Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Resurrection Health Care workers vow: ‘We’ll win our union’
By John Bachtell
CHICAGO – “This vigil is a symbol of our commitment to justice. We are not giving up. We’ll keep on organizing and win a union at Resurrection Health Care (RHC),” declared Shirley Brown. “We’ll continue to fight for better lives
Brown, a leading rank-and-file organizer, was speaking at the conclusion of a 36-hour Vigil for Justice Sept. 26 sponsored by Healthcare Employees Acting at Resurrection Together (HEART), AFSCME and their labor, religious and community allies in support of a 7-year fight for union recognition for 8,000 workers.
Resurrection is a network of 8 hospitals sponsored by two Catholic orders - the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection. It is the largest Catholic health care provider in Chicago.
The vigil took place in front of the Resurrection Medical Center and corporate offices, a sprawling complex on both sides of W. Talcott Drive. The vigil was conducted in the shadow of massive new construction.
Organizers estimated over 300 people attended and expressed their solidarity. Most wrote messages on pieces of cloth that were strung on a fence in front of Resurrection property. A steady blare of horns from passing cars and trucks expressed their support was heard throughout the vigil.
“All this property and Resurrection can’t afford to pay a decent wage?” asked Mamie Johnson, an AFSCME Local 2600 member, as she shook her head in disbelief. “They need their butt whipped,” added her husband Gene, a retired postal worker. Both had arrived that morning on a bus full of AFSCME members from Springfield.
There is a growing anger among the workers over stepped up harassment and pressure exerted by Resurrection. Nurses and health care workers are being forced to adopt heavier workloads as RHC trims its workforce.
Carmen Cohn has worked at Resurrection for 15 years as an occupational therapist. She has seen steady deterioration in patient care, safety and an increase in workload and productivity. She said union recognition was essential to protect both workers and patients.
“Each occupational therapist is being pressured to work harder and produce more. I worked harder this year and my pay was frozen," said Cohn.
Aides have been eliminated who assisted in lifting heavy patients. So Cohn has to lift patients herself or wait for an aide to become available. Workers are angry over new RHC rules that make them use their first four vacation days if they get sick.
“We are facing fear, intimidation and misinformation,” said Kelly Bellinger, a labor and delivery RN with 15 years at RHC. “We demand Resurrection give its employees rights and a process free from fear, harassment and intimidation. We want a voice at the bedsides and safe staffing levels.”
Resurrection has resisted the organizing drive, intimidated, harassed and fired union activists. Many employees were too intimidated to join the vigil, but waved, honked and gave the thumbs-up as they completed their shifts and left for home.
In June the US Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a set of guiding principals calling for a fair process for health care workers to decide if they want a union or not. AFSCME Council 31 President Henry Bayer blasted the increasing corporatization of Resurrection, “They don’t care what the bishops say. All they care about is making money!”
Miguel Mora brought his baby son Diego Ramon to the vigil in support of his wife, a Resurrection mental health professional. Mora, an AFSCME member at the Illinois Department of Health care and Family Services said Resurrection is using the climate of fear to exploit immigrant workers too.
One of Mora’s clients was a Resurrection laundry worker who qualified for state services because of the low pay she receives. She was being sexually harassed on the job and it was affecting her family life. Mora hooked her up with the Interfaith Committee for Workers Issues (now ARISE Chicago) and she became active in the organizing drive. “This experience gave her confidence to fight, said Mora.
Lillie Smith Beacham is an RN in the Mother-Baby unit of West Suburban Hospital. She resented the massive new construction while staffing levels are being cut. The ratio of nurses to mother-baby couples had been 1 to 4 and is now 1 to 6 in many cases.
“I feel confident we’ll win, but it will take time. Many of the workers are fearful of management. They are being watched. Once they get past the fear factor and understand the need for the union for Resurrection to function, we’ll win,” she said.
“Moses and the people wandered in the desert in search of the Promised Land. For 40 years the people didn’t feel sure they would get there. Civil Rights activists put one foot in front of the other during a long difficult struggle. They were following a higher calling,” Rev. CJ Hawking, executive director of ARISE Chicago told the RHC workers. “Keep up the fight and you will get to the Promised Land.”
Friday, September 25, 2009
Hotel workers stage sit-in at Hyatt
By John Wojcik
CHICAGO – About 200 hospitality workers and supporters were arrested here Sept. 24 as part of a civil disobedience action in the streets outside the Hyatt Hotel and corporate headquarters. Those who participated in the sit-in, blocking rush hour traffic for more than an hour, were cheered on by almost 1,000 demonstrators who jammed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from the hotel. All those arrested were bussed to a special police facility where they were given citations and released.
The largest civil disobedience action by workers here in many years came less than a year after other workers in Chicago made history last winter by occupying a window and door factory after the owner shut it down.
The sit-in was organized by Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents 15,000 hotel and food service workers in Chicago and casino workers in Northwest Indiana. The action came amid an escalating labor disputes with Chicago hotels and growing public backlash against Hyatt hotels for the recent firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston. Unite Here Local 1 is in contract negotiations with hotel employers, including the Hyatt. Their contract expired Aug. 31.
Video by ProgressIllinois.com
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed Sept. 25 that he has ordered state employees to stop doing business with Hyatt hotels until it rehires the fired workers. Hyatt fired the workers and brought in lower-paid replacements the laid-off workers had trained.
Reflecting the national nature of the outrage, 92 hotel workers in San Francisco were arrested in a simultaneous civil disobedience action, also on Sept. 24.
The protests capped months of anger in the ranks of hotel workers here and around the country who are criticizing their employers for driving down wages, increasing workloads, cutting health benefits and jobs.
John Wojcik
Banquet server Susan Tynon speaks to media before the civil disobedience, Sept. 24, Chicago.
Susan Tynon, a banquet server at the Hyatt here said, as she sat in the middle of Chicago Ave., arms linked to co-workers on her left and right, that “Hyatt made $200 billion in profits in the last ten years and now they are trying to use the excuse that the economy is bad to cut jobs, cut benefits and make one of us do the work of three. I’m sitting here because I’d rather go to jail than to a hospital for being worked to death – if they get away with this I wouldn’t be able to go to a hospital anyway – they’re trying to cut our health benefits.”
Cheers and applause broke out from the crowds of supporters lining Chicago Ave. every time another dozen or so workers, wearing their uniforms and placards reading “I Am Not Afraid,” moved into the street, linked arms and sat down. Among those arrested were community leaders including Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz and Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.
“These men and women wash your plates and make your beds. They are our brothers and sisters,” Munoz said as he sat down in the middle of the street.
Frances La Rowell, a housekeeper at the Blackstone Hotel, was among the first to sit down. “I am not afraid,” she said, “I’m doing this because I have breast cancer and I have children to take care of. They want to cut my health benefits and pay. The chemotherapy is really rough but it’s not as bad as what they are doing to us at work.”
Despite the urgency of their own struggles on the job here, almost everyone expressed support for the workers in Boston.
In that city, on August 31, Hyatt fired the housekeepers (all women) and replaced them with low wage workers from a contractor in Georgia after telling the women they were training “vacation” replacements.
Angela Norena, a fired housekeeper at a Boston Hyatt told the World, “You cannot imagine how bad they were to us. I came to America 21 years ago and for all those years worked my fingers to the bone for them here in the land of opportunity.
“They came to me and said ‘don’t worry, you are too important to us to lose. Just train this person so we have someone here when you are on vacation.’ I believed them. I taught the person everything I knew. And then they came to me and said, ‘we don’t need you anymore.’ I’m mad as hell. After 21 years, I made $15.22 an hour and they kicked me out and replaced me with a woman I trained. They are paying her $8.00 an hour.”
Norena then linked arms with several local hotel workers, moved into the street and sat down. One of the workers who joined her in the sit-in was Claudette Evans, a floor care attendant at the Chicago Hyatt for 11 years. “They can arrest me because what the Hyatt did to those housekeepers in Boston is unthinkable and by sitting down, I’m standing up for those ladies,” Evans said. “I’m also standing up for myself and my mother, who’s been a housekeeper here too for 14 years. Our future, our health and our jobs depend on this.”
Earlier in the day Norena joined a delegation of women working in Chicago hotels in an appeal to Hyatt owner Penny Pritzker, who was giving a talk at the Sheraton Chicago, to bring back the “Hyatt 100” housekeepers in Boston.
Hyatt, which made $1.3 billion in profits from 2004 to 2008, is 85 percent owned by Chicago’s Pritzker family. Pritzker was at the Sheraton Sept. 24 addressing a conference of the National Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry.
Pritzker made no commitments to the workers and reportedly ran away from them. Norena said she was “disappointed” but would “continue to fight until every last one of us gets our jobs back.”
jwojcik@pww.org
CHICAGO – About 200 hospitality workers and supporters were arrested here Sept. 24 as part of a civil disobedience action in the streets outside the Hyatt Hotel and corporate headquarters. Those who participated in the sit-in, blocking rush hour traffic for more than an hour, were cheered on by almost 1,000 demonstrators who jammed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from the hotel. All those arrested were bussed to a special police facility where they were given citations and released.
The largest civil disobedience action by workers here in many years came less than a year after other workers in Chicago made history last winter by occupying a window and door factory after the owner shut it down.
The sit-in was organized by Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents 15,000 hotel and food service workers in Chicago and casino workers in Northwest Indiana. The action came amid an escalating labor disputes with Chicago hotels and growing public backlash against Hyatt hotels for the recent firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston. Unite Here Local 1 is in contract negotiations with hotel employers, including the Hyatt. Their contract expired Aug. 31.
Video by ProgressIllinois.com
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed Sept. 25 that he has ordered state employees to stop doing business with Hyatt hotels until it rehires the fired workers. Hyatt fired the workers and brought in lower-paid replacements the laid-off workers had trained.
Reflecting the national nature of the outrage, 92 hotel workers in San Francisco were arrested in a simultaneous civil disobedience action, also on Sept. 24.
The protests capped months of anger in the ranks of hotel workers here and around the country who are criticizing their employers for driving down wages, increasing workloads, cutting health benefits and jobs.
John Wojcik
Banquet server Susan Tynon speaks to media before the civil disobedience, Sept. 24, Chicago.
Susan Tynon, a banquet server at the Hyatt here said, as she sat in the middle of Chicago Ave., arms linked to co-workers on her left and right, that “Hyatt made $200 billion in profits in the last ten years and now they are trying to use the excuse that the economy is bad to cut jobs, cut benefits and make one of us do the work of three. I’m sitting here because I’d rather go to jail than to a hospital for being worked to death – if they get away with this I wouldn’t be able to go to a hospital anyway – they’re trying to cut our health benefits.”
Cheers and applause broke out from the crowds of supporters lining Chicago Ave. every time another dozen or so workers, wearing their uniforms and placards reading “I Am Not Afraid,” moved into the street, linked arms and sat down. Among those arrested were community leaders including Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz and Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.
“These men and women wash your plates and make your beds. They are our brothers and sisters,” Munoz said as he sat down in the middle of the street.
Frances La Rowell, a housekeeper at the Blackstone Hotel, was among the first to sit down. “I am not afraid,” she said, “I’m doing this because I have breast cancer and I have children to take care of. They want to cut my health benefits and pay. The chemotherapy is really rough but it’s not as bad as what they are doing to us at work.”
Despite the urgency of their own struggles on the job here, almost everyone expressed support for the workers in Boston.
In that city, on August 31, Hyatt fired the housekeepers (all women) and replaced them with low wage workers from a contractor in Georgia after telling the women they were training “vacation” replacements.
Angela Norena, a fired housekeeper at a Boston Hyatt told the World, “You cannot imagine how bad they were to us. I came to America 21 years ago and for all those years worked my fingers to the bone for them here in the land of opportunity.
“They came to me and said ‘don’t worry, you are too important to us to lose. Just train this person so we have someone here when you are on vacation.’ I believed them. I taught the person everything I knew. And then they came to me and said, ‘we don’t need you anymore.’ I’m mad as hell. After 21 years, I made $15.22 an hour and they kicked me out and replaced me with a woman I trained. They are paying her $8.00 an hour.”
Norena then linked arms with several local hotel workers, moved into the street and sat down. One of the workers who joined her in the sit-in was Claudette Evans, a floor care attendant at the Chicago Hyatt for 11 years. “They can arrest me because what the Hyatt did to those housekeepers in Boston is unthinkable and by sitting down, I’m standing up for those ladies,” Evans said. “I’m also standing up for myself and my mother, who’s been a housekeeper here too for 14 years. Our future, our health and our jobs depend on this.”
Earlier in the day Norena joined a delegation of women working in Chicago hotels in an appeal to Hyatt owner Penny Pritzker, who was giving a talk at the Sheraton Chicago, to bring back the “Hyatt 100” housekeepers in Boston.
Hyatt, which made $1.3 billion in profits from 2004 to 2008, is 85 percent owned by Chicago’s Pritzker family. Pritzker was at the Sheraton Sept. 24 addressing a conference of the National Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry.
Pritzker made no commitments to the workers and reportedly ran away from them. Norena said she was “disappointed” but would “continue to fight until every last one of us gets our jobs back.”
jwojcik@pww.org
Wells Fargo guilty of crimes against workers, rally charges
By Pepe Lozano
CHICAGO – Hundreds of labor, faith based and community leaders rallied here in front the downtown corporate offices of Wells Fargo Sept. 24 calling the bank guilty of criminal actions aimed at working people.
“Wells Fargo is a criminal offender in the banking community,” said Susan Hurley, executive director with Chicago Jobs With Justice, the group that organized the action.
Hurley said the bank received $25 billion in federal bailout funds from taxpayers, yet they continue to give out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives.
Nearly a year since Congress authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the financial industry, major banks like Wells Fargo are selling out working people by closing small businesses and forcing layoffs and home foreclosures, said Hurley.
According to Hurley the bank has foreclosed on 4,000 homes in the Chicago area alone. They also spend millions lobbying against the interests of working people, she added.
The logic to give banks money was to save our economy, even though we all know they engineered the crisis to begin with, said Hurley. “Instead they have kept the money for themselves and that’s not okay with us,” she said.
Hurley hopes Congress gets serious about re-regulating the current financial mess and pass stronger legislation that protects workers, consumers, and homeowners.
“We want Wells Fargo to keep people in their homes and to put those foreclosed homes back into the hands of the community,” she said. “So we are here today to take a stand for an economic recovery that supports working people not just the wealthy.”
Speakers at the rally also demanded that Wells Fargo pay money owed to union workers at the Quad Cities Die Casting company in Moline, Ill. The bank decided to liquidate and close the company recently leaving the workers jobless and devastating the town.
“I think it’s terrible what Wells Fargo did to my brothers and sisters,” said Deb Johann, leader with United Electrical Local 1174 and former Quad City worker. “They took $25 billion from taxpayers to save their skins, but when it comes to thousands of dollars in pay and benefits we have worked hard for, the bank is delinquent in payment,” she said. “We made millions this summer working hard at Quad City and now Wells Fargo is stepping in to take that money and stiff us on what we earned.”
What Wells Fargo has done is unfair and the money they spent on bonuses for their executives could be better utilized for people losing their jobs and their homes, critics say. And it’s not right how Wells Fargo has a history of taking advantage of homeowners, especially minorities, setting them up to fail in bad predatory lending practices, they add.
Many at the rally represented different struggles having to do with Wells Fargo’s bad policies including Susan Aarup, an activist with Access Living, a group that advocates for people with disabilities. Aarup, who uses a wheel chair, said she worked for the city for 12 years before being laid off.
Aurup said finding a new job these days is tough. But what’s more upsetting is how Wells Fargo discriminates against hiring people like her, she said.
“The disabled community has a 70 percent unemployment rate in Chicago,” said Aarup. “I’m demanding that Wells Fargo employ people with disabilities to fix this problem,” she said.
Many religious leaders were also present including Rev. Robin Hood with Clergy Committed to Community. “What Wells Fargo is doing to workers and homeowners is immoral and appalling and they should be held accountable for their criminal actions,” he said. “They’re predatory lenders and criminal offenders.”
Rev. Calvin Morris with the Community Renewal Society said at the end of it all it’s workers who are the people that produce the wealth in this country and financial institutions like Wells Fargo should support them in their right to join unions.
“We are not afraid,” said Morris. “And we are demanding our fair share especially when it comes to economic justice,” he said. “We will not be silent because our power is resident in the people and we the workers are that people.”
