This week thousands of community and labor activists launched over 60 actions building towards the Shareholder Spring, delivering letters to the executives of the corporations in this country most responsible for undermining our democracy, crashing our economy, poisoning our environment and widening the gap between rich and poor.

On Wednesday, February 1st, Respect DC members returned to Marriott headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland to talk to Walmart board member and Marriott International President Arne Sorenson. Respect DC is calling on Mr. Sorenson to meet with members of Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) and to ask Walmart board chair Rob Walton and CEO Mike Duke to do the same.  Having been there before in December, when Respect DC members returned, as promised, security immediately recognized the group saying, “No, we’re not doing this again.” He insisted they could not talk to Mr. Sorenson but took their letter and said he would deliver it.  So far, they still have yet to receive a response.

Actions targeting Walmart board members took place in San Francisco and New York as

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One of South Carolina’s largest economic engines, the Port of Charleston, is threatened by an anti-union bill (H-4652) making its way thought the state legislature. Sponsored by Rep. Bill Sandifer (R-Oconee), it would require unions to disclose every single financial transaction, publicize membership lists, and raises fines for violations of the state’s Right to Work Act from $100 to $10,000.

Sandifer, who chairs the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee that is hearing his bill, stated at a Feb. 2 subcommittee meeting, “We do have one of the toughest right to work laws in the country; my goal is to have the toughest.”

The bill was passed out of subcommittee, and is scheduled to be heard by the full committee in the next two weeks.

Ken Riley, President of the Longshoreman’s union that works the Charleston port, questioned why punitive laws were being directed at the 5 percent of the state’s workers who belong to unions and make decent wages and benefits. “This unwarranted attack is political grandstanding intended to shift the blame for our economic problems from policy makers to workers,” Riley said.

According to the State Ports

Continue reading Anti-union Bill Threatens South Carolina Port

On the even of August 5, 2011, during the pinnacle banquet of the National Jobs with Justice conference, student guestworkers who had traveled from all over the world only to work in a plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania made a pitch for solidarity.  Like the Verizon workers who were about to go on strike the very next day, these workers too were planning to take courageous action.

They certainly had high expectations.  And why shouldn’t they have?  Just before they got on stage, workers with the National Guestworkers Alliance from a previous campaign against Signal had just been there claiming victory against the company and a reunion with their families.  So, the 30 that had come stood up and told a story about how they each paid $3,000-$6,000 to come to the U.S. this summer for what they thought would be a cultural exchange program through the State Department’s J-1 visa. Instead, they found themselves packing chocolates at the Hershey’s plant in deeply exploitative conditions. After automatic weekly deductions for rent in company housing and other expenses, they net between $40 and

Continue reading Victory at Hersheys!

Act now to confront corporate power!

This week, in over one hundred cities and towns, thousands will launch a series of actions building towards the Shareholder Spring, delivering letters to the executives of the corporations in this country most responsible for undermining our democracy, crashing our economy, poisoning our environment and widening the gap between rich and poor.

By coming together around a joint strategy to confront corporate power, this effort could shape the 2012 electoral debates.  The negative roles unregulated corporate power has on our economy and our elections would be front and center of the national conversation.  In races nationwide candidates would have to decide which side they are on:  Corporations, the structures of the 1%, or the rest of us.

Committing to such a broad-based effort to further expand the space opened by Occupy will create new possibilities for each of our campaigns.  In isolation our campaigns on jobs and worker rights, revenue, banking, health care, immigrant justice, and the environment are not big enough.  But together, we have the potential

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282 Brooklyn Workers Overcome Vigorous Anti-Union Campaign; Become First Cablevision Employees To Join a Union In Predominately Non-Union Cable TV Industry

Today, 282 Brooklyn Cablevision technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Local 1109 in a union election administered by National Labor Relations Board, overcoming a vigorous anti-union campaign led by Cablevision.  They are the first Cablevision workers to join a union.  Cable TV is an overwhelmingly non-union industry while the traditional telecommunications industry remains highly unionized.

“I’ve waited 13 years for this,” said Cablevision technician Clarence Adams.  “United, as members of Communications Workers of America, we now have the power to negotiate a fair contract that will give us the dignity and respect on the job we deserve.”

Cablevision workers are currently subject to arbitrary discipline and favoritism by managers, their health care coverage is inadequate, their workload is unreasonable and they have insufficient 401(k) retirement plans.  Cablevision workers also make at least one-third less than Verizon workers, who are represented by CWA.

“This is about my son, his future, and the

Continue reading Cablevision Workers Triumph: Brooklyn Technicians Vote To Unionize