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SEIU 250 DEMANDS A LIVING WAGE FOR HOME CARE WORKERS - 19 ARRESTED
Workers in Fresno County Struggle for a Living Wage
SEIU 250 DEMANDS A LIVING WAGE FOR HOME CARE WORKERS
19 ARRESTED
By Mike Rhodes
August 29, 2003
19 home care workers and their allies were arrested in Fresno today as they demanded respect and a living wage. Shouting “No Justice, No Peace!” protestors shut down the Fresno County Hall of Records. This was the first time most of these workers had ever participated in civil disobedience. Standing with them was Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union.
As the blockade at the Hall of Records formed Jemmy Bluestein led the group in Union songs, including Solidarity Forever which could be heard throughout the building. At first the sheriffs refused to arrest anyone and re-directed traffic to other entrances. When the protestors blocked all the doors to the building the arrests began. No sooner had the police cleared one doorway, when new protestors took their place. In the end 19 people were arrested, given a citation, and then released.
At issue here is that home care workers want a living wage (at least $9.50 an hour) and health benefits. In negotiations with Service Employee International Union Local 250 Fresno County first offered home care workers health benefits and no salary increase. The union rejected that offer and the County took the health benefits off the table, imposed $7.50 an hour, and refused to bargain further. After insulting the workers with this inadequate wage increase they began cutting workers hours.
Dana Simon from SEIU 250 says that the union has shown Fresno County where to find the money to pay for the salary increase and health benefits. Most of the funds are reimbursed by State and Federal sources. Advocates argue that the additional buying power that will result when home care workers earn a living wage will improve the economy of this impoverished County. The union, home care workers, and their allies are beginning to believe that the County’s refusal to increase these workers salary is not about the money. It is about maintaining low wages in the County so the wealthy can continue to exploit poor underpaid workers. They don’t want home care workers to set a “bad example” by emerging from poverty. The success of the home care workers could inspire and motivate other groups of workers to join a union and demanded a living wage with benefits.
19 ARRESTED
By Mike Rhodes
August 29, 2003
19 home care workers and their allies were arrested in Fresno today as they demanded respect and a living wage. Shouting “No Justice, No Peace!” protestors shut down the Fresno County Hall of Records. This was the first time most of these workers had ever participated in civil disobedience. Standing with them was Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers Union.
As the blockade at the Hall of Records formed Jemmy Bluestein led the group in Union songs, including Solidarity Forever which could be heard throughout the building. At first the sheriffs refused to arrest anyone and re-directed traffic to other entrances. When the protestors blocked all the doors to the building the arrests began. No sooner had the police cleared one doorway, when new protestors took their place. In the end 19 people were arrested, given a citation, and then released.
At issue here is that home care workers want a living wage (at least $9.50 an hour) and health benefits. In negotiations with Service Employee International Union Local 250 Fresno County first offered home care workers health benefits and no salary increase. The union rejected that offer and the County took the health benefits off the table, imposed $7.50 an hour, and refused to bargain further. After insulting the workers with this inadequate wage increase they began cutting workers hours.
Dana Simon from SEIU 250 says that the union has shown Fresno County where to find the money to pay for the salary increase and health benefits. Most of the funds are reimbursed by State and Federal sources. Advocates argue that the additional buying power that will result when home care workers earn a living wage will improve the economy of this impoverished County. The union, home care workers, and their allies are beginning to believe that the County’s refusal to increase these workers salary is not about the money. It is about maintaining low wages in the County so the wealthy can continue to exploit poor underpaid workers. They don’t want home care workers to set a “bad example” by emerging from poverty. The success of the home care workers could inspire and motivate other groups of workers to join a union and demanded a living wage with benefits.
For more information:
http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home
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If you feel you're being exploited, quit and find another job! You're not a slave; you can walk away at any time.
Yet every week you return to work, you accept the pay they've offered, and by doing so you legitimize their offer. If it's so unacceptable, why do you keep accepting it?
As for the federal magic money tree, do you have any clue where that cash comes from? Washington doesnt hold bake sales, it sends the IRS to suck the financial lifeblood from hundreds of millions of Americans. You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.
I'm sure you're struggling to make ends meet - but how many more people will struggle nationwide because of the tax burden created by your demand that Fresno County fund your pay raise from Federal reimbursemenst?
If your time is worth more than the compensation you are receiving, I'm sorry for your loss but it is your choice to continue losing it. Dont make others pay for your mistake. We're busy trying to pay rent.
-Van
Yet every week you return to work, you accept the pay they've offered, and by doing so you legitimize their offer. If it's so unacceptable, why do you keep accepting it?
As for the federal magic money tree, do you have any clue where that cash comes from? Washington doesnt hold bake sales, it sends the IRS to suck the financial lifeblood from hundreds of millions of Americans. You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.