During the rally organizers of the action enacted a mini-skit called, “A People’s Trial of Wells Fargo” about how the bank employs bad practices toward working people. The trial in the skit found the bank and it’s chairman Richard Kovacevich guilty of criminal charges.
At the end of the rally activists chanted, “Wells Fargo, we’ll be back! And that’s a fact!”
plozano@pww.org
CHICAGO – Hundreds of labor, faith based and community leaders rallied here in front the downtown corporate offices of Wells Fargo Sept. 24 calling the bank guilty of criminal actions aimed at working people.
“Wells Fargo is a criminal offender in the banking community,” said Susan Hurley, executive director with Chicago Jobs With Justice, the group that organized the action.
Hurley said the bank received $25 billion in federal bailout funds from taxpayers, yet they continue to give out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives.
Nearly a year since Congress authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the financial industry, major banks like Wells Fargo are selling out working people by closing small businesses and forcing layoffs and home foreclosures, said Hurley.
According to Hurley the bank has foreclosed on 4,000 homes in the Chicago area alone. They also spend millions lobbying against the interests of working people, she added.
The logic to give banks money was to save our economy, even though we all know they engineered the crisis to begin with, said Hurley. “Instead they have kept the money for themselves and that’s not okay with us,” she said.
Hurley hopes Congress gets serious about re-regulating the current financial mess and pass stronger legislation that protects workers, consumers, and homeowners.
“We want Wells Fargo to keep people in their homes and to put those foreclosed homes back into the hands of the community,” she said. “So we are here today to take a stand for an economic recovery that supports working people not just the wealthy.”
Speakers at the rally also demanded that Wells Fargo pay money owed to union workers at the Quad Cities Die Casting company in Moline, Ill. The bank decided to liquidate and close the company recently leaving the workers jobless and devastating the town.
“I think it’s terrible what Wells Fargo did to my brothers and sisters,” said Deb Johann, leader with United Electrical Local 1174 and former Quad City worker. “They took $25 billion from taxpayers to save their skins, but when it comes to thousands of dollars in pay and benefits we have worked hard for, the bank is delinquent in payment,” she said. “We made millions this summer working hard at Quad City and now Wells Fargo is stepping in to take that money and stiff us on what we earned.”
What Wells Fargo has done is unfair and the money they spent on bonuses for their executives could be better utilized for people losing their jobs and their homes, critics say. And it’s not right how Wells Fargo has a history of taking advantage of homeowners, especially minorities, setting them up to fail in bad predatory lending practices, they add.
Many at the rally represented different struggles having to do with Wells Fargo’s bad policies including Susan Aarup, an activist with Access Living, a group that advocates for people with disabilities. Aarup, who uses a wheel chair, said she worked for the city for 12 years before being laid off.
Aurup said finding a new job these days is tough. But what’s more upsetting is how Wells Fargo discriminates against hiring people like her, she said.
“The disabled community has a 70 percent unemployment rate in Chicago,” said Aarup. “I’m demanding that Wells Fargo employ people with disabilities to fix this problem,” she said.
Many religious leaders were also present including Rev. Robin Hood with Clergy Committed to Community. “What Wells Fargo is doing to workers and homeowners is immoral and appalling and they should be held accountable for their criminal actions,” he said. “They’re predatory lenders and criminal offenders.”
Rev. Calvin Morris with the Community Renewal Society said at the end of it all it’s workers who are the people that produce the wealth in this country and financial institutions like Wells Fargo should support them in their right to join unions.
“We are not afraid,” said Morris. “And we are demanding our fair share especially when it comes to economic justice,” he said. “We will not be silent because our power is resident in the people and we the workers are that people.”
During the rally organizers of the action enacted a mini-skit called, “A People’s Trial of Wells Fargo” about how the bank employs bad practices toward working people. The trial in the skit found the bank and it’s chairman Richard Kovacevich guilty of criminal charges.
At the end of the rally activists chanted, “Wells Fargo, we’ll be back! And that’s a fact!”
plozano@pww.org
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Chicago rally blasts insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield
By Pepe Lozano
CHICAGO — “We’re going to win health care reform in this country. And we’re not going to let giant insurance companies get in the way,” said reform advocate John Gaudette at a midday rally here Sep. 22.
Anger is rising towards Big Insurance and its opposition to health care reform. Over 300 pro-reform advocates rallied in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, one of the state’s largest health insurance companies. They called for universal health care with a government-run plan to compete with private insurance companies.
“Insurance companies like Blue Cross are making extraordinary profits off the backs of sickness and people’s injuries,” said Gaudette, Illinois health care campaign director with Citizen Action. “And we think that is unconscionable.”
Gaudette said insurance companies spend $640,000 a day opposing health care reform and the industry is more concerned with their profits than maintaining the well being of Americans.
“Thousands of people with less cash and more passion are fighting for health care reform all across the country,” said Gaudette. He added that by November the president will have a health care bill ready to sign on his desk.
At the rally was Karen Nelson Rogers who said she pays $2,747 a month for her family of four’s health care expenses. “That’s obscene,” she said.
“We need a public health care option now,” Rogers said. “One that has everybody in and nobody out.” Rogers said she’s lucky to even have health insurance. “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have health care for all. It’s a shame.”
The current fight for a public option is in the Senate, which has dueling bills, one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee with a public option, and the other from the Finance Committee without one. The House of Representatives has passed a bill with a strong public option.
A possible outcome, congressional leaders say, is to work out the differences in a reconciliation process, which means the final bill would only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass.
During the rally speaker after speaker talked about how insurance companies continue to have a total stranglehold over the current health care debate. They put profits before people and give millions in campaign contributions to win legislation that will add billions more to their profiteering and do nothing for the rest of us, speakers said.
Rally organizers Health Care For America Now and Citizen Action charge that health insurance CEOs took home $690 million last year. And premiums have skyrocketed four times faster than wages. Some reports show health insurance profits have quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007.
Locally, it was an “exit” bonus totaling $26 million for two Blue Cross executives that really angered people.
“That party stops here and we’re not going to stand anymore for these obscene profits,” Jonathan VanderBrug from Campaign for a Better Health Care said. “What we want is the choice of quality health care with a strong public option and we are ready to fight for it.”
Ben Goold is a leader with the American Medical Student Association and works at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Goold told the crowd that every day he is surrounded by private insurance companies making outlandish profits. He said when patients tell him they’re uninsured there is little he can do.
“There is nothing I can tell them so all I say is ‘good luck.’”
Goold was optimistic about winning the reform battle. “I believe the future of medicine will look very different than the way it does today. I don’t think doctors in the future will stand for insurance companies to get in the way of them and their patients.”
The health insurance industry continues to pull out all the stops to kill meaningful reform, as they have always been able to do in the past, speakers at the rally said. Their main objective is to destroy the crucial public insurance option proposed by President Barack Obama and to force people to buy overpriced policies from them, even if we can’t possibly afford them, many said. Their greed knows no bounds.
William McNary, president of Citizen Action Illinois, fired up the crowd saying this fight is about real people and about who we are as a nation.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves but also to each other,” he said.
The time to stop rewarding these corporate wrongdoers like Blue Cross and others is here, he declared. It’s not right that banks and Wall Street got bailed out while millions remain unemployed and continue losing their homes.
“We will not and cannot allow it,” said McNary.
“We won’t get health care reform because it’s fair or because it’s the right thing to do. We have to fight for it and demand it and we have to be in it to win it.”
The rally was part of a national day of action where similar events took place in more than 200 other cities and towns.
plozano@pww.org
CHICAGO — “We’re going to win health care reform in this country. And we’re not going to let giant insurance companies get in the way,” said reform advocate John Gaudette at a midday rally here Sep. 22.
Anger is rising towards Big Insurance and its opposition to health care reform. Over 300 pro-reform advocates rallied in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, one of the state’s largest health insurance companies. They called for universal health care with a government-run plan to compete with private insurance companies.
“Insurance companies like Blue Cross are making extraordinary profits off the backs of sickness and people’s injuries,” said Gaudette, Illinois health care campaign director with Citizen Action. “And we think that is unconscionable.”
Gaudette said insurance companies spend $640,000 a day opposing health care reform and the industry is more concerned with their profits than maintaining the well being of Americans.
“Thousands of people with less cash and more passion are fighting for health care reform all across the country,” said Gaudette. He added that by November the president will have a health care bill ready to sign on his desk.
At the rally was Karen Nelson Rogers who said she pays $2,747 a month for her family of four’s health care expenses. “That’s obscene,” she said.
“We need a public health care option now,” Rogers said. “One that has everybody in and nobody out.” Rogers said she’s lucky to even have health insurance. “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have health care for all. It’s a shame.”
The current fight for a public option is in the Senate, which has dueling bills, one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee with a public option, and the other from the Finance Committee without one. The House of Representatives has passed a bill with a strong public option.
A possible outcome, congressional leaders say, is to work out the differences in a reconciliation process, which means the final bill would only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass.
During the rally speaker after speaker talked about how insurance companies continue to have a total stranglehold over the current health care debate. They put profits before people and give millions in campaign contributions to win legislation that will add billions more to their profiteering and do nothing for the rest of us, speakers said.
Rally organizers Health Care For America Now and Citizen Action charge that health insurance CEOs took home $690 million last year. And premiums have skyrocketed four times faster than wages. Some reports show health insurance profits have quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007.
Locally, it was an “exit” bonus totaling $26 million for two Blue Cross executives that really angered people.
“That party stops here and we’re not going to stand anymore for these obscene profits,” Jonathan VanderBrug from Campaign for a Better Health Care said. “What we want is the choice of quality health care with a strong public option and we are ready to fight for it.”
Ben Goold is a leader with the American Medical Student Association and works at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Goold told the crowd that every day he is surrounded by private insurance companies making outlandish profits. He said when patients tell him they’re uninsured there is little he can do.
“There is nothing I can tell them so all I say is ‘good luck.’”
Goold was optimistic about winning the reform battle. “I believe the future of medicine will look very different than the way it does today. I don’t think doctors in the future will stand for insurance companies to get in the way of them and their patients.”
The health insurance industry continues to pull out all the stops to kill meaningful reform, as they have always been able to do in the past, speakers at the rally said. Their main objective is to destroy the crucial public insurance option proposed by President Barack Obama and to force people to buy overpriced policies from them, even if we can’t possibly afford them, many said. Their greed knows no bounds.
William McNary, president of Citizen Action Illinois, fired up the crowd saying this fight is about real people and about who we are as a nation.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves but also to each other,” he said.
The time to stop rewarding these corporate wrongdoers like Blue Cross and others is here, he declared. It’s not right that banks and Wall Street got bailed out while millions remain unemployed and continue losing their homes.
“We will not and cannot allow it,” said McNary.
“We won’t get health care reform because it’s fair or because it’s the right thing to do. We have to fight for it and demand it and we have to be in it to win it.”
The rally was part of a national day of action where similar events took place in more than 200 other cities and towns.
plozano@pww.org
Anger rises towards Big Insurance
CHICAGO — “We’re going to win health care reform in this country. And we’re not going to let giant insurance companies get in the way,” said reform advocate John Gaudette at a midday rally here Sep. 22.
Anger is rising towards Big Insurance and its opposition to health care reform. Over 300 pro-reform advocates rallied in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, one of the state’s largest health insurance companies. They called for universal health care with a government-run plan to compete with private insurance companies.
“Insurance companies like Blue Cross are making extraordinary profits off the backs of sickness and people’s injuries,” said Gaudette, Illinois health care campaign director with Citizen Action. “And we think that is unconscionable.”
Gaudette said insurance companies spend $640,000 a day opposing health care reform and the industry is more concerned with their profits than maintaining the well being of Americans.
“Thousands of people with less cash and more passion are fighting for health care reform all across the country,” said Gaudette. He added that by November the president will have a health care bill ready to sign on his desk.
At the rally was Karen Nelson Rogers who said she pays $2,747 a month for her family of four’s health care expenses. “That’s obscene,” she said.
“We need a public health care option now,” Rogers said. “One that has everybody in and nobody out.” Rogers said she’s lucky to even have health insurance. “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have health care for all. It’s a shame.”
The current fight for a public option is in the Senate, which has dueling bills, one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee with a public option, and the other from the Finance Committee without one. The House of Representatives has passed a bill with a strong public option.
A possible outcome, congressional leaders say, is to work out the differences in a reconciliation process, which means the final bill would only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass.
During the rally speaker after speaker talked about how insurance companies continue to have a total stranglehold over the current health care debate. They put profits before people and give millions in campaign contributions to win legislation that will add billions more to their profiteering and do nothing for the rest of us, speakers said.
Rally organizers Health Care For America Now and Citizen Action charge that health insurance CEOs took home $690 million last year. And premiums have skyrocketed four times faster than wages. Some reports show health insurance profits have quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007.
Locally, it was an “exit” bonus totaling $26 million for two Blue Cross executives that really angered people.
“That party stops here and we’re not going to stand anymore for these obscene profits,” Jonathan VanderBrug from Campaign for a Better Health Care said. “What we want is the choice of quality health care with a strong public option and we are ready to fight for it.”
Ben Goold is a leader with the American Medical Student Association and works at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Goold told the crowd that every day he is surrounded by private insurance companies making outlandish profits. He said when patients tell him they’re uninsured there is little he can do.
“There is nothing I can tell them so all I say is ‘good luck.’”
Goold was optimistic about winning the reform battle. “I believe the future of medicine will look very different than the way it does today. I don’t think doctors in the future will stand for insurance companies to get in the way of them and their patients.”
The health insurance industry continues to pull out all the stops to kill meaningful reform, as they have always been able to do in the past, speakers at the rally said. Their main objective is to destroy the crucial public insurance option proposed by President Barack Obama and to force people to buy overpriced policies from them, even if we can’t possibly afford them, many said. Their greed knows no bounds.
William McNary, president of Citizen Action Illinois, fired up the crowd saying this fight is about real people and about who we are as a nation.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves but also to each other,” he said.
The time to stop rewarding these corporate wrongdoers like Blue Cross and others is here, he declared. It’s not right that banks and Wall Street got bailed out while millions remain unemployed and continue losing their homes.
“We will not and cannot allow it,” said McNary.
“We won’t get health care reform because it’s fair or because it’s the right thing to do. We have to fight for it and demand it and we have to be in it to win it.”
The rally was part of a national day of action where similar events took place in more than 200 other cities and towns.
plozano@pww.org
Anger is rising towards Big Insurance and its opposition to health care reform. Over 300 pro-reform advocates rallied in front of the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, one of the state’s largest health insurance companies. They called for universal health care with a government-run plan to compete with private insurance companies.
“Insurance companies like Blue Cross are making extraordinary profits off the backs of sickness and people’s injuries,” said Gaudette, Illinois health care campaign director with Citizen Action. “And we think that is unconscionable.”
Gaudette said insurance companies spend $640,000 a day opposing health care reform and the industry is more concerned with their profits than maintaining the well being of Americans.
“Thousands of people with less cash and more passion are fighting for health care reform all across the country,” said Gaudette. He added that by November the president will have a health care bill ready to sign on his desk.
At the rally was Karen Nelson Rogers who said she pays $2,747 a month for her family of four’s health care expenses. “That’s obscene,” she said.
“We need a public health care option now,” Rogers said. “One that has everybody in and nobody out.” Rogers said she’s lucky to even have health insurance. “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn’t have health care for all. It’s a shame.”
The current fight for a public option is in the Senate, which has dueling bills, one from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee with a public option, and the other from the Finance Committee without one. The House of Representatives has passed a bill with a strong public option.
A possible outcome, congressional leaders say, is to work out the differences in a reconciliation process, which means the final bill would only need 51 votes in the Senate to pass.
During the rally speaker after speaker talked about how insurance companies continue to have a total stranglehold over the current health care debate. They put profits before people and give millions in campaign contributions to win legislation that will add billions more to their profiteering and do nothing for the rest of us, speakers said.
Rally organizers Health Care For America Now and Citizen Action charge that health insurance CEOs took home $690 million last year. And premiums have skyrocketed four times faster than wages. Some reports show health insurance profits have quadrupled in seven years to $12.7 billion in 2007.
Locally, it was an “exit” bonus totaling $26 million for two Blue Cross executives that really angered people.
“That party stops here and we’re not going to stand anymore for these obscene profits,” Jonathan VanderBrug from Campaign for a Better Health Care said. “What we want is the choice of quality health care with a strong public option and we are ready to fight for it.”
