As the next Congressional fight over payroll tax extensions and unemployment benefits and pipelines gets set up in the next few weeks for either its final chapter or to be kicked down the road a bit farther, one or the other, you're going to hear a lot from our Republican friends about how much they value work and workers; most especially, they'll tell you, they value American jobs for American workers.
After all, they'll say, creating American jobs is the most important thing of all.
But if we were to look back over just the last few months, some would tell us, we could quickly find examples of how Republicans promote ideas that don't seem to value work or workers at all, much less American jobs.
Well as it turns out, "some" seem to be right; to illustrate one of those examples we'll look back a month or two or three to a time some Republicans might wish was long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
After doing a bit of mountain hiking a few days back, I had a chance to get involved in a great afternoon conversation with the Alliance for American Manufacturing's Mike Wessel, who also serves as a Commissioner with the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; the conversation was about how we're doing when it comes to our relationship with China.
As it turns out, the two events went well together, because what I'm hearing from these guys is that we have a great big ol' mountain to climb if we hope to get back to a level playing field in our interactions with this most important country.
There's news to report across a variety of issues; that's why today we'll be talking about trade, human rights, cybersecurity, poverty and development, and the methods by which you can apply "soft power" to achieve hard results.
The entirely unanticipated result: all of this will reveal the naïveté of Ron Paul when it comes to foreign policy; we'll discuss that at the end.
Gov. Brown vetoes bill that would allow childcare workers to organize and a local VLF
by Brian Leubitz
For over thirty years, Jerry Brown has professed fealty to the canoe theory of politics, that is paddle a little to the left, a little to the right. Well, there was that We the People period, but we'll leave that out of the story for now.
Jerry can do some really amazing things, stand up and fight for struggling Californians. And then he does something like vetoing farmworker card check. Well, he had another one of those moments:
In a major blow to organized labor, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation today that would have let unions organize child-care providers who work out of the home.
"Today California, like the nation itself, is facing huge budget challenges," Brown wrote in a veto message. "Given that reality, I am reluctant to embark on a program of this magnitude and potential cost."(SacBee)
It was a banner day for that right oar, as he also vetoed legislation that would have changed automobile restrictions for a welfare recipients. Critically he also vetoed legislation that would have allowed San Francisco to vote to reinstate the higher level of VLF (pre-Arnold).
This last veto is actually the biggest news of the bunch. While it would have been a problematic situation on many levels, it would have allowed communities that want to tax themselves a pretty fair tax option. I understand his reluctance, but given the wrestling matches he has had with the Republicans over the past 10 months, you would have hoped he would have seen the value in communities controlling more of their revenue destiny.
One of the most significant benefits of LightSquared's network will be the elimination of the "digital divide" that keeps millions of Americans - many of them in rural areas - from participating in the wireless broadband revolution.
Our network will bring 4G-LTE to rural Americans from coast to coast, and our integrated satellite-terrestrial capabilities will help every corner of the country receive a strong, high-speed wireless broadband signal. We expect that LightSquared will be especially helpful to our nation's agricultural sector, in which wireless technology is especially needed to conduct business, communicate and receive information from remote locations.
For the past decade, we have developed our network based on the fact that America needs more capacity and competition in broadband wireless, and that the technical challenges - notably, the potential for GPS receiver interference - are surmountable by applying ingenuity and energy to develop engineering solutions. We have always believed that LightSquared and GPS can and will co-exist, for the benefit of the country. That benefit will be felt by all Americans in the form of increased choice, greater innovation and lower prices - but perhaps most notably among farmers, who too often are denied its benefits.
The news on jobs has not been good lately. There is a bright spot, though, one that has the potential to created thousands of good, well-paying jobs. As AT&T's Adam Grzybicki, president of AT&T Oregon/Idaho/Montana, explains, it is AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Grzybicki, writing for www.cdapress.com, makes a compelling and clear case that "despite the pervasive headlines, there are some bright spots on the horizon that hold promise to reinvigorate the economy and deliver thousands of jobs for American workers. One of those bright spots is AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA.
As part of the deal, AT&T has pledged to bring 5,000 jobs back to the United States that are currently outsourced to other countries. This is the single largest commitment by an American company to bring jobs back to the U.S. since the economic crisis began in 2008. The company has also committed to no job losses for wireless call center workers at AT&T and T-Mobile on the payroll at the closing of the proposed acquisition. As the nation faces unemployment figures stubbornly stuck at near historic highs, this is much-needed good news.
