Here is a really good article from journalist David Moberg about GM, the UAW, and the health care crisis in the United States. I think his comments on the VEBA, prove once again, that it is a big mistake. But of course the bigger mistake is that we still don't have a mass movement mobilized behind single payer national health care. It is the number one domestic issue in this election cycle, but all the "top tier" democratic candidates are offering mickey mouse proposals that seek to save the asses of the HMOs rather than establish real universal coverage, where the profit motive is removed. Even the labor movement is partly to blame for this, as over the years they have avioded supporting specific single payer legislation. That is changing. The NNOC (National Nurses Organizing Committee) has launched a serious campaign behind HR 676, the Conyers Bill, in conjunction with Michael Moore's film Sicko... http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_labor_lessons_gm_nev...

OK, I realize those are harsh words, but I can’t help feeling real sadness today as I read reports of what the UAW agreed to in its settlement with GM. As I am sure you have all heard already, the strike was ended today (after just two days), with the announcement by Gettelfinger that a tentative agreement had been reached. The exact details of the agreement won’t be known till at least late this week, when the members vote to ratify (or not) the contract. You can listen to audio of Gettelfinger’s announcement here… http://www.uaw.org/ Now I am not saying we should relish the idea of a long strike. Strikes are always much harder on the individual worker than they are on their corporate bosses. No one wants a long drawn out strike that leads to workers losing their homes, pulling kids out of college, sinking deeper into debt, etc., etc., etc. Let me say right of the bat, even though I have been a labor activist for 15 years, I have never myself had to endure the pain of a strike. But I ...

After years of concessions and job cuts, GM, despite it’s enormous profits (and don’t be fooled – they are enormous) still wants to extract more wealth from the sweat and tears of its workers. IT IS TIME TO SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! No more concessions to multi-billon dollar multi-national corporations. Stop this race to the bottom. Defend the hard won gains of manufacturing workers in the United States and around the world. Its corporate mis-management that is the ultimate source of U.S. automakers woes, so why do the workers always pay the price, while the bosses are offered golden parachutes. Its time the bosses got a lead boot in the ass instead! As a proud member myself of UAW Local 1980 – the National Writers Union, I call on all working people to aid and assist in whatever ways possible our brothers and sisters at GM. Here is audio of UAW president Ron Gettelfinger, explaining the reasons for the strike at a Press conference on Monday (the original audio and a transcript can be foun...

The following is an article I wrote on domestic worker organizing for Labor Notes, based on my interviews over the Summer with organizers in this emerging social movement. An edited version of this piece will appear in next months Labor Notes... http://labornotes.org/magazine Domestic Worker Organizing: New Front in the emerging “Non-Traditional” Labor Movement by Jerry Mead-Lucero For over two years, Marian, a Colombian immigrant and a housekeeper in Roslyn, New York, worked 18 hours a day, six days a week for about two dollars an hour. The family that employed her fired her without notice, kicking her out of the home and leaving her with nowhere to turn for support. After enduring months of verbal and physical abuse by her employer, “Vivian”, an Indian immigrant and nanny in Manhattan, refused the orders of her boss. Her boss’s response was to strike her with a sandal and kick her out the house without her pay or her passport. “Judy” a Malaysian immigrant and housekeeper on one occa...

One of my first stops on my Summer travels in the South was Pascagoula MS., were I meet with members of MIRA! (The Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance). MIRA! Organizer Socorro Leos was kind enough to spend a day talking with me about the struggles of workers in Pascagoula, post-Hurricane Katrina. Socorro is herself an immigrant worker who was displaced by the storm and has been struggling with city officials to allow her to continue to live in this bustling industrial city. Pascagoula was the site of a major successful strike by members of IBEW at the Northrop Grumman Shipyards this past Spring. But the port city has also become famous for producing some of the most egregious cases of the exploitation of guest workers (H2B program workers) in recent years. The numbers of guest workers in the shipyards and docks of the Gulf Coast has dramatically increased post-Katrina, and so has the level of disregard for these worker's basic human rights. A recent attempt by Indian guest work...

During my recent travels in the South to meet with workers and gather their stories for broadcast on Labor Express Radio, I returned once again to New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward - the historic black working class neighborhood that bore the brunt of the flood waters following the levee breach durng the Huricane Katrina disaster. Members of the Lower 9th are now fighting for the neighborhoods survival in face of efforts to snatch up the land by developers. There I meet Katrina survivor, long time Lower 9th resident, and Common Ground Collective activist Albert Bass. In this interview, he talks about living through the levee breach and the ongoing struggle for a right of return for Lower 9th Ward residents... http://www.archive.org/details/Lower9thNewOrleans-July-07

The IWW (Industrial Workers of the World), is viewed by many as a relic of organized labor’s past. A heroic attempt by militant trade unionists in the early part of the 20th century to build radically inclusive industrial unions – a shining moment in the history of the U.S. labor movement – that long ago was eclipsed by other organizations of labor. The truth is that the IWW is a living breathing organization that is currently involved in some of the most exciting worker organizing going on anywhere. Their efforts in the last two years to organize immigrant Latino & Asian warehouse workers in New York City is a case in point. It was the worker’s themselves who began to organize two years ago and sought ought the IWW’s help. Since that time, IWW organizers and members have been tireless in their efforts to win these workers millions of dollars in unpaid wages, improved wages and working conditions, and a shop floor organization that can further challenge the boss. In this interview ...