Ben Goold is a leader with the American Medical Student Association and works at the University of Illinois Medical Center. Goold told the crowd that every day he is surrounded by private insurance companies making outlandish profits. He said when patients tell him they’re uninsured there is little he can do.
“There is nothing I can tell them so all I say is ‘good luck.’”
Goold was optimistic about winning the reform battle. “I believe the future of medicine will look very different than the way it does today. I don’t think doctors in the future will stand for insurance companies to get in the way of them and their patients.”
The health insurance industry continues to pull out all the stops to kill meaningful reform, as they have always been able to do in the past, speakers at the rally said. Their main objective is to destroy the crucial public insurance option proposed by President Barack Obama and to force people to buy overpriced policies from them, even if we can’t possibly afford them, many said. Their greed knows no bounds.
William McNary, president of Citizen Action Illinois, fired up the crowd saying this fight is about real people and about who we are as a nation.
“We have a responsibility to ourselves but also to each other,” he said.
The time to stop rewarding these corporate wrongdoers like Blue Cross and others is here, he declared. It’s not right that banks and Wall Street got bailed out while millions remain unemployed and continue losing their homes.
“We will not and cannot allow it,” said McNary.
“We won’t get health care reform because it’s fair or because it’s the right thing to do. We have to fight for it and demand it and we have to be in it to win it.”
The rally was part of a national day of action where similar events took place in more than 200 other cities and towns.
plozano@pww.org
Monday, September 21, 2009
CIGNA greed making health care system sick
By John Bachtell
Chicago – “Help! Help!” shrieked a young woman to passersby. “Uncle Sam is so sick!” The terrified woman stood over the prone body of Uncle Sam as she sought the attention of pedestrians beneath the cold hulking glass and steel offices of CIGNA Insurance Company.
Towering over Uncle Sam was the horrific visage of “Count Bleed-Ya-Dry” or what could certainly be any insurance company. “I have a solution,” cried out the Count, in an eerie Dracula-like voice. “I’m better than a doctor. I’m an industry churning out profits,” he screamed lustily as he drew blood from Uncle Sam.
Meanwhile, the gathering crowd was poked with a giant needle symbolizing the billions of dollars being drained from Americans by the insurance corporate giants.
The young street performers chanted:
The clear solution that’s left
Despite the lies from the right
Is Medicare for All
We can win this fight
Insurance is a pain
Health care is a human right
Single Payer health care today!
Single Payer health care today!
The skit was performed by members of Backbone Campaign, who were promoting the upcoming visit of “Mad As Hell Doctors” on a nationwide tour calling for passage of single payer or “Medicare for All” legislation to solve the health care crisis. They will arrive in Chicago Sept. 25 and end their tour in Washington, DC on Sept. 30.
“Americans need health care, not insurance bureaucracy, bills and bankruptcy,” chanted the young street actors. They pointed out CIGNA denied 33% of claims in California and wondered what the figure was in Illinois. “Caring for profits over people is CIGNA’s business!”
CIGNA is also being mercilessly exposed by former employee turned whistle blower Wendell Potter, who said insurance companies are under tremendous pressure not to pay out claims by their Wall Street investors.
"You don't think about individual people. You think about the numbers, and whether or not you're going to meet Wall Street's expectations," says Potter.
CIGNA had $19 billion in revenues last year and its CEO Ed Hanway, has received over $120 million in bonuses the last five years.
The health care system is in such crisis that 15 million Americans will be forced to visit an emergency room this year because they lack insurance coverage. A universal health care system could put an end to 100,000 preventable deaths a year, according to the group.
Many in the crowd were startled to hear that the health insurance industry is spending $1.6 million a day to defeat the current health care reform in Congress and to maintain the status quo. Flooding congress with money was subverting democracy, the group insisted. Instead, they urged support for a single payer system to take the profits out of the health care and restore Uncle Sam to vitality.
Chicago – “Help! Help!” shrieked a young woman to passersby. “Uncle Sam is so sick!” The terrified woman stood over the prone body of Uncle Sam as she sought the attention of pedestrians beneath the cold hulking glass and steel offices of CIGNA Insurance Company.
Towering over Uncle Sam was the horrific visage of “Count Bleed-Ya-Dry” or what could certainly be any insurance company. “I have a solution,” cried out the Count, in an eerie Dracula-like voice. “I’m better than a doctor. I’m an industry churning out profits,” he screamed lustily as he drew blood from Uncle Sam.
Meanwhile, the gathering crowd was poked with a giant needle symbolizing the billions of dollars being drained from Americans by the insurance corporate giants.
The young street performers chanted:
The clear solution that’s left
Despite the lies from the right
Is Medicare for All
We can win this fight
Insurance is a pain
Health care is a human right
Single Payer health care today!
Single Payer health care today!
The skit was performed by members of Backbone Campaign, who were promoting the upcoming visit of “Mad As Hell Doctors” on a nationwide tour calling for passage of single payer or “Medicare for All” legislation to solve the health care crisis. They will arrive in Chicago Sept. 25 and end their tour in Washington, DC on Sept. 30.
“Americans need health care, not insurance bureaucracy, bills and bankruptcy,” chanted the young street actors. They pointed out CIGNA denied 33% of claims in California and wondered what the figure was in Illinois. “Caring for profits over people is CIGNA’s business!”
CIGNA is also being mercilessly exposed by former employee turned whistle blower Wendell Potter, who said insurance companies are under tremendous pressure not to pay out claims by their Wall Street investors.
"You don't think about individual people. You think about the numbers, and whether or not you're going to meet Wall Street's expectations," says Potter.
CIGNA had $19 billion in revenues last year and its CEO Ed Hanway, has received over $120 million in bonuses the last five years.
The health care system is in such crisis that 15 million Americans will be forced to visit an emergency room this year because they lack insurance coverage. A universal health care system could put an end to 100,000 preventable deaths a year, according to the group.
Many in the crowd were startled to hear that the health insurance industry is spending $1.6 million a day to defeat the current health care reform in Congress and to maintain the status quo. Flooding congress with money was subverting democracy, the group insisted. Instead, they urged support for a single payer system to take the profits out of the health care and restore Uncle Sam to vitality.
Kraft workers’ struggle in Argentina goes global
By Damien Mathew
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -– The front lines of the class war have no geographic boundaries. This is the reality presented to us by capitalist globalization. With the original intention of dividing and weakening the international working class, the result is the beginnings of a new sense of international solidarity between workers regardless of nationality. A case in point is the current struggle of Argentine workers at the Kraft plant (formerly Terrabusi) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In July, at the peak of the H1N1 “Swine flu” outbreak, workers at the Buenos Aires plant went on strike in protest of management’s refusal to provide adequate sanitation for workers. Workers were also denied sick leave and family leave during the outbreak. Hand sanitizers and other supplies needed to prevent spread of contagion were not available. After numerous demands from the workers were ignored, the strike was called resulting in a production stoppage lasting a week.
Argentina’s labor laws require compulsory arbitration if workers are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution to demands. Argentina’s Ministry of Labor sent inspectors to the facility at the onset of the strike and confirmed that Kraft had violated the compulsory arbitration conditions of national labor law by refusing to take any actions in response to worker demands. The company responded to the strike by firing over 150 workers, including elected union officers, shop stewards, and delegates in an apparent attempt to both intimidate the workers and weaken their union.
On Sept. 1, workers again called a strike, resulting in a work stoppage. This time, Kraft responded by declaring a lockout, leaving fired workers stranded within the plant, isolated from their co-workers who were demonstrating outside. Armed riot police barricaded the compound, and shot rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd outside the plant.
The Argentine workers have been utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube to disseminate information about their struggle. Since late August, the workers at the Buenos Aires plant have been constantly organizing demonstrations, protests and other acts of resistance.
In spite of an “obligatory conciliation” ruling by Argentina’s Ministry of Labor, Kraft continues to refuse to reinstate the illegally fired workers and has yet to comply with demands for adequate sanitation measures in the workplace.
On Sept. 17, American activists and workers responded with demonstrations at two major Kraft facilities in Illinois: a major manufacturing plant in Champaign and Kraft corporate headquarters in Glenview.
The Champaign plant manufactures many popular Kraft food products, such as “Mac and Cheese” and “Micracle Whip.” Fliers were distributed outside of both facilities.
At Champaign, a Kraft representative who wished to be identified only as “Brad” indicated that he was aware of the Kraft workers’ struggle in Argentina, but declined to comment further.
This struggle provides a good example of the usefulness of the Internet, and social networking in particular, to unite workers and activists on a global scale. Today, that statement which once was uttered with only hope is now filled with a new sense of real possibilities: Workers of the World, Unite!
To learn more and to keep up to date with this on-going struggle, join the Facebook group “Say NO to KRAFT campaign.” http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=124299898146
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -– The front lines of the class war have no geographic boundaries. This is the reality presented to us by capitalist globalization. With the original intention of dividing and weakening the international working class, the result is the beginnings of a new sense of international solidarity between workers regardless of nationality. A case in point is the current struggle of Argentine workers at the Kraft plant (formerly Terrabusi) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In July, at the peak of the H1N1 “Swine flu” outbreak, workers at the Buenos Aires plant went on strike in protest of management’s refusal to provide adequate sanitation for workers. Workers were also denied sick leave and family leave during the outbreak. Hand sanitizers and other supplies needed to prevent spread of contagion were not available. After numerous demands from the workers were ignored, the strike was called resulting in a production stoppage lasting a week.
Argentina’s labor laws require compulsory arbitration if workers are unable to reach a satisfactory resolution to demands. Argentina’s Ministry of Labor sent inspectors to the facility at the onset of the strike and confirmed that Kraft had violated the compulsory arbitration conditions of national labor law by refusing to take any actions in response to worker demands. The company responded to the strike by firing over 150 workers, including elected union officers, shop stewards, and delegates in an apparent attempt to both intimidate the workers and weaken their union.
On Sept. 1, workers again called a strike, resulting in a work stoppage. This time, Kraft responded by declaring a lockout, leaving fired workers stranded within the plant, isolated from their co-workers who were demonstrating outside. Armed riot police barricaded the compound, and shot rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd outside the plant.
The Argentine workers have been utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube to disseminate information about their struggle. Since late August, the workers at the Buenos Aires plant have been constantly organizing demonstrations, protests and other acts of resistance.
In spite of an “obligatory conciliation” ruling by Argentina’s Ministry of Labor, Kraft continues to refuse to reinstate the illegally fired workers and has yet to comply with demands for adequate sanitation measures in the workplace.
On Sept. 17, American activists and workers responded with demonstrations at two major Kraft facilities in Illinois: a major manufacturing plant in Champaign and Kraft corporate headquarters in Glenview.
The Champaign plant manufactures many popular Kraft food products, such as “Mac and Cheese” and “Micracle Whip.” Fliers were distributed outside of both facilities.
At Champaign, a Kraft representative who wished to be identified only as “Brad” indicated that he was aware of the Kraft workers’ struggle in Argentina, but declined to comment further.
This struggle provides a good example of the usefulness of the Internet, and social networking in particular, to unite workers and activists on a global scale. Today, that statement which once was uttered with only hope is now filled with a new sense of real possibilities: Workers of the World, Unite!
To learn more and to keep up to date with this on-going struggle, join the Facebook group “Say NO to KRAFT campaign.” http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=124299898146
Friday, September 18, 2009
Bill Adelman remembered
William J. (Bill) Adelman Remembered
By Leslie F. Orear, President Emeritus, Illinois Labor History Society
A life of devotion to the pursuit of labor history came to an abrupt end on September 15th with the death of William J Adelman, a founder of the Illinois Labor History Society and its Vice President. The cause of death was a heart attack.
Adelman began his professional career as a high school history teacher. Later Professor Adelman joined the faculty of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
He was one of the few academics offering a labor history perspective in the Chicago region during the 60s and 70s. His lectures, seminars and tours to labor sites became extremely popular, particularly in the labor union community. His content was always designed to produce the maximum understanding of the historical roots of contemporary issues, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject was legendary.
As one of an informal group of labor attorneys, educators and editors he helped create the Haymarket Workers Memorial Committee which issued a call for a ceremony in Haymarket Square on May 1, 1969 to correct public misunderstanding of the “so-called” Haymarket riot. The success of that effort led to the incorporation of the Illinois Labor History Society and Adelman’s election as Vice President that same year.
Aware of the need for better teaching tools, Adelman produced self-guided tours to the Pullman community where the great strike of 1894 had taken place and to areas associated with the Haymarket Tragedy of 1886. He continued the series with Pilsen and the West Side, including the Ashland Avenue neighborhood known as Union Row because of its numerous labor union headquarters. His visual works began in the 16mm days with “Packingtown USA” followed by “Palace Cars and Paradise,” a walking tour of the Pullman community with Adelman himself as guide. Both have been transferred to video. Most of these materials are available today through the Illinois Labor History Society.
He served on the official public committee to select the sculptor for the Haymarket Memorial sculpture installed by the City of Chicago in Haymarket Square in 2004 after 35 years of agitation by the labor community. This historic event followed the naming of the Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Forest Home Cemetery as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. National Park Service in 1998. Adelman had urged such action at a conference held by the Park Service.
In May 2009, Adelman’s “Haymarket Revisited” was republished in the English language by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in New Delhi with a foreword by its president, M.K. Pandhe. In this new version entitled “Glorious Saga of May Day Martyrs,” Pandhe notes that he and his wife had been members of a Haymarket tour party in 2008. Pandhe declares: “…I must mention the remarkable guidance given by Prof. William J. Adelman. For over two hours he narrated the entire background to us in a lucid manner which reflected his firm commitment to the working class and their legitimate struggles… I was deeply impressed. by the book [“Haymarket Revisited”] and thought that Indian readers should know about the glorious struggle of the Chicago workers.”
Adelman was immediately informed when the book arrived at the ILHS office in late August of this year, but unfortunately he did not have the opportunity to see it before his untimely death.
William J. Adelman, age 77, of Oak Park, beloved life partner of David Staley and spouse of Nora Jill Adelman; loving father of Michelle, Marguerite (Robert Ackland), Michael, Marc (Trish) and Jessica Adelman; cherished grandfather of Jon, Ben, Jeffrey, Elinora and Gwendolen; dear brother of Sandra (John) Walsh; dear uncle of John (Melissa), Timothy (Michelle) and Karen (Robert). William was a Professor of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois, Chicago and was a Founding Member/Vice President of the Illinois History Labor Society. Visitation Saturday, 12 noon to 4 p.m. with Funeral Service 3 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Interment private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to Illinois Labor History Society or the Miller, Cook & Wood Theater Scholarship at OPRF High School are appreciated. Funeral info: 708-383-3191
By Leslie F. Orear, President Emeritus, Illinois Labor History Society
A life of devotion to the pursuit of labor history came to an abrupt end on September 15th with the death of William J Adelman, a founder of the Illinois Labor History Society and its Vice President. The cause of death was a heart attack.
Adelman began his professional career as a high school history teacher. Later Professor Adelman joined the faculty of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
He was one of the few academics offering a labor history perspective in the Chicago region during the 60s and 70s. His lectures, seminars and tours to labor sites became extremely popular, particularly in the labor union community. His content was always designed to produce the maximum understanding of the historical roots of contemporary issues, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject was legendary.
As one of an informal group of labor attorneys, educators and editors he helped create the Haymarket Workers Memorial Committee which issued a call for a ceremony in Haymarket Square on May 1, 1969 to correct public misunderstanding of the “so-called” Haymarket riot. The success of that effort led to the incorporation of the Illinois Labor History Society and Adelman’s election as Vice President that same year.
Aware of the need for better teaching tools, Adelman produced self-guided tours to the Pullman community where the great strike of 1894 had taken place and to areas associated with the Haymarket Tragedy of 1886. He continued the series with Pilsen and the West Side, including the Ashland Avenue neighborhood known as Union Row because of its numerous labor union headquarters. His visual works began in the 16mm days with “Packingtown USA” followed by “Palace Cars and Paradise,” a walking tour of the Pullman community with Adelman himself as guide. Both have been transferred to video. Most of these materials are available today through the Illinois Labor History Society.
He served on the official public committee to select the sculptor for the Haymarket Memorial sculpture installed by the City of Chicago in Haymarket Square in 2004 after 35 years of agitation by the labor community. This historic event followed the naming of the Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Forest Home Cemetery as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. National Park Service in 1998. Adelman had urged such action at a conference held by the Park Service.