As part of the transaction, AT&T will invest more than $8 billion to integrate AT&T and T-Mobile networks and to expand its next-generation 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network. That investment will create an estimated 55,000 to 96,000 jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute study commissioned by the Communications Workers of America. In today's job market landscape, those numbers are substantial and encouraging.
Can you imagine having to wait your turn to make a mobile phone call? It may seem like a far-fetched concept, but it's a practical reality in many large urban areas where completing a call during peak times has become a frustrating challenge. After years of double digit growth, the nation's wireless networks simply don't have enough capacity on their towers to support the more than 300 million mobile devices in this country.
This spectrum shortage has been compounded by the popularity of smart phones, which use 24 times more wireless capacity than a regular handset. Wireless tablets, such as an iPad, use five times as much as a smartphone, and netbooks send and receive four times as much data as a tablet. It's easy to see how all those videos, photos and Facebook updates are clogging our nation's networks and leading to dropped calls and no service signals.
The trend towards more network congestion is clear, and that's not good news for consumers who are used to technology advancements providing faster speeds and lower prices. But the nation's wireless networks are not keeping up with the rapid advancement of our mobile devices. Rather than keep up with demand, Verizon and AT&T have begun to ration their customers. Both companies recently stopped offering unlimited wireless plans, meaning that it will cost subscribers more to access the same services.
What we're talking about can be summed up with one word: Jobs. Like Art Pulaski in this op-ed from Capitol Weekly puts so succinctly: "Jobs - the number one issue on the minds of Californians."
Check out Art's op-ed. He puts the argument for the AT&T/T-Mobil merger into terms that make sense for working Californians.
"A Blow to Job Creation" by Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation:
by California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski
There’s a threat to America’s economic future that’s so overlooked it’s gone almost unnoticed amid the endless debate over the debt ceiling and federal spending: massive income inequality.
This Labor Day, the gap that separates the very wealthy from the rest of us is as wide as it was in the Great Depression. Since the economic collapse of 2008, workers have suffered through joblessness, home foreclosures, reduced wages and benefits and a sustained assault on our right to collectively bargain. Did you notice that corporate profits are soaring and Wall Street bankers are receiving fatter bonuses than ever? And we wonder why our middle class is disappearing before our eyes.
When FDR gave workers the right to bargain collectively amidst the Great Depression, he did so because he believed strong unions would create a strong middle class. History proved him right. It’s a fact that when union membership increases, so do wages and benefits for ALL workers, not just union members. Unions raise the bar for everyone – which means even non-union employers offer better wages and benefits in order to stay competitive.
In other words, the corporate assault on unions is dragging down the entire economy.
For more than 100 years, unions have been the primary counter-force to corporate greed and excess, pushing for common-sense labor standards like the minimum wage, weekends, health care and retirement security. But without strong unions, corporations have no counterbalance. It’s not a surprise that as union membership has declined, corporations have grown more and more powerful, and workers’ share of the pie has been reduced to crumbs.
When last we met, it was to discuss a Big Idea that the Obama Administration might apply to get some job creation going, despite a difficult Congress; the Big Idea was to look at the "Buy American" provisions that exist in our laws, regulations, and Executive Orders and see if we could practice a bit of "jobs arbitrage" by not just meeting the "Made in USA" requirements when governments across this country make purchases, but exceeding them.
(As it stands today, pretty much any "good or service" with more than 50% Made in USA content qualifies as a Made in USA purchase, even if 49% of the "good or service" comes from somewhere else).
At the time, I told you that if all went well we could look forward to comments from both Labor and the Administration as to the practicality of the Big Idea, and as it turns out I have comments for you that hit close to that mark - and a bit more besides:
On Saturday I just happened to bump into Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09); in the course of that conversation I told him what we're doing here, and he wanted to offer a few thoughts of his own...and when you put all that together, I think we're going to have a lot to talk about.
We gotta grow some jobs, and that's a fact, and we probably aren't going to be able to do it with big ol' jobs programs funded by the Federal Government, what with today's politics and all, and that means if this Administration wants to stay in the jobs game they're going to have to find some smaller and more creative ways to do it.
They are also going to have to come up with ideas that are pretty much "bulletproof", meaning that they are so hard to object to that even Allen West and Louie Gohmert will not want to be on record saying "no no no!"; alternatively, solutions that work around the legislative process entirely could represent the other form of "bulletproof-ery".
Well, I have one of those "maybe bulletproof" ideas for you today, and it has to do with how "Made in USA" the things are that our Government buys.
