businesses - dealers, suppliers and others - threatened; huge
pension and health care costs tossed onto the federal government and
taxpayers; a drop in revenues to federal, state and local governments
forcing cuts in vital social services; a devastating blow to the entire
economy, already in crisis — it’s a scenario that gets people's
attention.
The United Auto Workers union says these would be the terrible
consequences of the collapse of the domestic auto industry. In advance
of the Dec. 2 deadline that Congress gave auto executives to spell out
in detail how a government loan would be used, the union is mobilizing
its membership to lobby Congress to support the loan request — but with
meaningful strings attached.
(read more in
the Peoples Weekly World)
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Support Striking Teamsters
(from the Teamsters Blog)
On Monday September 22, 2008, Jeff the Trucker and his
fellow
workers at one of the largest regional trucking company on the
West Coast – Oak Harbor Freight Lines - were forced to
strike in protest of Oak Harbor's violations of America's labor
laws.
Rather than correcting these violations by negotiating
with
its employees in good faith, Oak Harbor's owners have hired a
notorious strike breaking firm and imported teams of
professional strikebreakers to coerce and scare loyal long-time
employees.
Read Huffington Post Story on Jeff and the Strike (here)
Take action to support the strikers (here)
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