In May 2009, Adelman’s “Haymarket Revisited” was republished in the English language by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in New Delhi with a foreword by its president, M.K. Pandhe. In this new version entitled “Glorious Saga of May Day Martyrs,” Pandhe notes that he and his wife had been members of a Haymarket tour party in 2008. Pandhe declares: “…I must mention the remarkable guidance given by Prof. William J. Adelman. For over two hours he narrated the entire background to us in a lucid manner which reflected his firm commitment to the working class and their legitimate struggles… I was deeply impressed. by the book [“Haymarket Revisited”] and thought that Indian readers should know about the glorious struggle of the Chicago workers.”
Adelman was immediately informed when the book arrived at the ILHS office in late August of this year, but unfortunately he did not have the opportunity to see it before his untimely death.
William J. Adelman, age 77, of Oak Park, beloved life partner of David Staley and spouse of Nora Jill Adelman; loving father of Michelle, Marguerite (Robert Ackland), Michael, Marc (Trish) and Jessica Adelman; cherished grandfather of Jon, Ben, Jeffrey, Elinora and Gwendolen; dear brother of Sandra (John) Walsh; dear uncle of John (Melissa), Timothy (Michelle) and Karen (Robert). William was a Professor of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois, Chicago and was a Founding Member/Vice President of the Illinois History Labor Society. Visitation Saturday, 12 noon to 4 p.m. with Funeral Service 3 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Interment private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations to Illinois Labor History Society or the Miller, Cook & Wood Theater Scholarship at OPRF High School are appreciated. Funeral info: 708-383-3191
Champaign Activists Say “NO!” to Kraft
From Urbana-Champaign Independent Media center:
In an act of international solidarity, a small group of workers in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, picketed and passed out leaflets about the suppression of fellow workers by Kraft Foods Global, Inc. at a factory in Argentina. On September 17, 2009, workers also picketed a plant in Chicago, where Kraft has its global headquarters.
Kraft purchased a food factory in Buenos Aires owned by the Terrabusi company in 2004. This last July there was an outbreak of H1N1 flu virus at the plant. When workers were denied sick leave, they organized a strike. In response, Kraft fired approximately 150 workers, among them many union leaders.
Recently, workers were locked out of the plant and were met by police that, according to one source fired rubber bullets into the crowd of 1,000 people who had assembled.
http://momento24.com/en/2009/09/07/tension-following-protests-in-terrabusi-plant/
In Champaign, activists stood at the corner of Mattis and Bradley with signs. A man representing Kraft who would only identify himself as “Brad” approached the group of protesters. He was barrel-chested man who probably weighed close to 250 pounds and was wearing a jacket that read “Jell-O” on the pocket. He wanted to know, was anyone was “bothering” or “harassing” the group? They told him not yet. He left and rejoined two grey-haired men who were also looking on.
The Kraft plant in Champaign is non-unionized, although it is the largest industrial employer in the area.
At the factory are manufactured some of the company’s best sellers including “E-z Mac,” mac and cheese, and Miracle Whip.
For more go to Chicago IMC:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/index.php
In an act of international solidarity, a small group of workers in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, picketed and passed out leaflets about the suppression of fellow workers by Kraft Foods Global, Inc. at a factory in Argentina. On September 17, 2009, workers also picketed a plant in Chicago, where Kraft has its global headquarters.
Kraft purchased a food factory in Buenos Aires owned by the Terrabusi company in 2004. This last July there was an outbreak of H1N1 flu virus at the plant. When workers were denied sick leave, they organized a strike. In response, Kraft fired approximately 150 workers, among them many union leaders.
Recently, workers were locked out of the plant and were met by police that, according to one source fired rubber bullets into the crowd of 1,000 people who had assembled.
http://momento24.com/en/2009/09/07/tension-following-protests-in-terrabusi-plant/
In Champaign, activists stood at the corner of Mattis and Bradley with signs. A man representing Kraft who would only identify himself as “Brad” approached the group of protesters. He was barrel-chested man who probably weighed close to 250 pounds and was wearing a jacket that read “Jell-O” on the pocket. He wanted to know, was anyone was “bothering” or “harassing” the group? They told him not yet. He left and rejoined two grey-haired men who were also looking on.
The Kraft plant in Champaign is non-unionized, although it is the largest industrial employer in the area.
At the factory are manufactured some of the company’s best sellers including “E-z Mac,” mac and cheese, and Miracle Whip.
For more go to Chicago IMC:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/index.php
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Performers Break Cuban Blockade with Peace Concert
By Sijisfredo Aviles
Peace lovers of the world are rejoicing while the haters of peace and those who want to promote conflict are fuming. Why this open conflict? It is all due to the fact that the second "Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras" (Peace Without Borders Concert) is scheduled at the Jose Marti Revolution Plaza, Sunday, September 20 to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Peace. Admission is free and open to the public.
Many Latino popular artists are making two major statements with the concert 1) that artists will not longer be cowed by pressures and threats from the right wing anti-Cuban revolution emigrants 2) the concert will serve as a bridge for better understanding in the relations between all Cubans, particularly with the youth” said Colombian rocker Juanes. The Cuban poet Amaury Perez further explains, “The message is that we should be championing peace every single day".
It has become a rally for freedom of artistic expression and the fact that at least 15 artists have agreed to participate is making many right wing members in United States, Latin America, Spain, and the world unhappy and angry.
Fifteen artists from six different countries have answered the call to celebrate peace and music from Juanes and Miguel Bose, founders of "Peace Without Borders" The artists will not be charging a fee for their performance.
The participants include Amaruy Perez (Cuba), Danny Rivera (Puerto Rico), Juan Fernando Velasco (Ecuador), Jovanotti (Italy), Juanes (Colombia), Luis Eduardo Aute (Spain), Miguel Bosé (Spain), Olga Tañón (Puerto Rico), Orisha, Silvio Rodrigues, X Alfonso, Los Van Van, Carlos Varela (Cuba), VÃctor Manuel (Spain), CuCu Diamantes and Yerba Buena (US and Cuba).
All artists have agreed to perform just their most popular songs and that the concert will not present political messages of any nature. There will be no presenters on stage – just music performers. The concert organizers have requested that the artists and the audience wear all white attire to symbolize peace.
A total of 128 people including artists, musicians, management and technical staff will travel to Havana to stage the concert. Additionally, more than 160 journalists from across the globe have been credentialed to cover the concert.
Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras will be transmitted live via satellite through Cuban television and the signal can be used freely without restriction in any country and through any television channel, website or radio station that makes a request. In United States, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, HITN. TV, will broadcast the concert
Peace lovers of the world are rejoicing while the haters of peace and those who want to promote conflict are fuming. Why this open conflict? It is all due to the fact that the second "Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras" (Peace Without Borders Concert) is scheduled at the Jose Marti Revolution Plaza, Sunday, September 20 to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Peace. Admission is free and open to the public.
Many Latino popular artists are making two major statements with the concert 1) that artists will not longer be cowed by pressures and threats from the right wing anti-Cuban revolution emigrants 2) the concert will serve as a bridge for better understanding in the relations between all Cubans, particularly with the youth” said Colombian rocker Juanes. The Cuban poet Amaury Perez further explains, “The message is that we should be championing peace every single day".
It has become a rally for freedom of artistic expression and the fact that at least 15 artists have agreed to participate is making many right wing members in United States, Latin America, Spain, and the world unhappy and angry.
Fifteen artists from six different countries have answered the call to celebrate peace and music from Juanes and Miguel Bose, founders of "Peace Without Borders" The artists will not be charging a fee for their performance.
The participants include Amaruy Perez (Cuba), Danny Rivera (Puerto Rico), Juan Fernando Velasco (Ecuador), Jovanotti (Italy), Juanes (Colombia), Luis Eduardo Aute (Spain), Miguel Bosé (Spain), Olga Tañón (Puerto Rico), Orisha, Silvio Rodrigues, X Alfonso, Los Van Van, Carlos Varela (Cuba), VÃctor Manuel (Spain), CuCu Diamantes and Yerba Buena (US and Cuba).
All artists have agreed to perform just their most popular songs and that the concert will not present political messages of any nature. There will be no presenters on stage – just music performers. The concert organizers have requested that the artists and the audience wear all white attire to symbolize peace.
A total of 128 people including artists, musicians, management and technical staff will travel to Havana to stage the concert. Additionally, more than 160 journalists from across the globe have been credentialed to cover the concert.
Concierto Paz Sin Fronteras will be transmitted live via satellite through Cuban television and the signal can be used freely without restriction in any country and through any television channel, website or radio station that makes a request. In United States, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, HITN. TV, will broadcast the concert
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Senior is all for public option
Health care reform activist Bea Lumpkin is featured in a Chicago Sun Times Sept. 7 story on the current health care struggle:
Senior is all for public option
Ninety-one-year-old Beatrice Lumpkin said she very well might not have been here were it not for her Medicare insurance benefits.
"Eleven years ago, I was getting tired, and I didn't know what it was from. It turned out to be blood clots in the lungs," said the retired Chicago Public Schools teacher, who was a member of the American Federation of Teachers union.
"If I didn't have Medicare, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor then. I was just tired, but nothing hurt. I could very possibly have had a stroke or a heart attack. I didn't have to hesitate because I knew that my costs would be covered."
Read entire article: http://www.suntimes.com/business/1756998,CST-NWS-labor07side1.article
Senior is all for public option
Ninety-one-year-old Beatrice Lumpkin said she very well might not have been here were it not for her Medicare insurance benefits.
"Eleven years ago, I was getting tired, and I didn't know what it was from. It turned out to be blood clots in the lungs," said the retired Chicago Public Schools teacher, who was a member of the American Federation of Teachers union.
"If I didn't have Medicare, I wouldn't have gone to the doctor then. I was just tired, but nothing hurt. I could very possibly have had a stroke or a heart attack. I didn't have to hesitate because I knew that my costs would be covered."
Read entire article: http://www.suntimes.com/business/1756998,CST-NWS-labor07side1.article
1,300 march in Rockford for jobs and justice
ROCKFORD, IL – Over 1,300 community residents in Rockford Ill. marched Sept. 12 for jobs, education and justice in response to the police killing of Mark Anthony Barmore. Barmore was was slain on August 24 in this economically hard hit city.
The local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with other community groups and churches organized the march. Protesters carried signs calling for “community unity,” in response to the killing and economic crisis that have inflamed tensions across communities.
Rev. Jesse Jackson of the National Rainbow PUSH Coalition and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous led the demonstration.
The killing of Barmore is the latest in a long string of acts of racism committed in Rockford, an old industrial city of 155,000 rocked by the highest unemployment rate in the state at 15%, and 30% in the construction trades. Unemployment is far higher in the city’s African American community.
Two Rockford police approached Barmore, a 23 year-old African American, while he standing in front of the Kingdom Authority International Ministries (an African American church) after receiving a complaint. Unarmed, Barmore ran into the church followed by officers with guns drawn.
Barmore entered the church day care area with children present and into a small boiler room. Ordered by police to exit, Barmore slowly emerged with hands up. According to day care workers, police shot him unprovoked. Lying face down on the floor, he was shot three more times in the back.
Since the killing, racist elements have been whipping up a climate of hate including a local radio station. Supporters of the police are planning a march on September 19, which is expected to inflame the situation further.
The community affairs department of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is involved and a confidential pre-strategy meeting was held last Friday. The NAACP is requesting a criminal investigation from the DOJ.
One of the officers who shot Barmore has shot 3 other African American males in Rockford. Additionally, officers are reportedly using intimidation tactics against the witnesses such as sitting outside their homes.
In an effort to unite the city, Jackson called for a movement against the economic crisis. He met with the city’s labor leadership where he called for a vigorous fight for jobs, including an additional stimulus plan from the federal government targeting cities like Rockford.
"Our problem today is not the fight in Rockford between the people that live in Rockford, our fight is a community together, fighting Washington and letting them know we need a stimulus package for Rockford to bring our manufacturing stimulus here," says Tom Dal Santo, Business Manager of Laborers Local 32.
"We're taking the focus off something we can't control right now and focus on the root of the problem which is lack of jobs and the ability to organize," says Brad Long, president of the Northwest Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council.
“It was wonderful watching so many diverse segments of our community come together to march for jobs, justice, education, healthcare, and an end to violence and poverty, said Fay Muhammad, a community activist and march organizer. “However, it’s very sad to think it took a murder in a daycare center to sound the alarm for community unity.”
The NAACP is renewing a push for federal standards on police use of force. “There are no national standards for the use of force (or) training for use of force,” said Jealous.
The local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with other community groups and churches organized the march. Protesters carried signs calling for “community unity,” in response to the killing and economic crisis that have inflamed tensions across communities.
Rev. Jesse Jackson of the National Rainbow PUSH Coalition and NAACP President Benjamin Jealous led the demonstration.
The killing of Barmore is the latest in a long string of acts of racism committed in Rockford, an old industrial city of 155,000 rocked by the highest unemployment rate in the state at 15%, and 30% in the construction trades. Unemployment is far higher in the city’s African American community.
Two Rockford police approached Barmore, a 23 year-old African American, while he standing in front of the Kingdom Authority International Ministries (an African American church) after receiving a complaint. Unarmed, Barmore ran into the church followed by officers with guns drawn.
Barmore entered the church day care area with children present and into a small boiler room. Ordered by police to exit, Barmore slowly emerged with hands up. According to day care workers, police shot him unprovoked. Lying face down on the floor, he was shot three more times in the back.
Since the killing, racist elements have been whipping up a climate of hate including a local radio station. Supporters of the police are planning a march on September 19, which is expected to inflame the situation further.
The community affairs department of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is involved and a confidential pre-strategy meeting was held last Friday. The NAACP is requesting a criminal investigation from the DOJ.
One of the officers who shot Barmore has shot 3 other African American males in Rockford. Additionally, officers are reportedly using intimidation tactics against the witnesses such as sitting outside their homes.
In an effort to unite the city, Jackson called for a movement against the economic crisis. He met with the city’s labor leadership where he called for a vigorous fight for jobs, including an additional stimulus plan from the federal government targeting cities like Rockford.
"Our problem today is not the fight in Rockford between the people that live in Rockford, our fight is a community together, fighting Washington and letting them know we need a stimulus package for Rockford to bring our manufacturing stimulus here," says Tom Dal Santo, Business Manager of Laborers Local 32.
"We're taking the focus off something we can't control right now and focus on the root of the problem which is lack of jobs and the ability to organize," says Brad Long, president of the Northwest Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council.
“It was wonderful watching so many diverse segments of our community come together to march for jobs, justice, education, healthcare, and an end to violence and poverty, said Fay Muhammad, a community activist and march organizer. “However, it’s very sad to think it took a murder in a daycare center to sound the alarm for community unity.”
The NAACP is renewing a push for federal standards on police use of force. “There are no national standards for the use of force (or) training for use of force,” said Jealous.
Support striking S K Hand Tool workers
Tell SEARS:
*_STOP Doing Business with Companies that Illegally Take
Away Workers’ Health Insurance!_*
WHEN: Friday, September 18^th , 2009
TIME: 12pm – 1pm
WHERE: Sears store
2 N. State St. at Madison St.
The Teamsters Local 743 members who make SK and Craftsman
tools, sold by Sears, have been on strike since August 25^th .
We are sending a message to Sears that it is not okay to do
business with companies that are breaking the law!
For additional information please contact:
Sara Hainds or Makia Burns (773) 254-7460 or
Visit the website www.743teamsters.org
*_STOP Doing Business with Companies that Illegally Take
Away Workers’ Health Insurance!_*
WHEN: Friday, September 18^th , 2009
TIME: 12pm – 1pm
WHERE: Sears store
2 N. State St. at Madison St.
The Teamsters Local 743 members who make SK and Craftsman
tools, sold by Sears, have been on strike since August 25^th .
We are sending a message to Sears that it is not okay to do
business with companies that are breaking the law!
For additional information please contact:
Sara Hainds or Makia Burns (773) 254-7460 or
Visit the website www.743teamsters.org
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A letter from the Kraft workers in Argentina
Brothers and sisters of the combative unions in Chicago,
The letter is arriving to you in what are very difficult times for us.
A few years ago (2004) the Kraft Foods company bought out the most important food production factory in Argentina, where we produce goods for local consumption as well as for neighboring countries. The buyout was through a business deal, which allowed Kraft to purchase the company at a very low price.
Since the multinational took over the company, working conditions have become more than bad. In the midst of a world pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus, children and government employees were excused from duties in order to prevent the spread of the disease. The mothers, working at the Kraft factory, didn’t know have anyone to watch over their children. Furthermore, there are horrible hygiene conditions and security in the factory, much less in the factory’s daycare center; there wasn’t even a bottle of disinfectant for the hands of the 3,000 employees. When we had our first case of H1N1 within the factory, we had to go on strike so that they would give us the days off.