More than a thousand RNs and other activists marched on Wall Street Wednesday, chanting "Wall Street got bailed out! We got sold out!"
They stood on the steps of Federal Hall across from the New York Stock Exchange and held signs - "Take it Back! Tax Wall Street" and "Heal America! Tax Wall Street" - so crowds of curious passersby got the message.
Only in California. That’s what I was thinking this week as I stood in front of Sen. Tom Harman’s office in Costa Mesa with fellow surfers, clergy leaders, parents, kids and others concerned that budget cuts are going to decimate everything we love about our state. To be sure, we’re not your typical coalition. We’re not usually political. But every one of us feels threatened by extreme budget cuts.
I’ve been surfing in Orange County most of my life. These beaches and parks are my second home. They’re public treasures that must be protected and managed to ensure they are open to all our children and grandchildren, not turned over to the highest bidder. We’ve got to stop the extreme cuts, which is why we came together to ask Sen. Harman to be the leader who will stand up for our kids.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen firsthand the impact of budget cuts on our daily lives. There’s been $18 billion in cuts already made to K-12 education over the last three years. This year, schools have an average $1000 less to educate each student than they did in 2008. 19,000 teachers have already received pink slips and may not return to classrooms this fall.
One-quarter of California’s state parks are already scheduled for shut down, with the remaining parks, including Orange County’s beaches, at risk in an all-cuts budget scenario.
At some point, elected officials have to say enough is enough. More cuts are going to deplete this great state of all that makes it great. The diverse group that gathered at Harman’s office yesterday called on the Senator to support maintaining existing revenues in order to stop the cuts. If he chooses instead to go along with the all-cuts budget advocated by extremists, Orange County schools would lose another $368 million next year. More state parks could face closure across the state. That’s not a California I want to see.
Debbie Schroeder is a local elementary school principal. She knows all too well what more cuts would mean to our kids’ futures.
Our children didn’t create California’s budget mess, and they shouldn’t have to pay for it with their future. Class sizes are growing and support for our kids outside the classroom is diminished. We’ve got to stop the extreme cuts, and we’re here to ask Sen. Tom Harman to be the leader who will stand up for our kids.
The budget isn’t a political issue. It’s a moral one. Now’s the time we all have to come together to stand up for California.
Christian Parra, pastor of Harbor Christian Fellowship in Costa Mesa:
We are here to pray for Sen. Tom Harman to be the moral leader California needs to protect our children’s future. A moral leader remembers that it is our calling to protect the earth we were given for our children, and to protect and educate our children – but these imperatives will be made impossible if Senator Harman stands by while another $10 billion in cuts are made to schools, children’s healthcare, and protection of our natural resources.
These members of the Orange County Congregation Community Organization and Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice -- Orange County, are some of the many Californians, including educators, parents, law enforcement officials, farmers and surfers who have put aside their differences to support maintaining existing revenues in order to protect schools, seniors, environmental resources and public safety from more cuts. For more information, go to www.standupforca.org
Doroteo Jimenez, a Lodi farm worker, remains outraged over the death of his niece Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, a 17-year-old farm laborer.
When Maria Isavel fainted from heat exhaustion on a farm east of Stockton on May 14, 2008, "no one made any effort to help her," least of all her supervisors, who failed to dial 911, Jimenez said this week.
The delay in getting her to a hospital led to her death two days later, he said.
This May 16, the third anniversary of Maria Isavel's tragic passing, the Assembly will vote on SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act. Jimenez will join hundreds of other farm workers at the Capitol, to advocate for the bill, amid a sea of colorful United Farm Worker signs.
Jimenez has picked crops for more than 20 years, but never at a union farm.
Yet he supports SB 104, stating, "I hope the governor signs this new law...so that farm workers will take advantage of it ..."
Previously approved by the Senate, SB 104 would allow farm laborers to select unions through traditional polling place elections in the workplace, or through a new procedure away from the fields. The new process, involving confidential state-issued ballots, would help workers avoid intimidation from anti-union bosses.
Seems that Darrell Issa's been getting restless holding hearings on Presidential libraries and Freedom of Information Act requests, ducking accusations that he's used almost a million taxpayer dollars to subsidize his personal investment portfolio, and demanding that the Obama Administration's unprecedented efforts to improve government transparency be slashed to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires.