I'm sure you're struggling to make ends meet - but how many more people will struggle nationwide because of the tax burden created by your demand that Fresno County fund your pay raise from Federal reimbursemenst?
If your time is worth more than the compensation you are receiving, I'm sorry for your loss but it is your choice to continue losing it. Dont make others pay for your mistake. We're busy trying to pay rent.
-Van
That's easier said than done.
You make an interesting point, Van. Why should honest, hardworking American taxpayers bear the burden of an excessive state sanctioned social net, because the market has failed to achieve its goal of maintaing fair price on all goods and services provided.
I will argue that the failure of the market mechanism is related to multinational corporations ability to transfer products from low cost factor markets to seemingly normaly priced product markets.
This market upperhand allows for the outrageous disimilarity of standards of living, not only comparing less developed countries with industrial nations, but also within the industrial nations themselves.
I realize it seems as though I have strayed from the point, but this is where it comes full circle.
This ability to afford windfalls profits creates a situation in which the most significant myth of economics takes form: "Work hard, Get rich." It simply is not real, not on an even schedule anyway. In fact in some places in this great state of ours you might find yourself hardpressed to "Work hard, Get by," without at least a four year degree, minimum. Yet people in high office take advantage of the global market as if to claim: "You can make 6 figures too, you don't need unfair market leverage, just get a better job you bum."
Let us now consider the homecareworkers plight, which began this discussion. Surely I can become qualified for a job such as this without lengthy educational endevours. Yet, homecare workers provide a unique and important sevice. They prevent, in the cases in which they are utilized, the need to house our elderly freinds and family in live-in care facilities. I have worked in a rest home, and gods bless everyone who serves in this way. The point is that these homes are an unfortunate place for citizens to spend their final years. And the fact is, these facilities are subsidized by the same pots of money that are available to assist Fresno county in establishing a living wage for home care workers. That's right aunt Marge, who you visit once a month down at the "center," she's living off the dole, along with some help from heir remaining heirs.
The only hope for the survival of the economic systems of the developed world, is to create an international standard of living through sound fiscal policy.
I will argue that the failure of the market mechanism is related to multinational corporations ability to transfer products from low cost factor markets to seemingly normaly priced product markets.
This market upperhand allows for the outrageous disimilarity of standards of living, not only comparing less developed countries with industrial nations, but also within the industrial nations themselves.
I realize it seems as though I have strayed from the point, but this is where it comes full circle.
This ability to afford windfalls profits creates a situation in which the most significant myth of economics takes form: "Work hard, Get rich." It simply is not real, not on an even schedule anyway. In fact in some places in this great state of ours you might find yourself hardpressed to "Work hard, Get by," without at least a four year degree, minimum. Yet people in high office take advantage of the global market as if to claim: "You can make 6 figures too, you don't need unfair market leverage, just get a better job you bum."
Let us now consider the homecareworkers plight, which began this discussion. Surely I can become qualified for a job such as this without lengthy educational endevours. Yet, homecare workers provide a unique and important sevice. They prevent, in the cases in which they are utilized, the need to house our elderly freinds and family in live-in care facilities. I have worked in a rest home, and gods bless everyone who serves in this way. The point is that these homes are an unfortunate place for citizens to spend their final years. And the fact is, these facilities are subsidized by the same pots of money that are available to assist Fresno county in establishing a living wage for home care workers. That's right aunt Marge, who you visit once a month down at the "center," she's living off the dole, along with some help from heir remaining heirs.
The only hope for the survival of the economic systems of the developed world, is to create an international standard of living through sound fiscal policy.
I'm curious as to how the act of getting arrested will be pursuasive in the HHC effort.
A little more publicity for HHC, and more publicity for the relentlessly self-promoting author of the article. It does begin to make one wonder whose interests these publicity stunts are intended to serve.
Civil Disobedience is a tool that has been used in the struggle for peace and social/economic justice for a long time. It is not a silver bullet that will resolve the conflict, in this case, our effort to win a living wage for home care workers. What this action does is to put additional pressure on the Board of Supervisors to address the issue. The action increases the visibility of the struggle in the community and reminds us all that these workers are being exploited. This particular action also led home care workers to take one more (rather large) step in taking action on their own behalf. As Dolores Huerta said moments before the arrests began - “for those of you being arrested, this is a”Baptism.”
The sad fact is that the Board of Supervisors are NOT going to be convinced that home care workers need to be paid a living wage by logic. The workers, community members, and the union have explained to them in every way imaginable the needs of the workers, the justice in paying a living wage, and where the money can be found to pay for this. The Board of Supervisors are not going to be persuaded by more talk. They simply have other priorities (building a new jail, for example) AND they will not increase the wages of these workers because it is not in their class interest. In other words, by raising the wages of these workers it will raise the bar for the lowest paid workers in this county. If home care workers achieve a victory in this struggle it will inspire other low wage workers to organize and demand a living wage. The Supervisors are not looking out for the interests of the poor and working people - they are looking out for the interests of the people who got them elected - developers, agribusiness, and people with lots of money.