A few weeks later the company decided to fire 150 workers because they participated in the strike. In the midst of these “selective firings” they sacked our union leaders, the factory committee and our union delegates. We know that the Kraft Foods plant in Chicago doesn’t have a union and we’re sure that this is what these factory owners want to do, even in violation of the Argentine laws.
We know that the Kraft Foods headquarters is located in Glenview, Illinois and they are controlling this “operation” against us. On our websites dedicated to the struggle we have seen the IP addresses of 17 computers that are connected from EDS/Kraft Glenview, IL, where they spend the entire day watching our news programs.
That is why we are asking for solidarity in getting the word out that the Kraft Foods managers in Glenview, IL are responsible for this attack on workers, union freedom and the rights of hundreds of workers in Argentina. This is why we are asking for solidarity in condemning the actions of these managers.
In Solidarity from Buenos Aires
KRAFT FOODS WORKERS EX-TERRABUSI
The letter is arriving to you in what are very difficult times for us.
A few years ago (2004) the Kraft Foods company bought out the most important food production factory in Argentina, where we produce goods for local consumption as well as for neighboring countries. The buyout was through a business deal, which allowed Kraft to purchase the company at a very low price.
Since the multinational took over the company, working conditions have become more than bad. In the midst of a world pandemic caused by the H1N1 virus, children and government employees were excused from duties in order to prevent the spread of the disease. The mothers, working at the Kraft factory, didn’t know have anyone to watch over their children. Furthermore, there are horrible hygiene conditions and security in the factory, much less in the factory’s daycare center; there wasn’t even a bottle of disinfectant for the hands of the 3,000 employees. When we had our first case of H1N1 within the factory, we had to go on strike so that they would give us the days off.
A few weeks later the company decided to fire 150 workers because they participated in the strike. In the midst of these “selective firings” they sacked our union leaders, the factory committee and our union delegates. We know that the Kraft Foods plant in Chicago doesn’t have a union and we’re sure that this is what these factory owners want to do, even in violation of the Argentine laws.
We know that the Kraft Foods headquarters is located in Glenview, Illinois and they are controlling this “operation” against us. On our websites dedicated to the struggle we have seen the IP addresses of 17 computers that are connected from EDS/Kraft Glenview, IL, where they spend the entire day watching our news programs.
That is why we are asking for solidarity in getting the word out that the Kraft Foods managers in Glenview, IL are responsible for this attack on workers, union freedom and the rights of hundreds of workers in Argentina. This is why we are asking for solidarity in condemning the actions of these managers.
In Solidarity from Buenos Aires
KRAFT FOODS WORKERS EX-TERRABUSI
MARK CLEMENTS IS FREE!
From the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression - Chicago Branch
JOIN US IN WELCOMING MARK BACK INTO THE “FREE WORLD” AT 4:00 PM ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19 AT THE HOME OF VIRGINIA CLEMENTS, 6643 N. SEELEY AVE. CHICAGO IL
After 28 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the courts have decided to free Mark Clements!
In 1981 Mark Clements was 16 years old. He was arrested, beaten and tortured by Chicago Police. He “confessed” under torture and immediately repudiated is “confession.” Yet he was sentenced to four life terms without possibility of parole.
Thanks to a plea bargain worked out by Special Prosecutor Stuart A. Nudelman, attorneys for Clements, and Judge Jorge Alonso Mark was released on August 18 for “time served.” While accepting the plea, Mark has never acknowledged his participation in the crime for which he was wrongfully convicted. Although there was little doubt that Mark would have ultimately prevailed had he refused the plea bargain, the years this would have taken made the plea a viable choice.
On June 17, 1981, at 2:00 AM a fire broke out in a building owned by Eleanor Scott at 6602 S. Wentworth Ave. in Chicago. Four people, Robert T. Watson, James and Annabelle Moore, and Isadore Tucker, died in that fire, all of carbon monoxide asphyxiation and smoke inhalation. Fire investigators determined that the fire was a result of arson.
Newly discovered evidence implicates members of a motorcycle gang “The Munsters” as the perpetrators. However, On June 25, 1981, after a superficial investigation police arrested, Mark Clements, aged 16. He was beaten and tortured by Detective John McCann , and interrogated by Detective Daniel McWeeny. McWeeny and McCann have long histories of physically and psychologically abusing suspects. Both have been implicated in the Jon Burge Police Torture Case.
After over 10 hours of abuse he made a “confession” to involvement in the fire. At his trial Clements repudiated this “confession,” proclaimed his innocence, and recounted the beatings he had received from the police. There were no witnesses and no material evidence presented against Clements at his trial linking him to the crime.
Although only 16, Mark Clements was tried as an adult and sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in the state penitentiary.
Now free, Mark has pledged to work for the freedom of all victims of racist and political repression, starting with those wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.
For info: Chicago Branch NAARPR 312-939-2750 contact@naarpr.org
JOIN US IN WELCOMING MARK BACK INTO THE “FREE WORLD” AT 4:00 PM ON SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 19 AT THE HOME OF VIRGINIA CLEMENTS, 6643 N. SEELEY AVE. CHICAGO IL
After 28 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the courts have decided to free Mark Clements!
In 1981 Mark Clements was 16 years old. He was arrested, beaten and tortured by Chicago Police. He “confessed” under torture and immediately repudiated is “confession.” Yet he was sentenced to four life terms without possibility of parole.
Thanks to a plea bargain worked out by Special Prosecutor Stuart A. Nudelman, attorneys for Clements, and Judge Jorge Alonso Mark was released on August 18 for “time served.” While accepting the plea, Mark has never acknowledged his participation in the crime for which he was wrongfully convicted. Although there was little doubt that Mark would have ultimately prevailed had he refused the plea bargain, the years this would have taken made the plea a viable choice.
On June 17, 1981, at 2:00 AM a fire broke out in a building owned by Eleanor Scott at 6602 S. Wentworth Ave. in Chicago. Four people, Robert T. Watson, James and Annabelle Moore, and Isadore Tucker, died in that fire, all of carbon monoxide asphyxiation and smoke inhalation. Fire investigators determined that the fire was a result of arson.
Newly discovered evidence implicates members of a motorcycle gang “The Munsters” as the perpetrators. However, On June 25, 1981, after a superficial investigation police arrested, Mark Clements, aged 16. He was beaten and tortured by Detective John McCann , and interrogated by Detective Daniel McWeeny. McWeeny and McCann have long histories of physically and psychologically abusing suspects. Both have been implicated in the Jon Burge Police Torture Case.
After over 10 hours of abuse he made a “confession” to involvement in the fire. At his trial Clements repudiated this “confession,” proclaimed his innocence, and recounted the beatings he had received from the police. There were no witnesses and no material evidence presented against Clements at his trial linking him to the crime.
Although only 16, Mark Clements was tried as an adult and sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in the state penitentiary.
Now free, Mark has pledged to work for the freedom of all victims of racist and political repression, starting with those wrongfully convicted and imprisoned.
For info: Chicago Branch NAARPR 312-939-2750 contact@naarpr.org
Monday, September 14, 2009
Shot dead in Rockford church day care center
From NAACP president Benjamin Jealous
Dear Supporter,
Police shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore, a 23-year-old black man, in a church day care center a few weeks ago in Rockford, Illinois. We have also learned that one officer involved in this killing has been accused of several other questionable police shootings. As you can imagine, tension is running high in the Rockford community and we are deeply concerned.
I thought you should know what the NAACP is doing about it.
Today I will be leading a delegation of NAACP leaders and staff to launch the NAACP's investigation of this police killing and the police department itself.
In Rockford today, we will address a rally of community leaders and report on NAACP's engagement with the Department of Justice to thoroughly investigate this awful tragedy.
We are also working with Congress to require the establishment of national standards for use of force, and training in use of force, for law enforcement officers. Currently, there are as many use-of-force policies as there are law enforcement agencies in our Nation today, and there are as many interpretations of those policies as there are law enforcement officers. This lack of uniformity is one of the core reasons behind the tragedy in Rockford and in too many other instances across the Nation.
We thank the Department of Justice for taking this case seriously through the outreach efforts its Community Relations Service. But to help re-establish trust in the community and to ensure that the Rockford police department is operating with integrity, we need a federal investigation into this case. Please, sign our petition urging the Department of Justice to conduct a full investigation of this shooting and the ongoing use of force by the Rockford police department.
So what actually happened in Rockford? Eyewitnesses say that outside a church day care center, Mr. Barmore encountered two police officers who apparently were looking for him on an allegation of domestic violence. He ran inside the church, and the officers followed him, guns drawn, without a warrant. After Mr. Barmore entered a small boiler room, the police demanded he come out. He slowly exited the room with his hands up. Then, witnesses say, police shot him -- in front of small children in the day care center.
While he lay face down, witnesses say, police shot him three more times in the back! Additionally, officers have been using intimidation tactics against witnesses, such as sitting outside their homes and slowly driving by their homes.
We all must act to stop this kind of police abuse, so I need your help now.
Please, sign the petition and help us promote smart and safe law enforcement policies. I will be keeping you updated on the killing in Rockford and our efforts to investigate it - and prevent future tragedies.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP
Dear Supporter,
Police shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore, a 23-year-old black man, in a church day care center a few weeks ago in Rockford, Illinois. We have also learned that one officer involved in this killing has been accused of several other questionable police shootings. As you can imagine, tension is running high in the Rockford community and we are deeply concerned.
I thought you should know what the NAACP is doing about it.
Today I will be leading a delegation of NAACP leaders and staff to launch the NAACP's investigation of this police killing and the police department itself.
In Rockford today, we will address a rally of community leaders and report on NAACP's engagement with the Department of Justice to thoroughly investigate this awful tragedy.
We are also working with Congress to require the establishment of national standards for use of force, and training in use of force, for law enforcement officers. Currently, there are as many use-of-force policies as there are law enforcement agencies in our Nation today, and there are as many interpretations of those policies as there are law enforcement officers. This lack of uniformity is one of the core reasons behind the tragedy in Rockford and in too many other instances across the Nation.
We thank the Department of Justice for taking this case seriously through the outreach efforts its Community Relations Service. But to help re-establish trust in the community and to ensure that the Rockford police department is operating with integrity, we need a federal investigation into this case. Please, sign our petition urging the Department of Justice to conduct a full investigation of this shooting and the ongoing use of force by the Rockford police department.
So what actually happened in Rockford? Eyewitnesses say that outside a church day care center, Mr. Barmore encountered two police officers who apparently were looking for him on an allegation of domestic violence. He ran inside the church, and the officers followed him, guns drawn, without a warrant. After Mr. Barmore entered a small boiler room, the police demanded he come out. He slowly exited the room with his hands up. Then, witnesses say, police shot him -- in front of small children in the day care center.
While he lay face down, witnesses say, police shot him three more times in the back! Additionally, officers have been using intimidation tactics against witnesses, such as sitting outside their homes and slowly driving by their homes.
We all must act to stop this kind of police abuse, so I need your help now.
Please, sign the petition and help us promote smart and safe law enforcement policies. I will be keeping you updated on the killing in Rockford and our efforts to investigate it - and prevent future tragedies.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP
Friday, September 11, 2009
Republic Windows workers hail arrest of former boss
By Pepe Lozano
CHICAGO – The former chief executive of Republic Windows and Doors, the company that abruptly closed here last winter without paying its workers severance and vacation pay, has been arrested and charged as part of a major financial crimes investigation.
Richard Gillman was arrested Sep. 10 and is being accused of moving expensive equipment from the north side plant so he could set up a new non-union company in Red Oak, Iowa called Echo Windows and Doors.
In a press statement the United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110, the union that represents the Republic workers, put the whole ordeal in perspective saying the real problem is bigger especially when it comes to workers rights against unfair labor practices.
“Corruption and abuse of workers rights is rampant in corporate America,” says UE. “Very often where you see violations of workers rights there are other corporate crimes and poor conditions as well,” adds the union.
“Republic Windows and Doors is just one example of something that happens routinely to working people. UE members at Republic Windows and Doors organized and fought back against abuse and won.”
UE said they hope to see justice served in this case, “but we know that many workers suffer and deserve justice as well.”
All workers, says UE, deserve fair labor practices and legislation that ensures penalties for violations of existing labor laws and by aggressively holding corporations accountable when the rights of workers are violated.
Melvin Maclin, vice-president of UE Local 1110 and former Republic worker welcomed the news of Gillman’s arrest.
“We feel like justice has finally come and we hope that this is the beginning of more bosses being held accountable for their crimes against workers,” said Maclin.
UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles, a former Republic maintenance worker notes, “We knew Gillman was lying to us for a long time, now the rest of the world knows it too. Workers suffer with bad bosses all the time so this is a victory for all workers.”
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office of public corruption and financial crimes, along with the Chicago Police Department’s financial crimes task force, had been investigating Gillman and his business dealings for several months.
Cook County prosecutors say the sudden factory closing was all part of a months-long plot by Republic Windows to loot the business and steal key manufacturing equipment that was taken to the Iowa location.
In a 56-page filing, prosecutors laid out their case saying Gillman and two other undisclosed executives abandoned Republic Window’s crushing debt, stole its assets and secretly trucked the equipment to the Iowa business.
According to prosecutors Gillman and the others defrauded company creditors who were owed at least $10 million and stole more than $200,000 in cash from Republic Windows.
In Bond Court, Assistant State’s Atty. John Mahoney said Gillman and the others began their financial plotting in 2008 when they realized the Chicago business was in dire straits.
Mahoney said they laundered stolen company funds through shell corporations and also removed 10 semi-trailers full of window manufacturing equipment from the Chicago plant. Charges allege they also paid off luxury car leases for themselves.
“And just two weeks before Christmas, in a dire economy, the company shut the doors of their business and deserted their workers and all of their families,” said State’s Atty. Anita Alvarez in a news conference. “That makes the selfish actions of Mr. Gillman and others at his company even more reprehensible.”
Gilman was taken to Cook County jail after Judge Peggy Chiampas set his bail at $10 million.
The business in Red Oak, Iowa, a town of 6,000, apparently failed after a month’s start leaving over 100 people out of work there. Gillman recently took over the Red Oak window company that had been operating since 1985. He promised to keep the business running, critics charge. Yet the company’s closure was announced in February, which hit the town pretty hard. Many of the employees left town and about one-fourth are still looking for new jobs, reports say.
In Chicago nearly 300 workers were left out in the cold last December after Republic announced the plant was closing with only three days notice. The workers and their union UE took charge of the situation and staged a peaceful occupation of the plant for six days.
The sit-in at the factory gained national and international headlines as well as support from many elected officials including President Barack Obama. After three days of talks a settlement was reached with Republic, and its main creditor Bank of America. The workers won their severance and vacation pay as well as two month’s insurance.
Meanwhile California-based Serious Materials, which makes high-efficiency windows and glass, acquired the Chicago factory in February with the aim of hiring all of the former Republic workers. Since then only a dozen have been rehired.
plozano@pww.org
CHICAGO – The former chief executive of Republic Windows and Doors, the company that abruptly closed here last winter without paying its workers severance and vacation pay, has been arrested and charged as part of a major financial crimes investigation.
Richard Gillman was arrested Sep. 10 and is being accused of moving expensive equipment from the north side plant so he could set up a new non-union company in Red Oak, Iowa called Echo Windows and Doors.
In a press statement the United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110, the union that represents the Republic workers, put the whole ordeal in perspective saying the real problem is bigger especially when it comes to workers rights against unfair labor practices.
“Corruption and abuse of workers rights is rampant in corporate America,” says UE. “Very often where you see violations of workers rights there are other corporate crimes and poor conditions as well,” adds the union.
“Republic Windows and Doors is just one example of something that happens routinely to working people. UE members at Republic Windows and Doors organized and fought back against abuse and won.”
UE said they hope to see justice served in this case, “but we know that many workers suffer and deserve justice as well.”
All workers, says UE, deserve fair labor practices and legislation that ensures penalties for violations of existing labor laws and by aggressively holding corporations accountable when the rights of workers are violated.
Melvin Maclin, vice-president of UE Local 1110 and former Republic worker welcomed the news of Gillman’s arrest.
“We feel like justice has finally come and we hope that this is the beginning of more bosses being held accountable for their crimes against workers,” said Maclin.
UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles, a former Republic maintenance worker notes, “We knew Gillman was lying to us for a long time, now the rest of the world knows it too. Workers suffer with bad bosses all the time so this is a victory for all workers.”
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office of public corruption and financial crimes, along with the Chicago Police Department’s financial crimes task force, had been investigating Gillman and his business dealings for several months.
Cook County prosecutors say the sudden factory closing was all part of a months-long plot by Republic Windows to loot the business and steal key manufacturing equipment that was taken to the Iowa location.
In a 56-page filing, prosecutors laid out their case saying Gillman and two other undisclosed executives abandoned Republic Window’s crushing debt, stole its assets and secretly trucked the equipment to the Iowa business.
According to prosecutors Gillman and the others defrauded company creditors who were owed at least $10 million and stole more than $200,000 in cash from Republic Windows.
In Bond Court, Assistant State’s Atty. John Mahoney said Gillman and the others began their financial plotting in 2008 when they realized the Chicago business was in dire straits.
Mahoney said they laundered stolen company funds through shell corporations and also removed 10 semi-trailers full of window manufacturing equipment from the Chicago plant. Charges allege they also paid off luxury car leases for themselves.
“And just two weeks before Christmas, in a dire economy, the company shut the doors of their business and deserted their workers and all of their families,” said State’s Atty. Anita Alvarez in a news conference. “That makes the selfish actions of Mr. Gillman and others at his company even more reprehensible.”
Gilman was taken to Cook County jail after Judge Peggy Chiampas set his bail at $10 million.
The business in Red Oak, Iowa, a town of 6,000, apparently failed after a month’s start leaving over 100 people out of work there. Gillman recently took over the Red Oak window company that had been operating since 1985. He promised to keep the business running, critics charge. Yet the company’s closure was announced in February, which hit the town pretty hard. Many of the employees left town and about one-fourth are still looking for new jobs, reports say.
In Chicago nearly 300 workers were left out in the cold last December after Republic announced the plant was closing with only three days notice. The workers and their union UE took charge of the situation and staged a peaceful occupation of the plant for six days.
The sit-in at the factory gained national and international headlines as well as support from many elected officials including President Barack Obama. After three days of talks a settlement was reached with Republic, and its main creditor Bank of America. The workers won their severance and vacation pay as well as two month’s insurance.
Meanwhile California-based Serious Materials, which makes high-efficiency windows and glass, acquired the Chicago factory in February with the aim of hiring all of the former Republic workers. Since then only a dozen have been rehired.
plozano@pww.org
The police, the pulpit and pallbearers (Rockford, IL)
Open Letter from Rev. Theresa A. Dear
Dear Civic and NAACP supporters,
Rockford, Illinois has experienced one of the most egregious and outrageous violations of civil and human rights by police officers. The situation and events according to witnesses are as follows;
The police were called with allegations of domestic violence against Mark Anthony Barmore. Mark Anthony was a 23 year old African American male. He was standing outside his church, Kingdom Authority International Ministries (an African American church) when he saw two police officers (Stan North and Oda Poole - both Caucasian)) approaching. Upon their approach, Mark ran inside the church. Without a warrant, the police officers followed Mark inside the church with guns drawn. Mark ran to the day care area of the church where many children (ages 3-10) were present. The police followed him with guns still drawn. Mark ran into a small boiler room, the size of a broom closet, with only one exit. The police stood outside the boiler room with guns drawn toward the door demanding Mark to come out. Mark slowly exited the boiler room, unarmed with his hands up. The policed proceeded to shoot him which was witnessed by the children and others. While Mark lied face down on the floor of the church's daycare, the police shot him three more times in the back.
After the shooting, the police officers took the little children in a room -one by one - and tried to convince them of why they shot Mark. They also took the Pastor's wife (Mrs. Shelia Brown), who is the Executive Director of the daycare and their daughter to the police station and questioned each of them in separate rooms for 5-6 hours without counsel present. The police threatened the daughter (17 yrs. old) that if she did not change her story, she was going to jail. She did not change her story.
Since the shooting, hundreds of hate-filled emails have been written with sentiments such as Mark "got what he deserved" and "niggers" need to leave town and that the police were just doing their job. There is also a local radio station that continues to promote an atmosphere of division, racism and hatred. The community affairs department of the Department of Justice is involved and a confidential pre-strategy meeting was held last Friday. However, we are requesting a criminal investigation from the DOJ.
Officer Oda Poole has a history of shooting unarmed African American males. Prior to shooting Mark Anthony, he shot 3 African American males in Rockford, Illinois. Additionally, officers have been using intimidation tactics against the witnesses such as sitting outside their home, calling repeatedly for statements and slowly driving by and around their home.
The church - a place of salvation for sinners, a safe haven for immigrants and a sanctuary for safety was dishonored and desecrated. What message does this sacrilegious breach send to pastors and pulpits around the country? What kind of psychological imprint has this tragedy made on the children?
On September 3rd, pallbearers carried the casket of Mark Anthony Barmore at Greenwood Cemetery. Now we must carry the fight for justice to Rockford, Illinois.
We need you to help us respond to this assault on our church and our children and seek justice for the death of Mark Anthony Barmore. Please plan to unite with the Rockford Branch, NAACP and the Illinois State Conference on October 3rd at 1:00 p.m at the Discovery Center - 711 North main Street, Rockford, IL 61103 in a national march for justice.
Ben Jealous, National President of the NAACP and other national leaders will be present. We need MASSIVE support from clergy of all denominations. We need buses and vans of marchers from your church and community to join us on October 3rd.
Please send your people and your prayers to support our efforts. Please forward this email to your distribution list.
With many thanks and blessings,
Rev. Theresa A. Dear
Member, National Board of Directors, NAACP
(Elected from Illinois - Representing Region 3)
Associate Minister, DuPage AME Church
Dear Civic and NAACP supporters,
Rockford, Illinois has experienced one of the most egregious and outrageous violations of civil and human rights by police officers. The situation and events according to witnesses are as follows;
The police were called with allegations of domestic violence against Mark Anthony Barmore. Mark Anthony was a 23 year old African American male. He was standing outside his church, Kingdom Authority International Ministries (an African American church) when he saw two police officers (Stan North and Oda Poole - both Caucasian)) approaching. Upon their approach, Mark ran inside the church. Without a warrant, the police officers followed Mark inside the church with guns drawn. Mark ran to the day care area of the church where many children (ages 3-10) were present. The police followed him with guns still drawn. Mark ran into a small boiler room, the size of a broom closet, with only one exit. The police stood outside the boiler room with guns drawn toward the door demanding Mark to come out. Mark slowly exited the boiler room, unarmed with his hands up. The policed proceeded to shoot him which was witnessed by the children and others. While Mark lied face down on the floor of the church's daycare, the police shot him three more times in the back.
After the shooting, the police officers took the little children in a room -one by one - and tried to convince them of why they shot Mark. They also took the Pastor's wife (Mrs. Shelia Brown), who is the Executive Director of the daycare and their daughter to the police station and questioned each of them in separate rooms for 5-6 hours without counsel present. The police threatened the daughter (17 yrs. old) that if she did not change her story, she was going to jail. She did not change her story.
Since the shooting, hundreds of hate-filled emails have been written with sentiments such as Mark "got what he deserved" and "niggers" need to leave town and that the police were just doing their job. There is also a local radio station that continues to promote an atmosphere of division, racism and hatred. The community affairs department of the Department of Justice is involved and a confidential pre-strategy meeting was held last Friday. However, we are requesting a criminal investigation from the DOJ.
Officer Oda Poole has a history of shooting unarmed African American males. Prior to shooting Mark Anthony, he shot 3 African American males in Rockford, Illinois. Additionally, officers have been using intimidation tactics against the witnesses such as sitting outside their home, calling repeatedly for statements and slowly driving by and around their home.
The church - a place of salvation for sinners, a safe haven for immigrants and a sanctuary for safety was dishonored and desecrated. What message does this sacrilegious breach send to pastors and pulpits around the country? What kind of psychological imprint has this tragedy made on the children?
On September 3rd, pallbearers carried the casket of Mark Anthony Barmore at Greenwood Cemetery. Now we must carry the fight for justice to Rockford, Illinois.
We need you to help us respond to this assault on our church and our children and seek justice for the death of Mark Anthony Barmore. Please plan to unite with the Rockford Branch, NAACP and the Illinois State Conference on October 3rd at 1:00 p.m at the Discovery Center - 711 North main Street, Rockford, IL 61103 in a national march for justice.
Ben Jealous, National President of the NAACP and other national leaders will be present. We need MASSIVE support from clergy of all denominations. We need buses and vans of marchers from your church and community to join us on October 3rd.
Please send your people and your prayers to support our efforts. Please forward this email to your distribution list.
With many thanks and blessings,
Rev. Theresa A. Dear
Member, National Board of Directors, NAACP
(Elected from Illinois - Representing Region 3)
Associate Minister, DuPage AME Church
Thursday, September 10, 2009
UE Statement on Republic Windows and Doors arrest
Contact: Leah Fried, UE Organizer 773-550-3022
Corruption and abuse of workers rights is rampant in corporate America. Very often where you see violations of workers rights there are other corporate crimes and poor conditions as well. Republic Windows and Doors is just one example of something that happens routinely to working people. UE members at Republic Windows and Doors organized and fought back against abuse and won.
We hope to see justice served in this case, but we know that many other workers suffer and deserve justice as well. In part that can come about labor law reform that would ensure, for the first time, penalties for violations of labor law and by aggressively holding corporations accountable when they violate our rights.
"We feel like justice has finally come and we all hope that this is the beginning of more bosses being held accountable for their crimes against workers", said Melvin Maclin, Vice-President of UE Local 1110 and a former Republic Windows and Doors worker.
UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles, a maintenance worker added, "We knew Gillman was lying to us for a long time, now the rest of the world knows it too. Workers suffer with bad bosses all the time so this is a victory for all workers.".
Members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, engaged in a peaceful factory occupation for six days in early December after their employer, Republic Windows and Doors, announced with three days notice they would be shutting down operations. Workers succeeded in winning vacation, severance and insurance owed to them.
###
Corruption and abuse of workers rights is rampant in corporate America. Very often where you see violations of workers rights there are other corporate crimes and poor conditions as well. Republic Windows and Doors is just one example of something that happens routinely to working people. UE members at Republic Windows and Doors organized and fought back against abuse and won.
We hope to see justice served in this case, but we know that many other workers suffer and deserve justice as well. In part that can come about labor law reform that would ensure, for the first time, penalties for violations of labor law and by aggressively holding corporations accountable when they violate our rights.
"We feel like justice has finally come and we all hope that this is the beginning of more bosses being held accountable for their crimes against workers", said Melvin Maclin, Vice-President of UE Local 1110 and a former Republic Windows and Doors worker.
UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles, a maintenance worker added, "We knew Gillman was lying to us for a long time, now the rest of the world knows it too. Workers suffer with bad bosses all the time so this is a victory for all workers.".
Members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, engaged in a peaceful factory occupation for six days in early December after their employer, Republic Windows and Doors, announced with three days notice they would be shutting down operations. Workers succeeded in winning vacation, severance and insurance owed to them.
###
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Illinois governor to strikers: ‘you speak for all on health care’
By John Bachtell
Chicago – “This picket line is really speaking for all the people of Illinois who need decent health care,” Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told striking workers at SK Hand Tools Corporation. “Health care is not a privilege. It’s a fundamental right as a human being.”
Quinn joined the picket line at this southwest side company whose 70 workers have been on strike since August 24 when they discovered the company had terminated their health care coverage without notice. Teamsters Local 743 represents the workers.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued an unfair labor practice complaint alleging that the company has bargained illegally by stopping health care coverage without notice.
The 88 year-old company, which produces hand tools for Sears & Roebuck and other retailers, including the Craftsman brand, is attempting to resume limited production with scabs.
The union had been in negotiations for a new contract with the company for many months before the health insurance was cancelled. The company is also demanding a pay reduction. The workers currently earn on average $14 per hour and the company wants to cut an additional $4 for the first six months. The workers’ wages have been frozen for the last six years.
“Everyone understands to have a decent business you need healthy workers. When they went to the doctor and found their health insurance had been yanked, that’s not right,” Quinn told the strikers. “We have to have a system of health care in which everybody’s in and nobody is left out.”
“We’re going to win this battle for health care and for this company to live up to its obligations,” said Quinn, who on Labor Day joined workers at the Congress Hotel, on strike for six years. He encouraged the S K Hand Tool workers to remain steadfast in their demand and reminded them the “strongest force on earth is when people band together.”
“People are hurting and if one gets ill they can be ruined,” said Cook County Clerk David Orr, who joined Quinn on the picket line. “This is the heart of the struggle to bring justice and health care to the country.”
According to union steward David Biedrzycki, “The owner is trying to make this into a third world country and this into a sweatshop. No one wants to be on strike, but we are doing what we need to do.”
Some of the workers had surgery and other medical procedures before they realized they had no insurance. One worker now owes over $20,000 after an operation.
Martha Negron has worked at the company for 14 years as a packager and was also directly affected by the elimination in health care insurance. Negron suffers from asthma and her doctor wanted to send her to the hospital after she had a severe attack.
“I couldn’t go because they had cut my insurance and I couldn’t afford it. After three visits to the doctor, a chest x-ray and some medicine I got a bill for $800. It’s not right,” said Negron. “We’ll stay out as long as necessary to get our health care.”
“I’ve never been treated like this,” said Darryl Hall, a 30-year employee, lead man in the tool packaging department and union steward. “People have been working here all their lives and the company has taken their health care. We’ll stick together until they come around.”
Chicago – “This picket line is really speaking for all the people of Illinois who need decent health care,” Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn told striking workers at SK Hand Tools Corporation. “Health care is not a privilege. It’s a fundamental right as a human being.”
Quinn joined the picket line at this southwest side company whose 70 workers have been on strike since August 24 when they discovered the company had terminated their health care coverage without notice. Teamsters Local 743 represents the workers.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued an unfair labor practice complaint alleging that the company has bargained illegally by stopping health care coverage without notice.
The 88 year-old company, which produces hand tools for Sears & Roebuck and other retailers, including the Craftsman brand, is attempting to resume limited production with scabs.
The union had been in negotiations for a new contract with the company for many months before the health insurance was cancelled. The company is also demanding a pay reduction. The workers currently earn on average $14 per hour and the company wants to cut an additional $4 for the first six months. The workers’ wages have been frozen for the last six years.
“Everyone understands to have a decent business you need healthy workers. When they went to the doctor and found their health insurance had been yanked, that’s not right,” Quinn told the strikers. “We have to have a system of health care in which everybody’s in and nobody is left out.”
“We’re going to win this battle for health care and for this company to live up to its obligations,” said Quinn, who on Labor Day joined workers at the Congress Hotel, on strike for six years. He encouraged the S K Hand Tool workers to remain steadfast in their demand and reminded them the “strongest force on earth is when people band together.”
“People are hurting and if one gets ill they can be ruined,” said Cook County Clerk David Orr, who joined Quinn on the picket line. “This is the heart of the struggle to bring justice and health care to the country.”
According to union steward David Biedrzycki, “The owner is trying to make this into a third world country and this into a sweatshop. No one wants to be on strike, but we are doing what we need to do.”
Some of the workers had surgery and other medical procedures before they realized they had no insurance. One worker now owes over $20,000 after an operation.
Martha Negron has worked at the company for 14 years as a packager and was also directly affected by the elimination in health care insurance. Negron suffers from asthma and her doctor wanted to send her to the hospital after she had a severe attack.
“I couldn’t go because they had cut my insurance and I couldn’t afford it. After three visits to the doctor, a chest x-ray and some medicine I got a bill for $800. It’s not right,” said Negron. “We’ll stay out as long as necessary to get our health care.”
“I’ve never been treated like this,” said Darryl Hall, a 30-year employee, lead man in the tool packaging department and union steward. “People have been working here all their lives and the company has taken their health care. We’ll stick together until they come around.”
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Labor Day celebrated in Chicago with calls for greater solidarity
By John Bachtell
Chicago- Even in the face of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, “labor solidarity does indeed work.” So declared Gail Warner before a festive Sept. 7 Labor Day event at the Pullman State Historic Monument, site of the famous 1894 strike.
Warner is one of fifty mental health workers represented by AFSCME who fought four years to negotiate their first contract with Heartland Human Services in Effingham, Illinois. Warner announced the workers had finally won and returned to work September 2 after being on strike for a year, then returning to work and being locked out for a year. “We are proud of our victory. It shows if you organize and fight you can win,” she said.