So he's decided to thrust himself into the national spotlight this morning. He'll be bringing controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to DC to testify before the Oversight Committee today about what Issa absurdly describes as "over-compensation of public employees." While "over-compensation" is in the eye of the beholder, reality tells us that public employee costs have fallen and compensation has tracked with the growth rate of the economy. What Issa's stunt does suggest is that after a career of trying to undermine unions and workers at every opportunity, the richest person in the House of Representatives is rapidly devolving from a legitimate watchdog into simply a rich corporatist backed by the Koch Brothers, defense contractors and telecom companies who now has subpoena power to do their dirty work in DC.
While Issa is giving Scott Walker a national soapbox for his anti-worker crusade, he'll be continuing a long history of anti-union activity just down the hall. Last week Issa held unprecedented hearings on the labor negotiations at the Postal Service that's poised to save $3.8 billion, investigating the internal machinations of a labor union in the same style as Joseph McCarthy's union-busting escapades in the 1950s.
And specifically on Scott Walker's pet project of breaking public sector unions, Issa has been echoing the cry all year. In January he published a long editorial blasting public employees for earning a middle-class wage, hitting all the now-familiar Walker high points. He led with a dubious, Glenn Beck-style history lesson, and then went on to launch co-sponsorship of a bill that would hit the pensions of public employees across the country that were unlucky enough to rely on the stock market before it collapsed late in George Bush's term. Now facing gigantic funding shortfalls because of the funding collapse at the hands of the Wall Street investment barons that Issa is desperately trying to protect, Issa's proposed bill would essentially lock in the shortfalls faced by public employees by cutting off access to loans or other federal assistance that might help bridge the gap.
This is hardly out of the blue. In 2009, Issa was out early blasting the Employee Free Choice Act that would have made it easier for workers to organize for basic rights, and in the same vein, made the rounds blasting SEIU for a wide range of reasons. It ran the gamut from single-handedly destroying the California budget, secretly controlling the Obama Administration, having the "California And US Governments By The You Know What," and openly admitting that the public sector is the last front on blocking unions:
Across the state right now, Californians are coming together to fight the attacks on workers, teachers, and labor. You can find information at the weR1 website.
I'm tweeting updates from the SF event, you can find those here.
One hundred years ago today, the garment workers of New York were galvanized into action by the gruesome and unnecessary deaths of 146 workers, mostly immigrant women, at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Many of the workers burned to death because doors were locked, while scores of others died trying to escape by leaping from the 8th, 9th and 10th floors. After the funerals, tens of thousands of working New Yorkers marched, and workers demanded change and a voice in the workplace.
Today, workers in America, especially immigrant workers, find ourselves again in need of a voice. Unionization rates are 6.9% in the private sector; disparities in wealth are greater than at any time since 1928, and corporate America has consolidated its capital and its political power.
The American Dream of the mid-20th Century was built on good jobs - on union jobs. But here in the 21st Century, more and more working people are slipping into poverty. The working poor are everywhere we turn, and Latino workers make up 59% of the working poor in California. Nearly 50% of the foreclosures in California hit hard-working Latino familiesand more than 1 in 4 of the Latino children in California are living in poverty, most of them in working families.
For the past couple months I have been talking a lot about "taking it back", and I have two great chances for you to do just that over the next two days.
One of them involves actions that are taking place all over the USA-but the other is a very special and particular event which will be taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia on Wednesday.
This'll be a short story...but by the time we're done, you'll have stuff to do this week.
News is suddenly moving so fast that it's becoming hard for me to keep up; that's why we're not finishing the story today that we just began Tuesday. You know, the one about Titan Cement suing two North Carolina residents who appear to be doing nothing more than speaking the truth.
Unfortunately, other important news has forced itself to the front of the line, and it's going to demand that we break schedule, whether we like it or not.
That's why today we're going to be talking about Wisconsin, and how workers there are fighting back against the State's Republican legislators and Governor, who seem to have gone out of their way this past three weeks to govern without the consent of the governed.
It's kind of chilly today in Wisconsin...but I can assure you, things are heating up fast-and it ain't because of spring.
Only in California. That’s what I was thinking this week as I stood in front of Sen. Tom Harman’s office in Costa Mesa with fellow surfers, clergy leaders, parents, kids and others concerned that budget cuts are going to decimate everything we love about our state. To be sure, we’re not your typical coalition. We’re not usually political. But every one of us feels threatened by extreme budget cuts. 
So he's decided to thrust himself into the national spotlight this morning. He'll be bringing controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to DC to testify before the Oversight Committee today about what Issa