How are we going to move the Supervisors to authorize a living wage for home care workers? The answer is : By increasing the pressure on them. The sit in last Friday was one tactic in the struggle. In future weeks you will see other efforts by the workers, their allies, and the union that will make the cost of not paying home care workers a living wage so high that the Supervisors will change their position.
Examples of what I would like to see happen:
* A march starting in the rural areas of Fresno County, the West Side of Fresno City, and the Tower District converge on the Hall of Records. Hundreds/thousands of workers and their allies will fill the building and demand a living wage. No other business will be conducted because the building will be full of people from this march.
* Get Cruz Bustamonte to come and address the Supervisors demanding a living wage for home care workers.
* Have Cruz ask Juan Arambula to publically support $9.50 an hour with health care benefits. *Hold a fast outside the hall of records.
*Put up a billboard of the pledge Bob Waterston signed saying that if elected he would support a living wage for home care workers.
To answer Steve’s question about the tactic of Civil Disobedience - I would just say that it is one of the tools in our bag of tricks that we use on occasion to bring about social change. A local and recent example of how this tactic can be used successfully was the case of The Gap 19. Not only did this tactic create incredible publicity about the Gap’s use of sweatshops, but it succeeded in defining our Free Speech rights at Fashion Fair. Not only do people know about the Gap’s use of sweatshop labor, but we were able to open up (liberate) the space at Fashion Fair for Free Speech activity. The hope is that the CD action at the Hall of Records will move the struggle for a living wage forward in this community.
The sad fact is that the Board of Supervisors are NOT going to be convinced that home care workers need to be paid a living wage by logic. The workers, community members, and the union have explained to them in every way imaginable the needs of the workers, the justice in paying a living wage, and where the money can be found to pay for this. The Board of Supervisors are not going to be persuaded by more talk. They simply have other priorities (building a new jail, for example) AND they will not increase the wages of these workers because it is not in their class interest. In other words, by raising the wages of these workers it will raise the bar for the lowest paid workers in this county. If home care workers achieve a victory in this struggle it will inspire other low wage workers to organize and demand a living wage. The Supervisors are not looking out for the interests of the poor and working people - they are looking out for the interests of the people who got them elected - developers, agribusiness, and people with lots of money.
How are we going to move the Supervisors to authorize a living wage for home care workers? The answer is : By increasing the pressure on them. The sit in last Friday was one tactic in the struggle. In future weeks you will see other efforts by the workers, their allies, and the union that will make the cost of not paying home care workers a living wage so high that the Supervisors will change their position.
Examples of what I would like to see happen:
* A march starting in the rural areas of Fresno County, the West Side of Fresno City, and the Tower District converge on the Hall of Records. Hundreds/thousands of workers and their allies will fill the building and demand a living wage. No other business will be conducted because the building will be full of people from this march.
* Get Cruz Bustamonte to come and address the Supervisors demanding a living wage for home care workers.
* Have Cruz ask Juan Arambula to publically support $9.50 an hour with health care benefits. *Hold a fast outside the hall of records.
*Put up a billboard of the pledge Bob Waterston signed saying that if elected he would support a living wage for home care workers.
To answer Steve’s question about the tactic of Civil Disobedience - I would just say that it is one of the tools in our bag of tricks that we use on occasion to bring about social change. A local and recent example of how this tactic can be used successfully was the case of The Gap 19. Not only did this tactic create incredible publicity about the Gap’s use of sweatshops, but it succeeded in defining our Free Speech rights at Fashion Fair. Not only do people know about the Gap’s use of sweatshop labor, but we were able to open up (liberate) the space at Fashion Fair for Free Speech activity. The hope is that the CD action at the Hall of Records will move the struggle for a living wage forward in this community.
Response to SO QUIT THEN!
Oh, that is a humanitarian response to a pressing social issue! Let’s just leave all of the poor disabled people to fend for themselves? Jeez! How does one respond to a comment like that?
All I can say is that someone needs to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves. Those workers deserve to be paid a living wage and receive health benefits. If home care workers are not being paid a living wage, the answer is not to run away like Van suggests. Running away is not the answer to all of life’s problems. People need to stand up for what is right. It is only by coming together as a unified force that home care workers will change this unacceptable situation.
I find it hard to believe that there are people like Van out there in the world that instead of helping, throw water on a drowning person.
Oh, that is a humanitarian response to a pressing social issue! Let’s just leave all of the poor disabled people to fend for themselves? Jeez! How does one respond to a comment like that?