Over a dozen determined workers and trade union leaders from the front lines of battles raging across Illinois joined Warner at the event organized by the Illinois Labor History Society, Chicago and Illinois AFL-CIO and a score of other labor and community groups.
The event was the culmination of a day of statewide actions demanding health care and immigration reform, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and creation of living wage jobs.
Progressive radio talk show host Dick Kaye, formerly a political reporter for TV Channel 5, emceed the Pullman event. Kaye told the crowd, “I was also (Screen Actors Guild) shop steward and fought (station) management until I was blue in the face. And they’re glad I’m gone. We are here as a reminder of all the labor movement has done and that the fight goes on.”
Sarita Gomez is involved in an organizing drive being conducted by United Food and Commercial Workers at Pete’s Supermarket in Chicago. “The company is a bunch of thieves. They are stealing from the workers,” Gomez angrily recounted. “We want a union. We are fighting, we are the working people and no one will stop us.”
A large contingent of schoolteachers represented by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) attended. Teachers are fighting battles on two fronts – severe under funding and privatization efforts by the city. On this day they celebrated organizing victories by the Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (AFT) at three Chicago charter schools operated by Civitas.
“Together we win, divided we fall,” said CTU president Marilyn Stewart. “We are not anti-charter. But we are pro-union and against teachers being exploited.”
“Our elected officials need to step up and do what’s necessary to fund our schools. We’re all in this together. An injury to one is an injury to all,” she said.
Also attending the event were many elected officials, including several from Chicago’s South Side community who unanimously demanded passage of health care reform in Congress.
“We have come to these hallowed grounds to remind the nation of the fierce urgency of now,” said Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL). “We are here 115 years (after the Pullman strike) to demand the federal government be on the side of people and not the health care corporations.”
Jackson said under the constitution people have the right to bear arms, but not the right to health care. He called for Congress not to pass a watered down version of health care reform. “This 2nd Congressional District representative from Illinois will not vote for a bill without a public option,” he said to loud cheers.
Also giving greetings was Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr. who told the crowd, “We won last November and we’ll win in September. We’ll get a comprehensive health care bill.”
Jackson also hit the loss of 8 million jobs in the current economic crisis and called for stepped up action including for massive jobs creation. He announced a Sept. 12 march in Rockford, IL, the city with the highest unemployment in the state. “We can’t be silent in the face of attacks on workers,” he said.
A delegation of elected officials and religious leaders led by Gov. Pat Quinn kicked off Labor Day observances by delivering a letter signed by 200 prominent community members to the management of the Congress Hotel calling for an end to the six year strike, longest in the country.
Hotel management forced the workers on strike after imposing a wage cut. Today they are paying scabs $8.83/hour while the rest of the downtown hotel workers are making $14.60/hour under the master agreement. Meanwhile, contracts for 6,500 hotel workers across Chicago are expiring and a big battle is looming.
Over 2,000 immigrant workers, their families and supporters marched through the “Loop” demanding an end to the workplace raids and deportations and passage of immigration reform legislation in Congress.
One of those marching was Pedro Garcia, a member of SEIU Local 1. Garcia said he was motivated to march for an “end to the workplace raids and to say no to the separation of families. We need legalization of immigrant workers and have the same rights for all.”
Another marcher was Maria Arias who said, “I’m in support of legalization (of undocumented immigrant workers). I’m a citizen, but I’m in support of everyone else who left behind families to be here.”
“Until workers are legalized, that’s a loss for all workers. We need to bring the bar up instead of down,” said Shelly Ruzicka of Arise Chicago, a workers rights organization. “There needs to be some path to citizenship and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act so more workers can be organized.”
One of the struggles highlighted throughout the day was the strike of 70 workers at S & K Handtools who walked off the job Aug. 24 after the company unilaterally eliminated their health insurance without notice.
Teamsters Local 743 represents the workers and a large group marched in the demonstration. Local president Richard Berg told the World, “We support full equality for all. You can’t have full dignity unless people have rights and are treated equally. Labor Day is a perfect day to march for workers rights, whether it be for healthcare or immigration reform or the right to organize.”
Jenny couldn’t wait; vigil demands action on health care
By Terrie Albano
CHICAGO -- “Twenty thousand people die each year because they lack health insurance.” That was a grim figure presented by medical student Anthony Chang to a MoveOn.org-hosted health care reform vigil here on Sept. 2.
Jenny Fritts, a 24-year-old mother, pregnant with her second baby, didn’t have health care insurance. She was feeling sick and went to the ER of a for-profit hospital. They told her she had a cold and gave her Nyquil. The next day she still felt sick and went to a non-profit hospital. They immediately admitted her. She had a serious infection. The doctors couldn’t save her baby.
After spending 52 days in the ICU, Jenny Fritts died. One of 20,000 people a year.
Carrying a poster-sized photo of Fritts at the vigil with the words “She Could Not Wait,” were her in-laws Midge and Dan Hough. Dan told the story of Fritts’ tragic death and the impact on their family to the several hundred people gathered at Grant Park and holding lit candles. “She leaves a 2-year-old child and a devastated husband. And I just think that a for profit hospital” and no health insurance was as much a cause of her death as the infection, he said quietly. “We can’t have any more Jennys.”
“Never again in America,” said William McNary of Citizen Action/Illinois, a major organization in the fight for progressive health care reform, “let the record show that we gathered here in the same park where we celebrated Barack Obama’s election to make history again. To win a bill that provides quality, affordable and equitable health care for all.”
McNary then broke down the economics of the for-profit insurance industry, which make make billions of dollars a year in profit. CEOs get millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses. For example, H. Edward Hanway of Cigna received $30.16 million for his yearly salary.
“That’s $5,883 an hour!” McNary said.
McNary had been at a rally of a couple thousand people in Columbus, Ohio, with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Brown, a progressive lawmaker, had authored the public option component of the Senate bill from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Asked to draft it by the committee’s former chair, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Brown told the Columbus crowd he was confident a public option would pass and it would work, according to McNary.
“We need three things to win: passion, unity and discipline. I wasn’t there at the Edmond Pettus Bridge that ushered in the Civil Rights Act, but people I talked to that were there said they have pride they were.
“Well this is one of those historic moments. When we end our status as the only nation without universal health care,” he said firing up the crowd. “The only way we are going to win is the only way things have been won before in the country. You have to be in it to win it. You have to demand it and fight for it.”
The public option won’t put insurance companies “out of business. But it will change the way they do business.”
McNary then put every politician on notice that this movement doesn’t want excuses but solutions. “We pay for full medical, dental, eye care for you. We pay. If it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for us. And give it to us by the end of the year.”
McNary said he’s seen a lot of “ugly signs” held up by the opposition. The idea that “I got mine” and forget the rest. “Yes we have responsibility for ourselves,” but McNary emphasized, “we have a responsibility to each other.”
And a responsibility to get out the truth, he said. There have been a lot of myths and lies spread around in this fight. “They say truth is the first casualty of war.”
According to MoveOn, the organization hosted 350 candlelight vigils nationwide, Sept. 2, in which tens of thousands of people participated, calling for immediate action on health care reform including a strong public option.
CHICAGO -- “Twenty thousand people die each year because they lack health insurance.” That was a grim figure presented by medical student Anthony Chang to a MoveOn.org-hosted health care reform vigil here on Sept. 2.
Jenny Fritts, a 24-year-old mother, pregnant with her second baby, didn’t have health care insurance. She was feeling sick and went to the ER of a for-profit hospital. They told her she had a cold and gave her Nyquil. The next day she still felt sick and went to a non-profit hospital. They immediately admitted her. She had a serious infection. The doctors couldn’t save her baby.
After spending 52 days in the ICU, Jenny Fritts died. One of 20,000 people a year.
Carrying a poster-sized photo of Fritts at the vigil with the words “She Could Not Wait,” were her in-laws Midge and Dan Hough. Dan told the story of Fritts’ tragic death and the impact on their family to the several hundred people gathered at Grant Park and holding lit candles. “She leaves a 2-year-old child and a devastated husband. And I just think that a for profit hospital” and no health insurance was as much a cause of her death as the infection, he said quietly. “We can’t have any more Jennys.”
“Never again in America,” said William McNary of Citizen Action/Illinois, a major organization in the fight for progressive health care reform, “let the record show that we gathered here in the same park where we celebrated Barack Obama’s election to make history again. To win a bill that provides quality, affordable and equitable health care for all.”
McNary then broke down the economics of the for-profit insurance industry, which make make billions of dollars a year in profit. CEOs get millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses. For example, H. Edward Hanway of Cigna received $30.16 million for his yearly salary.
“That’s $5,883 an hour!” McNary said.
McNary had been at a rally of a couple thousand people in Columbus, Ohio, with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Brown, a progressive lawmaker, had authored the public option component of the Senate bill from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. Asked to draft it by the committee’s former chair, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Brown told the Columbus crowd he was confident a public option would pass and it would work, according to McNary.
“We need three things to win: passion, unity and discipline. I wasn’t there at the Edmond Pettus Bridge that ushered in the Civil Rights Act, but people I talked to that were there said they have pride they were.
“Well this is one of those historic moments. When we end our status as the only nation without universal health care,” he said firing up the crowd. “The only way we are going to win is the only way things have been won before in the country. You have to be in it to win it. You have to demand it and fight for it.”
The public option won’t put insurance companies “out of business. But it will change the way they do business.”
McNary then put every politician on notice that this movement doesn’t want excuses but solutions. “We pay for full medical, dental, eye care for you. We pay. If it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for us. And give it to us by the end of the year.”
McNary said he’s seen a lot of “ugly signs” held up by the opposition. The idea that “I got mine” and forget the rest. “Yes we have responsibility for ourselves,” but McNary emphasized, “we have a responsibility to each other.”
And a responsibility to get out the truth, he said. There have been a lot of myths and lies spread around in this fight. “They say truth is the first casualty of war.”
According to MoveOn, the organization hosted 350 candlelight vigils nationwide, Sept. 2, in which tens of thousands of people participated, calling for immediate action on health care reform including a strong public option.
Decisive battle for health care reform lies ahead
By John Bachtell
Chicago - The fight for health care reform has been full of twists and turns and changes on a daily basis reflecting the epic nature of this battle. Some conclude from whatever President Obama and the Democratic leadership of Congress say on a particular day they are caving in to the insurance industry and worse that Pres. Obama will raise the white flag content with a phyrric victory.
This approach mistakenly paints the Democrats in broad strokes as captive of the health care industry, not taking into account that many legislators are actually part of the health care reform movement and have been working with it for years, including President Obama.
This angst ignores the enormous pressures coming to bear on the legislative process and the challenge of getting enough votes to pass a bill through both chambers of Congress. President Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership know how to count votes, including in their own caucus, which is not unified.
It ignores the power of the united opposition to any reform at all, including the entire ultra right and big sections of monopoly capital, and their ability to still influence Congress, mobilize and confuse a substantial section of the American people.
On the other hand, it insufficiently appreciates the power of the grassroots health care movement and the need to keep building and activating it to win, especially the millions of activists who took part in the Obama campaign. Passage of health care reform will need the same activism and energy, unity and determination that defeated the ultra right in the 2008 elections.
All this constitutes the political balance of forces at this moment in the country. Winning a reform necessarily means wresting a concession from a section of monopoly capital, in the form of the insurance and medical corporate complex. The question remains, is the broad democratic movement (and of which Pres. Obama is a reflection) sufficiently strong to accomplish this?
Nick Unger, organizer for the AFL-CIO cautioned an August 24 Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care statewide teleconference call that activists should avoid getting caught up in the day to day rumor mill, distortions and outright lies being circulated in the mass media.
Unger said the media has failed to report the real story: the current movement is the biggest movement for health care reform in history, far eclipsing the movement of 1993-94. And if we win a public option and other reforms this will be the decisive reason for the victory.
Over 77% of the American public wants reform and the movement is at least 10 times larger than the so-called “Tea Bagger” movement, said Unger. He cited the 280,000 religious activists who participated in a teleconference call with President Obama and the 270,000 who participated in the Organizing for America call with Obama a few days later.
Unger said the right wing offensive and “brown shirt” efforts to break up congressional town hall meetings, intimidate lawmakers and constituents alike in early August shifted momentum temporarily in favor of the opposition. But these tactics also backfired because they turned off the American public.
Since then the pro-reform forces, alarmed at what had happened and understanding the need to elevate the struggle, launched a counter offensive and shifted momentum back in the later part of August.
The pro-reform movement has stepped up efforts to mobilize the grassroots and the focus returned to the fight for the public insurance option, a key element of the reform. We are still seeing the early stages of this mobilization and it is already having an effect on lawmakers.
Democratic Senate leadership seems to be trying to find a way to pass health care reform through legislative reconciliation, understanding they will not be able to amass the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
This route is more growing in likelihood since it appears the so-called “gang of six” negotiations in the Senate are collapsing, producing an unacceptable compromise of “health care coops” while key Republican players obstruct.
On August 24, Sen. Charles Schumer told David Gregory, “I've talked to the president personally about this in the last few weeks. He believes strongly in the public option. Obviously he is working hard to get a bipartisan bill, because that would be a better bill. But I believe that at the end of the day we will have a public option…A public option (that) competes on a level playing field with the insurance companies, was backed in the House by both Blue Dog Democrats and more liberal Democrats. And I think that's the direction we're going to end up in.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky reiterated her belief Sept. 2 that a public option will be won when she told Ed Schultz on MSNBC, “There are a lot of distortions in the mass media about what is happening in Congress, "Many Members of Congress -- including myself -- will not support a health insurance reform bill that does not break the strangle hold of private insurance companies on our health care system. That requires that consumers have a choice of a robust public health insurance plan. I will support nothing short of a robust public health insurance plan upon implementation, no triggers. I believe Congress will pass and the President will sign such a bill this fall."
The key to overcoming the fierce and desperate opposition for a health reform victory and especially a strong public option component is the growing grassroots action in the neighborhoods and workplaces. Across Illinois, organized labor has made thousands of calls to legislators. Thousands of residents have attended congressional town hall events, scores turned out for Obama for America organized “send-off” events, and over 500 turned out for a Moveon.org rally in Grant Park on September 2.
Schakowsky held an overflow town hall meeting on August 31 attended by 2,000 people in Niles, IL. The meeting spilled out into the street and the right wing nuts were far outnumbered.
According to CBHC Reps. Bobbie Rush, Jesse Jackson Jr., Luis Gutierrez, Danny Davis, Phil Hare and Jan Schakowsky have all pledged to only vote for a House bill that contains a strong public option. Reps. Melissa Bean and Bill Foster have also stated they are in favor of a public option so focus now is on Reps. Lipinsky and Costello, who have made no commitment.
President Obama can’t win health care reform with a public option alone and said as much in his speech to the AFL-CIO in Cincinnati on Labor Day. He didn’t win the election alone and can’t govern alone. The depth and extent of the reforms being undertaken, including in the health care field, depend at the end of the day on the strength and unity of the democratic and peoples movement. That remains true for an immediate concession and further concessions down the road. The true test awaits.
Chicago - The fight for health care reform has been full of twists and turns and changes on a daily basis reflecting the epic nature of this battle. Some conclude from whatever President Obama and the Democratic leadership of Congress say on a particular day they are caving in to the insurance industry and worse that Pres. Obama will raise the white flag content with a phyrric victory.
This approach mistakenly paints the Democrats in broad strokes as captive of the health care industry, not taking into account that many legislators are actually part of the health care reform movement and have been working with it for years, including President Obama.
This angst ignores the enormous pressures coming to bear on the legislative process and the challenge of getting enough votes to pass a bill through both chambers of Congress. President Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership know how to count votes, including in their own caucus, which is not unified.
It ignores the power of the united opposition to any reform at all, including the entire ultra right and big sections of monopoly capital, and their ability to still influence Congress, mobilize and confuse a substantial section of the American people.
On the other hand, it insufficiently appreciates the power of the grassroots health care movement and the need to keep building and activating it to win, especially the millions of activists who took part in the Obama campaign. Passage of health care reform will need the same activism and energy, unity and determination that defeated the ultra right in the 2008 elections.
All this constitutes the political balance of forces at this moment in the country. Winning a reform necessarily means wresting a concession from a section of monopoly capital, in the form of the insurance and medical corporate complex. The question remains, is the broad democratic movement (and of which Pres. Obama is a reflection) sufficiently strong to accomplish this?
Nick Unger, organizer for the AFL-CIO cautioned an August 24 Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care statewide teleconference call that activists should avoid getting caught up in the day to day rumor mill, distortions and outright lies being circulated in the mass media.
Unger said the media has failed to report the real story: the current movement is the biggest movement for health care reform in history, far eclipsing the movement of 1993-94. And if we win a public option and other reforms this will be the decisive reason for the victory.
Over 77% of the American public wants reform and the movement is at least 10 times larger than the so-called “Tea Bagger” movement, said Unger. He cited the 280,000 religious activists who participated in a teleconference call with President Obama and the 270,000 who participated in the Organizing for America call with Obama a few days later.
Unger said the right wing offensive and “brown shirt” efforts to break up congressional town hall meetings, intimidate lawmakers and constituents alike in early August shifted momentum temporarily in favor of the opposition. But these tactics also backfired because they turned off the American public.
Since then the pro-reform forces, alarmed at what had happened and understanding the need to elevate the struggle, launched a counter offensive and shifted momentum back in the later part of August.
The pro-reform movement has stepped up efforts to mobilize the grassroots and the focus returned to the fight for the public insurance option, a key element of the reform. We are still seeing the early stages of this mobilization and it is already having an effect on lawmakers.
Democratic Senate leadership seems to be trying to find a way to pass health care reform through legislative reconciliation, understanding they will not be able to amass the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster.
This route is more growing in likelihood since it appears the so-called “gang of six” negotiations in the Senate are collapsing, producing an unacceptable compromise of “health care coops” while key Republican players obstruct.
On August 24, Sen. Charles Schumer told David Gregory, “I've talked to the president personally about this in the last few weeks. He believes strongly in the public option. Obviously he is working hard to get a bipartisan bill, because that would be a better bill. But I believe that at the end of the day we will have a public option…A public option (that) competes on a level playing field with the insurance companies, was backed in the House by both Blue Dog Democrats and more liberal Democrats. And I think that's the direction we're going to end up in.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky reiterated her belief Sept. 2 that a public option will be won when she told Ed Schultz on MSNBC, “There are a lot of distortions in the mass media about what is happening in Congress, "Many Members of Congress -- including myself -- will not support a health insurance reform bill that does not break the strangle hold of private insurance companies on our health care system. That requires that consumers have a choice of a robust public health insurance plan. I will support nothing short of a robust public health insurance plan upon implementation, no triggers. I believe Congress will pass and the President will sign such a bill this fall."
The key to overcoming the fierce and desperate opposition for a health reform victory and especially a strong public option component is the growing grassroots action in the neighborhoods and workplaces. Across Illinois, organized labor has made thousands of calls to legislators. Thousands of residents have attended congressional town hall events, scores turned out for Obama for America organized “send-off” events, and over 500 turned out for a Moveon.org rally in Grant Park on September 2.
Schakowsky held an overflow town hall meeting on August 31 attended by 2,000 people in Niles, IL. The meeting spilled out into the street and the right wing nuts were far outnumbered.
According to CBHC Reps. Bobbie Rush, Jesse Jackson Jr., Luis Gutierrez, Danny Davis, Phil Hare and Jan Schakowsky have all pledged to only vote for a House bill that contains a strong public option. Reps. Melissa Bean and Bill Foster have also stated they are in favor of a public option so focus now is on Reps. Lipinsky and Costello, who have made no commitment.
President Obama can’t win health care reform with a public option alone and said as much in his speech to the AFL-CIO in Cincinnati on Labor Day. He didn’t win the election alone and can’t govern alone. The depth and extent of the reforms being undertaken, including in the health care field, depend at the end of the day on the strength and unity of the democratic and peoples movement. That remains true for an immediate concession and further concessions down the road. The true test awaits.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Letter from reader - "don't write off health care reform"
I think that it is too early to write off President Obama's support for the "public option." HR 3200 has a long way to go until the final version is approved and then it needs to go to the Senate. And the President could veto any bill that he considers insufficient.
This conversation reminds me of the discussions that took place during the Presidential election. I am sick and tired of some people on the left waiting to prove that President Obama will sell out to the corporations. It not only shows a lack of confidence in the President but also a lack of confidence in the people who worked hard to elect him. This includes, the African American community, the Latino community and the Labor movement as well as many others.
This attitude also enforces the concept that you can't fight the rich or that you can't achieve any gains under the Capitalist system. Any economist or politician will most likely disagree or they wouldn't have their jobs.
Emphasize the positive; minimize the negative, hit the street's and let the politicians - as well as the President- know about our support for the "public option.": it's good for your health!
In Unity and the Struggle for Change,
Lance Cohn
This conversation reminds me of the discussions that took place during the Presidential election. I am sick and tired of some people on the left waiting to prove that President Obama will sell out to the corporations. It not only shows a lack of confidence in the President but also a lack of confidence in the people who worked hard to elect him. This includes, the African American community, the Latino community and the Labor movement as well as many others.
This attitude also enforces the concept that you can't fight the rich or that you can't achieve any gains under the Capitalist system. Any economist or politician will most likely disagree or they wouldn't have their jobs.
Emphasize the positive; minimize the negative, hit the street's and let the politicians - as well as the President- know about our support for the "public option.": it's good for your health!
In Unity and the Struggle for Change,
Lance Cohn
Letter from Progressive Caucus to President Obama on Healthcare Reform
The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Obama:
Thank you for continuing to work with Members of Congress to draft a health reform bill that will provide the real health care reform this country needs. We look forward to meeting with you regarding retaining a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible.
Public opinion polls continue to show that a majority of Americans want the choice of a robust public plan and we stand in solidarity with them. We continue to support the robust public option that was reported out of the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Labor and will not vote for a weakened bill on the House Floor or returning from a Conference with the Senate.
Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates-not negotiated rates-is unacceptable. A plan with negotiated rates would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal of providing choice and competition to keep rates down. The public plan with set rates saves $75 billion, which could be lost if rates are negotiated with providers. Further, this public option must be available immediately and must not be contingent upon any trigger.
Mr. President, the need for reform is urgent. Every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health care coverage. We must have health care reform that will effectively bring down costs and significantly expand access. A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs. We cannot vote for anything less.
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the importance of your support for a robust public plan, which we encourage you to reiterate in your address to the Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Co-Chairs Lynn Woolsey Raul Grijalva
Congressional Progressive Caucus 83 Strong and Growing: Open to New and Different Ideas
Vice Chairs Diane Watson Keith Ellison Sheila Jackson-Lee Mazie Hirono Dennis Kucinich Donna Edwards Alan Grayson Senate Members Bernie Sanders Tom Udall House Members Neil Abercrombie Tammy Baldwin Xavier Becerra Earl Blumenauer Robert Brady Corrine Brown Michael Capuano Andre Carson Donna Christensen Judy Chu Yvette Clarke William “Lacy” Clay Emanuel Cleaver Steve Cohen John Conyers Elijah Cummings Danny Davis Peter DeFazio Rosa DeLauro Sam Farr Chaka Fattah Bob Filner Barney Frank Marcia Fudge Luis Gutierrez John Hall Phil Hare Alcee Hastings Maurice Hinchey Michael Honda Jesse Jackson, Jr. Eddie Bernice Johnson Hank Johnson Marcy Kaptur Carolyn Kilpatrick Barbara Lee John Lewis David Loebsack Ben Ray Lujan
Carolyn Maloney Ed Markey Eric Massa Jim McDermott James McGovern George Miller Gwen Moore Jim Moran Jerrold Nadler Eleanor Holmes-Norton John Olver Frank Pallone Ed Pastor Donald Payne Chellie Pingree Jared Polis Charles Rangel Laura Richardson Lucille Roybal-Allard Bobby Rush Linda Sanchez Jan Schakowsky Jose Serrano Louise Slaughter Pete Stark Bennie Thompson John Tierney Nydia Velazquez Maxine Waters Mel Watt Henry Waxman Peter Welch
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C.
Dear President Obama:
Thank you for continuing to work with Members of Congress to draft a health reform bill that will provide the real health care reform this country needs. We look forward to meeting with you regarding retaining a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible.
Public opinion polls continue to show that a majority of Americans want the choice of a robust public plan and we stand in solidarity with them. We continue to support the robust public option that was reported out of the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Labor and will not vote for a weakened bill on the House Floor or returning from a Conference with the Senate.
Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates-not negotiated rates-is unacceptable. A plan with negotiated rates would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal of providing choice and competition to keep rates down. The public plan with set rates saves $75 billion, which could be lost if rates are negotiated with providers. Further, this public option must be available immediately and must not be contingent upon any trigger.
Mr. President, the need for reform is urgent. Every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health care coverage. We must have health care reform that will effectively bring down costs and significantly expand access. A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs. We cannot vote for anything less.
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the importance of your support for a robust public plan, which we encourage you to reiterate in your address to the Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Co-Chairs Lynn Woolsey Raul Grijalva
Congressional Progressive Caucus 83 Strong and Growing: Open to New and Different Ideas
Vice Chairs Diane Watson Keith Ellison Sheila Jackson-Lee Mazie Hirono Dennis Kucinich Donna Edwards Alan Grayson Senate Members Bernie Sanders Tom Udall House Members Neil Abercrombie Tammy Baldwin Xavier Becerra Earl Blumenauer Robert Brady Corrine Brown Michael Capuano Andre Carson Donna Christensen Judy Chu Yvette Clarke William “Lacy” Clay Emanuel Cleaver Steve Cohen John Conyers Elijah Cummings Danny Davis Peter DeFazio Rosa DeLauro Sam Farr Chaka Fattah Bob Filner Barney Frank Marcia Fudge Luis Gutierrez John Hall Phil Hare Alcee Hastings Maurice Hinchey Michael Honda Jesse Jackson, Jr. Eddie Bernice Johnson Hank Johnson Marcy Kaptur Carolyn Kilpatrick Barbara Lee John Lewis David Loebsack Ben Ray Lujan
Carolyn Maloney Ed Markey Eric Massa Jim McDermott James McGovern George Miller Gwen Moore Jim Moran Jerrold Nadler Eleanor Holmes-Norton John Olver Frank Pallone Ed Pastor Donald Payne Chellie Pingree Jared Polis Charles Rangel Laura Richardson Lucille Roybal-Allard Bobby Rush Linda Sanchez Jan Schakowsky Jose Serrano Louise Slaughter Pete Stark Bennie Thompson John Tierney Nydia Velazquez Maxine Waters Mel Watt Henry Waxman Peter Welch
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Secretary Solis: End economic injustice, workplace abuse
By John Bachtell
People's Weekly World
CHICAGO – Through eight years of the right-wing Bush administration, the secretary of labor helped lead the administration’s war against organized labor. The only time the labor secretary interacted with labor leaders was to threaten and scold. So it was a breath of fresh air to hear new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis give a Labor Day address here September 2.
“For me it’s about real people, real families, real suffering going on in the country,” declared Solis, the daughter of trade unionists, in referring to the difficulties facing working families in this time of crisis.
Solis, who was introduced by Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, was addressing a crowd of labor, business and elected officials before the venerable Union League Club.
“I can’t think of a better place to give a Labor Day address than Chicago,” said Solis. Not only is the city home to many of the nation’s large corporations, but it also has a “rich labor history, including the Pullman strike, the Haymarket tragedy and the Republic Windows and Doors dispute. Some see turmoil and strife. Others see progress and hope.”
Solis said this was a time of unprecedented economic crisis and challenge. “We (the Obama administration) were forced to take bold action to confront the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. There are signs of life but we are not there yet,” she said.
Official unemployment is at 9.4% and it’s a time of great anxiety and fear for the 15 million Americans who are jobless. She warned the economy would continue to suffer layoffs over the next few months.
In effect for only 200 days, Solis said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has only begun to have an impact. The Act is “pulling the country back from the brink” and applications have been made for over 30,000 projects and will continue to wend their way into the economy in the months ahead.
Solis stressed a chief concern was to make sure that no one is left behind in the economic restructuring. The crisis has particularly impacted the African American and Latino communities and youth who suffer unemployment far higher than the national average. She wants to make sure everyone benefits and is particularly concerned that funds go to communities of color, women, the disabled, veterans and youth.
“It is not enough that just any jobs are created, but good jobs should be available for all that support families, are in safe and secure workplaces where workers have a voice and that are sustainable and innovative. Only such jobs will rebuild and restore a strong middle class,” she said.
Solis said the economic restructuring ahead meant that new jobs would be created in the health care, Internet technology and renewable energy fields. The economic stimulus is pumping $500 million into green jobs, especially creation of biofuels and lithium batteries and aimed especially at closed plants and dislocated workers. She said “retooling workers” to go into green jobs was a high priority.
Solis also announced the convening of a national dialogue and action summit on workplace safety. This comes in response to the large number of fatalities in some industries like the construction sector. The summit will be charged with bringing labor and corporations together to develop a plan to end workplace abuses including deaths, injuries, injustice, super exploitation and wage theft.
“No one should have to die for a job and workplace safety is a moral obligation,” she said.
The summit is part of expanding the role of the Labor Department to ensure workplace safety, which includes hiring 130 new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors. “We won’t be satisfied until there are no deaths,” she said.
Solis also expressed confidence the Employee Free Choice Act would be passed and said she and President Obama were committed to its passage. The need for fairness and balance in the workplace is the strongest argument for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, said Solis.
“Workers have a right to bargain collectively. Union jobs are good jobs, in pay, flexibility and benefits. The President has said we need to level the playing field to rebuild the middle class. I am looking forward to a resolution to this issue.”
People's Weekly World
CHICAGO – Through eight years of the right-wing Bush administration, the secretary of labor helped lead the administration’s war against organized labor. The only time the labor secretary interacted with labor leaders was to threaten and scold. So it was a breath of fresh air to hear new Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis give a Labor Day address here September 2.
“For me it’s about real people, real families, real suffering going on in the country,” declared Solis, the daughter of trade unionists, in referring to the difficulties facing working families in this time of crisis.
Solis, who was introduced by Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon, was addressing a crowd of labor, business and elected officials before the venerable Union League Club.
“I can’t think of a better place to give a Labor Day address than Chicago,” said Solis. Not only is the city home to many of the nation’s large corporations, but it also has a “rich labor history, including the Pullman strike, the Haymarket tragedy and the Republic Windows and Doors dispute. Some see turmoil and strife. Others see progress and hope.”
Solis said this was a time of unprecedented economic crisis and challenge. “We (the Obama administration) were forced to take bold action to confront the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. There are signs of life but we are not there yet,” she said.
Official unemployment is at 9.4% and it’s a time of great anxiety and fear for the 15 million Americans who are jobless. She warned the economy would continue to suffer layoffs over the next few months.
In effect for only 200 days, Solis said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has only begun to have an impact. The Act is “pulling the country back from the brink” and applications have been made for over 30,000 projects and will continue to wend their way into the economy in the months ahead.
Solis stressed a chief concern was to make sure that no one is left behind in the economic restructuring. The crisis has particularly impacted the African American and Latino communities and youth who suffer unemployment far higher than the national average. She wants to make sure everyone benefits and is particularly concerned that funds go to communities of color, women, the disabled, veterans and youth.
“It is not enough that just any jobs are created, but good jobs should be available for all that support families, are in safe and secure workplaces where workers have a voice and that are sustainable and innovative. Only such jobs will rebuild and restore a strong middle class,” she said.
Solis said the economic restructuring ahead meant that new jobs would be created in the health care, Internet technology and renewable energy fields. The economic stimulus is pumping $500 million into green jobs, especially creation of biofuels and lithium batteries and aimed especially at closed plants and dislocated workers. She said “retooling workers” to go into green jobs was a high priority.
Solis also announced the convening of a national dialogue and action summit on workplace safety. This comes in response to the large number of fatalities in some industries like the construction sector. The summit will be charged with bringing labor and corporations together to develop a plan to end workplace abuses including deaths, injuries, injustice, super exploitation and wage theft.
“No one should have to die for a job and workplace safety is a moral obligation,” she said.
The summit is part of expanding the role of the Labor Department to ensure workplace safety, which includes hiring 130 new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspectors. “We won’t be satisfied until there are no deaths,” she said.
Solis also expressed confidence the Employee Free Choice Act would be passed and said she and President Obama were committed to its passage. The need for fairness and balance in the workplace is the strongest argument for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, said Solis.
“Workers have a right to bargain collectively. Union jobs are good jobs, in pay, flexibility and benefits. The President has said we need to level the playing field to rebuild the middle class. I am looking forward to a resolution to this issue.”
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