All I can say is that someone needs to take care of people who can’t take care of themselves. Those workers deserve to be paid a living wage and receive health benefits. If home care workers are not being paid a living wage, the answer is not to run away like Van suggests. Running away is not the answer to all of life’s problems. People need to stand up for what is right. It is only by coming together as a unified force that home care workers will change this unacceptable situation.
I find it hard to believe that there are people like Van out there in the world that instead of helping, throw water on a drowning person.
Personally, I would much rather that both my federal and state tax money go to provide quality home health care to those in my community who need it, than to the Pentagon and the corporations like Halliburton, Bechtel, and Lockheed Martin. George Bush Sr. and Dick Cheney don't need the money as much as the dedicated caregivers who take care of our family members at home, keeping them out of much more expensive institutions. Only one month in a nursing home costs over $3,500. Most of us cannot afford to pay for that care, and the money to cover the costs comes from Medicaid--a federal and state tax funded program.
Over half of our taxes go to support military costs around the globe while our own citizens are less, rather than more, safe. The occupation of Iraq will do nothing to create democracy for their people and it is threatening to bankrupt the U.S.
I vote for paying the homecare workers a living wage instead!
Over half of our taxes go to support military costs around the globe while our own citizens are less, rather than more, safe. The occupation of Iraq will do nothing to create democracy for their people and it is threatening to bankrupt the U.S.
I vote for paying the homecare workers a living wage instead!
I, have been a CNA since l989 active and I understand
how hard and underpaid this job is. But, evenmore,
I feeld very proud that finely this area has started to give signs of getting organized. Congratulations!
Viva la Causa!!!
how hard and underpaid this job is. But, evenmore,
I feeld very proud that finely this area has started to give signs of getting organized. Congratulations!
Viva la Causa!!!
I'm glad that this action is part of a larger plan so that it will not be seen as isolated, whimsical, or whimsical. Civil disobediance has a place in our society when other avenues of redress fail.
Thank you for your answer.
Steve
Thank you for your answer.
Steve
I'm glad that this action is part of a larger plan so that it will not be seen as isolated, whimsical, or whimsical. Civil disobediance has a place in our society when other avenues of redress fail.
Thank you for your answer.
Steve
Thank you for your answer.
Steve
A Labor Day Call to Arms
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
August 29, 2003
Fire up the old grill, do a few twelve-ounce elbow bends to stay limber and just kick back. That's what Labor Day's all about, isn't it?
No, Labor Day has gone all soft on us, and it's time to harden up on its true meaning. This holiday is not some vague tribute to men and women who labor. Rather, it's a radically democratic declaration of the intent to build and sustain a middle class in America – as bold a statement (and as fraught with peril) as Jefferson's Declaration. Far from being about taking a day off, Labor Day is about people taking democratic power.
>From the start, Labor Day was a bottom-up holiday, our only national celebration to be put on the calendar by the working class. It started when feisty Matt McGuire of the Carpenters Union and dauntless William McCabe of the Typographers called for a massive march in New York City to show the strength of laboring people.
Defying bosses and risking their jobs and personal safety, thousands of workers of every trade left work on September 5, 1882, and marched with banners, bands and bravado right up Fifth Avenue, right past the mansions of the Astors, Vanderbilts, and other Robber Barons.
It was not a parade, but a call to arms, the beginning of labor's fight for an eight-hour day at fair pay. The demonstration was so successful that it spread to other cities, and the idea of setting aside a specific day to affirm that laboring people have rights and are creators of wealth took hold. It was a demand for respect, finally achieved in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the law creating Labor Day. What a nice gesture... except that Ol' Grover had unleashed 12,000 federal troops just days earlier to crush a strike by Pullman rail car workers, killing dozens of union members.
But that's been the story every step of the way in our under-appreciated struggle to establish what's become taken for granted as "The American Way of Life". The 40-hour work week, the wage floor, collective bargaining, retirement security, Medicare, job-safety protections, and so much more that sustains the middle-class possibility for a majority of our people were not provided by the founders in 1776 – and they certainly were not given to us by generous corporate chieftains. Rather, the middle-class framework was built by us – We The People.
But now, piece-by-piece, the bosses and politicians are rapidly dismantling this framework. From global trade scams to almost daily administrative rulings by the Bush White House, not only are unions and workers generally under assault, but the very opportunity to achieve a middle-class life is being shut off for millions of Americans.
We've seen pieces of this theft:
the looting of our public treasury through givebacks to the rich;
the White House assault on regulatory protections for everything from workplace safety to the 40-hour workweek;
the high-tech industry's despicable manipulation of immigration loopholes to displace middle-class American employees;
the privatization push through every agency of government;
the secretly negotiated trade deals that empower global corporations to overturn labor protections throughout the world;
the maneuvering to gut the pension laws so corporations can evade their legal and moral obligations to retirees... and so many more.
The latest dismantling is a ruling on overtime pay by Bush's Anti-Labor Department. It lets corporations arbitrarily designate millions of wage workers as "managerial" employees, exempt from overtime pay. Such workers as nurses, firefighters and computer programmers will be forced to work more hours for no pay – taking money out of their pockets, stealing their weekends... and stealing their right to a life beyond the job.
The whole adds up to far worse than the parts, for it's our egalitarian ethic of the common good that they are abandoning, our hope for middle-class possibilities that they're destroying. It's said that the rich and the poor will always be with us. Perhaps, but it is not assured anywhere or in any time that the middle class will be there.
This Labor Day is no different than the first one that workers themselves declared in 1882 – it's about taking back power from the thieves who are trying to steal our middle-class future. It's time for America's working class to consider Labor Day again not as a holiday, but as a call to arms.
Jim Hightower is author of "Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back" (Viking, 2003).
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet
August 29, 2003
Fire up the old grill, do a few twelve-ounce elbow bends to stay limber and just kick back. That's what Labor Day's all about, isn't it?
No, Labor Day has gone all soft on us, and it's time to harden up on its true meaning. This holiday is not some vague tribute to men and women who labor. Rather, it's a radically democratic declaration of the intent to build and sustain a middle class in America – as bold a statement (and as fraught with peril) as Jefferson's Declaration. Far from being about taking a day off, Labor Day is about people taking democratic power.
>From the start, Labor Day was a bottom-up holiday, our only national celebration to be put on the calendar by the working class. It started when feisty Matt McGuire of the Carpenters Union and dauntless William McCabe of the Typographers called for a massive march in New York City to show the strength of laboring people.
Defying bosses and risking their jobs and personal safety, thousands of workers of every trade left work on September 5, 1882, and marched with banners, bands and bravado right up Fifth Avenue, right past the mansions of the Astors, Vanderbilts, and other Robber Barons.
It was not a parade, but a call to arms, the beginning of labor's fight for an eight-hour day at fair pay. The demonstration was so successful that it spread to other cities, and the idea of setting aside a specific day to affirm that laboring people have rights and are creators of wealth took hold. It was a demand for respect, finally achieved in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland signed the law creating Labor Day. What a nice gesture... except that Ol' Grover had unleashed 12,000 federal troops just days earlier to crush a strike by Pullman rail car workers, killing dozens of union members.
But that's been the story every step of the way in our under-appreciated struggle to establish what's become taken for granted as "The American Way of Life". The 40-hour work week, the wage floor, collective bargaining, retirement security, Medicare, job-safety protections, and so much more that sustains the middle-class possibility for a majority of our people were not provided by the founders in 1776 – and they certainly were not given to us by generous corporate chieftains. Rather, the middle-class framework was built by us – We The People.
But now, piece-by-piece, the bosses and politicians are rapidly dismantling this framework. From global trade scams to almost daily administrative rulings by the Bush White House, not only are unions and workers generally under assault, but the very opportunity to achieve a middle-class life is being shut off for millions of Americans.
We've seen pieces of this theft:
the looting of our public treasury through givebacks to the rich;
the White House assault on regulatory protections for everything from workplace safety to the 40-hour workweek;
the high-tech industry's despicable manipulation of immigration loopholes to displace middle-class American employees;
the privatization push through every agency of government;
the secretly negotiated trade deals that empower global corporations to overturn labor protections throughout the world;
the maneuvering to gut the pension laws so corporations can evade their legal and moral obligations to retirees... and so many more.
The latest dismantling is a ruling on overtime pay by Bush's Anti-Labor Department. It lets corporations arbitrarily designate millions of wage workers as "managerial" employees, exempt from overtime pay. Such workers as nurses, firefighters and computer programmers will be forced to work more hours for no pay – taking money out of their pockets, stealing their weekends... and stealing their right to a life beyond the job.
The whole adds up to far worse than the parts, for it's our egalitarian ethic of the common good that they are abandoning, our hope for middle-class possibilities that they're destroying. It's said that the rich and the poor will always be with us. Perhaps, but it is not assured anywhere or in any time that the middle class will be there.
This Labor Day is no different than the first one that workers themselves declared in 1882 – it's about taking back power from the thieves who are trying to steal our middle-class future. It's time for America's working class to consider Labor Day again not as a holiday, but as a call to arms.
Jim Hightower is author of "Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back" (Viking, 2003).
Friday, August 29, 2003
Happy Labor Day -- Now, Get a Job! (A letter from Michael Moore)
Greetings Friends,
For his part, George W. Bush will spend Labor Day doing what he does best – not really working. Instead of protecting the country (I’ll have much more to say on that in the coming weeks) or addressing the nation’s floundering economy, he’ll be raising money for his re-election campaign in Ohio.
Bush is on pace to raise almost $200 million in time for the Republican primaries where his only competition will be his own dismal record. In Minnesota this past Tuesday, Bush raised $1.4 million by giving a 24-minute speech. That’s about $60,000 for each minute of “work.” By contrast, the weekly salary of the average American worker is a staggering $616.
As Ron Eibensteiner, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, left the event in St. Paul, he was met by hundreds of demonstrators. Being the dignified, freedom-loving, compassionate conservative we all wish we could be, Eibensteiner leaned over a police barricade toward the protestors and yelled, “GET A JOB!”
It was a positive, uplifting message to America. The Minnesota Republican Party isn’t going to do anything to turn the economy around, and Bush hasn’t done anything in almost three years in office. The best any of them can do is yell at people.
In the past year, 700,000 people were added to the list of unemployed. The number of people out of work for half a year or more is up 28%. Thanks to “Welfare to Work” (and Bill Clinton), July of 2003 saw 43.8% of the unemployed lose their state support even though they still could not find a job—a record high. Since Bush took over the country, roughly 2.5 million jobs have simply evaporated.
Bush and the Republicans are going to need every cent of that $200,000,000 to campaign against an increasingly angry nation of temps and burger flippers! In fact, he might need more, which is one good way to explain the Republican’s recent attempt to paint Bush as an ‘underdog.’
“Democrats and their allies,” Bush’s campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote to super-rich Republicans, “will have more money to spend attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have to defend him.” Obviously Bush and his team have a problem with math that extends beyond the $400 billion deficit we’ll have by the end of this year (and the projected $6 trillion deficit we will have amassed ten years from now under Bush’s guidance). If you look at the campaign fundraising so far, you see that Bush has already raised $35 million. The closest Democratic candidate, John Kerry, doesn’t even have half that. Does the Bush campaign know something we don’t about where the Democrats are hiding all that money?
And who has been giving Bush all this money in a time of prolonged economic downturn? Why, the companies that trade in money, of course! Of the top twenty contributor’s to the Bush campaign, twelve are finance companies. With more than a year to go until the election, his top contributor, Merrill Lynch, has already given $282,250. Doesn’t it seem just a little strange that the companies which SHOULD be suffering the most in Bush’s destroyed economy, would not only want to keep Junior around, but then get together and pump millions into his reelection campaign?
As for the Bush protestors in Minnesota, and the unemployed across the country, and the millions who only make minimum wage, and the 40 million who don’t have health insurance: if you can’t rake in $60,000 a minute — or if you can’t even manage the $616 weekly American average—there’s only one thing left for you to do this Labor Day: GET A JOB!
Find a temp agency. Go to Wal-Mart. Join the Army (Lord knows we’ll be in Iraq for a while, and that’ll be one handsome, steady paycheck).
Or apply for work at the Minnesota Republican Party’s office. Here’s their email address: info [at] mngop.com. Send them your resume and a nice letter telling them you’ve decided to take their advice to “GET A JOB”—and you’re coming to work for them!
But whatever you do, you really must quit your whining.
You are scaring the “President.”
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint [at] aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com
Happy Labor Day -- Now, Get a Job! (A letter from Michael Moore)
Greetings Friends,
For his part, George W. Bush will spend Labor Day doing what he does best – not really working. Instead of protecting the country (I’ll have much more to say on that in the coming weeks) or addressing the nation’s floundering economy, he’ll be raising money for his re-election campaign in Ohio.
Bush is on pace to raise almost $200 million in time for the Republican primaries where his only competition will be his own dismal record. In Minnesota this past Tuesday, Bush raised $1.4 million by giving a 24-minute speech. That’s about $60,000 for each minute of “work.” By contrast, the weekly salary of the average American worker is a staggering $616.
As Ron Eibensteiner, chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, left the event in St. Paul, he was met by hundreds of demonstrators. Being the dignified, freedom-loving, compassionate conservative we all wish we could be, Eibensteiner leaned over a police barricade toward the protestors and yelled, “GET A JOB!”
It was a positive, uplifting message to America. The Minnesota Republican Party isn’t going to do anything to turn the economy around, and Bush hasn’t done anything in almost three years in office. The best any of them can do is yell at people.
In the past year, 700,000 people were added to the list of unemployed. The number of people out of work for half a year or more is up 28%. Thanks to “Welfare to Work” (and Bill Clinton), July of 2003 saw 43.8% of the unemployed lose their state support even though they still could not find a job—a record high. Since Bush took over the country, roughly 2.5 million jobs have simply evaporated.
Bush and the Republicans are going to need every cent of that $200,000,000 to campaign against an increasingly angry nation of temps and burger flippers! In fact, he might need more, which is one good way to explain the Republican’s recent attempt to paint Bush as an ‘underdog.’
“Democrats and their allies,” Bush’s campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote to super-rich Republicans, “will have more money to spend attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have to defend him.” Obviously Bush and his team have a problem with math that extends beyond the $400 billion deficit we’ll have by the end of this year (and the projected $6 trillion deficit we will have amassed ten years from now under Bush’s guidance). If you look at the campaign fundraising so far, you see that Bush has already raised $35 million. The closest Democratic candidate, John Kerry, doesn’t even have half that. Does the Bush campaign know something we don’t about where the Democrats are hiding all that money?
And who has been giving Bush all this money in a time of prolonged economic downturn? Why, the companies that trade in money, of course! Of the top twenty contributor’s to the Bush campaign, twelve are finance companies. With more than a year to go until the election, his top contributor, Merrill Lynch, has already given $282,250. Doesn’t it seem just a little strange that the companies which SHOULD be suffering the most in Bush’s destroyed economy, would not only want to keep Junior around, but then get together and pump millions into his reelection campaign?
As for the Bush protestors in Minnesota, and the unemployed across the country, and the millions who only make minimum wage, and the 40 million who don’t have health insurance: if you can’t rake in $60,000 a minute — or if you can’t even manage the $616 weekly American average—there’s only one thing left for you to do this Labor Day: GET A JOB!
Find a temp agency. Go to Wal-Mart. Join the Army (Lord knows we’ll be in Iraq for a while, and that’ll be one handsome, steady paycheck).
Or apply for work at the Minnesota Republican Party’s office. Here’s their email address: info [at] mngop.com. Send them your resume and a nice letter telling them you’ve decided to take their advice to “GET A JOB”—and you’re coming to work for them!
But whatever you do, you really must quit your whining.
You are scaring the “President.”
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint [at] aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com
For more information:
http://www.michaelmoore.com
THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY
by Greg Palast
Friday, 29 August, 2003
In celebration of the working person's holiday, Secretary of Labor Elaine
Chao has announced the Bush Administration's plan to end the 60-year-old law
which requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime.
I'm sure you already knew that -- if you happened to have run across page
15,576 of the Federal Register.
According to the Register, where the Bush Administration likes to place it's
little gifts to major campaign donors, 2.7 million workers will lose their
overtime pay -- for a "benefit" of $1.53 billion. I put "benefit" in quotes
because, in the official cost-benefit analysis issued by Bush's Labor
Department, the amount employers will now be able to slice out of workers'
pockets is tallied on the plus side of the rules change.
Nevertheless, workers getting their pay snipped shouldn't complain, because
they will all be receiving promotions. These employees will be re-classified
as managers exempt from the law. The change is promoted by the National
Council of Chain Restaurants. You've met these 'managers' - they're the ones
in the beanies and aprons whose management decisions are, "Hold the lettuce
on that."
My favorite of Chao's little amendments would re-classify as "exempt
professionals" anyone who learned their skill in the military. In other
words, thousands of veterans will now lose overtime pay. I just can't
understand why Bush didn't announce that one when he landed on the aircraft
carrier.
CHOICE NUMBER FOUR: BREAK THE LAW
Now I should say that, according to Chao's press office, the changes will
actually extend overtime benefits to 1.3 million burger flippin' managers.
How does that square with the billion dollar "benefit" to business owners?
Simple: The Chao hounds at the Labor Department suggest that employers CUT
WAGES so that, with the new "overtime" pay, the employees won't actually
take home a dime more.
I can hear the moaners and bleeding hearts saying, this sounds like the
Labor Department is telling Big Business how to evade the law. Yep, that's
what the Department is doing. Right there on page 15,576 of the Federal
Register it says,
"Affected employers would have four choices concerning potential payroll
costs: … (4) converting salaried employees' basis of pay to an hourly rate
that result in virtually no changes to the total compensation paid those
workers."
And in case some employer is dense as a president and doesn't get the hint,
Madame Chao repeats, "…The fourth choice above results in virtually no (or
only a minimal) increase in labor costs."
For decades, the courts have thrown the book at cheapskate bosses who chisel
workers out of legal overtime by cutting base pay this way … but now they'll
have a new defense: Bush made me do it.
But then, there won't be any cases against employers, because Chao is the
labor cop that is supposed to stop paycheck theft. She's well qualified for
the job. Her resume reads, "Married to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky." I called her press office to ask if she qualifies for overtime,
but they'd left the office early.
And good news for our sporting President. Word from the White House is he'll
be golfing on the Labor Day weekend. Under Chao's rules, he need not worry
if he wants to replay that hole. "Exempt professionals" who cannot earn
overtime - once defined as doctors, lawyers and those with specialized
college degrees - will now include anyone who provides skilled advice … like
caddies ("You might try the other end of the club, Mr. President").
THE ACORN FALLS ONLY SO FAR
Finally, on this Labor Day weekend, it's time this nation took a cold look
at the issue of hard-core unemployment. Neo-conservatives have warned us
about families that pass on joblessness from generation to generation.
Take, for example, the sad case of the Bush family. When Poppy Bush was
president, unemployment hit a generational high of over 9 million Americans.
Bill Clinton, through education and hard work, put more than 3 million of
those citizens back on the job.
Now Bush Junior, repeating his family pattern of joblessness, has presided
over the return of unemployment for 9 million Americans.
This was not unexpected, sociologists warn us. Hard core unemployment,
through failed schooling and a don't-care attitude, takes on a nearly
genetic character. The acorn falls only so far from the tree. Especially
when the nut falls on its head.
To sign up to receive more of Greg's investigative reports click here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy
Money Can Buy available at: http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm
by Greg Palast
Friday, 29 August, 2003
In celebration of the working person's holiday, Secretary of Labor Elaine
Chao has announced the Bush Administration's plan to end the 60-year-old law
which requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime.
I'm sure you already knew that -- if you happened to have run across page
15,576 of the Federal Register.
According to the Register, where the Bush Administration likes to place it's
little gifts to major campaign donors, 2.7 million workers will lose their
overtime pay -- for a "benefit" of $1.53 billion. I put "benefit" in quotes
because, in the official cost-benefit analysis issued by Bush's Labor
Department, the amount employers will now be able to slice out of workers'
pockets is tallied on the plus side of the rules change.
Nevertheless, workers getting their pay snipped shouldn't complain, because
they will all be receiving promotions. These employees will be re-classified
as managers exempt from the law. The change is promoted by the National
Council of Chain Restaurants. You've met these 'managers' - they're the ones
in the beanies and aprons whose management decisions are, "Hold the lettuce
on that."
My favorite of Chao's little amendments would re-classify as "exempt
professionals" anyone who learned their skill in the military. In other
words, thousands of veterans will now lose overtime pay. I just can't
understand why Bush didn't announce that one when he landed on the aircraft
carrier.
CHOICE NUMBER FOUR: BREAK THE LAW
Now I should say that, according to Chao's press office, the changes will
actually extend overtime benefits to 1.3 million burger flippin' managers.
How does that square with the billion dollar "benefit" to business owners?
Simple: The Chao hounds at the Labor Department suggest that employers CUT
WAGES so that, with the new "overtime" pay, the employees won't actually
take home a dime more.
I can hear the moaners and bleeding hearts saying, this sounds like the
Labor Department is telling Big Business how to evade the law. Yep, that's
what the Department is doing. Right there on page 15,576 of the Federal
Register it says,
"Affected employers would have four choices concerning potential payroll
costs: … (4) converting salaried employees' basis of pay to an hourly rate
that result in virtually no changes to the total compensation paid those
workers."
And in case some employer is dense as a president and doesn't get the hint,
Madame Chao repeats, "…The fourth choice above results in virtually no (or
only a minimal) increase in labor costs."
For decades, the courts have thrown the book at cheapskate bosses who chisel
workers out of legal overtime by cutting base pay this way … but now they'll
have a new defense: Bush made me do it.
But then, there won't be any cases against employers, because Chao is the
labor cop that is supposed to stop paycheck theft. She's well qualified for
the job. Her resume reads, "Married to Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky." I called her press office to ask if she qualifies for overtime,
but they'd left the office early.
And good news for our sporting President. Word from the White House is he'll
be golfing on the Labor Day weekend. Under Chao's rules, he need not worry
if he wants to replay that hole. "Exempt professionals" who cannot earn
overtime - once defined as doctors, lawyers and those with specialized
college degrees - will now include anyone who provides skilled advice … like
caddies ("You might try the other end of the club, Mr. President").
THE ACORN FALLS ONLY SO FAR
Finally, on this Labor Day weekend, it's time this nation took a cold look
at the issue of hard-core unemployment. Neo-conservatives have warned us
about families that pass on joblessness from generation to generation.
Take, for example, the sad case of the Bush family. When Poppy Bush was
president, unemployment hit a generational high of over 9 million Americans.
Bill Clinton, through education and hard work, put more than 3 million of
those citizens back on the job.
Now Bush Junior, repeating his family pattern of joblessness, has presided
over the return of unemployment for 9 million Americans.
This was not unexpected, sociologists warn us. Hard core unemployment,
through failed schooling and a don't-care attitude, takes on a nearly
genetic character. The acorn falls only so far from the tree. Especially
when the nut falls on its head.
To sign up to receive more of Greg's investigative reports click here:
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy
Money Can Buy available at: http://www.gregpalast.com/store.htm
For more information:
http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm
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