From the open publishing newswire:
Jobs with Justice National Call To Action
Stop Corporate Greed! Tell Congress: Bailout Main Street, Not Wall Street!
Rally at the Federal Building, SW 3rd and Madison
TODAY! Oct. 1st, 5:00pm

From the open publishing newswire: The Oregon Minuteman were out in force on Monday, September 22, 2008, protesting the Portland Day Laborer Worker Center located on MLK Jr. Blvd and NE Everett. One of those protesting the Labor Center site said they had been there since 6:00 in the morning.





There were several people seeking employment on the site, both near the trailer and on the street, so I suspected that the dual protests might have taken its toll on their efforts to gain employment.
On inquiring about this possibility I was told that Monday's are usually slow and that the presence of the Minuteman may not be having much of an effect.

I was hoping to get some interviews with both sides, the Minutemen as well as those showing up to counter protest their presence at the site, but the Protesters refused to comment on camera.

Those who where there protesting the presence of the Minutemen were more forthcoming. One stated that he was there "to support the Day Laborers Center and the day laborers. I think that they are a real contribution to the Portland Community, and supporting day laborers is a way to support all American workers. It's not against American workers to have day laborer centers, it's for them; if we don't support the people at the very bottom of the work chain, then the top of the work chain isn't going to get any better either."

A few minutes earlier I heard one of the Minutemen stating that if these folks were truly looking for work they should be looking through more conventional, acceptable channels, denigrating the existence of these Day Laborer Centers. I asked one of the counter protesters his response to that point and he stated that "having a center is just a way of protecting both the employers and the employees. If they don't have a central place then people are going to take advantage of them much more. They have to have a place where they can come out of the rain, have a place to get work in a decent way. Standing on a street corner asking for work is not a dignified way to get work. We need to support the dignity of American workers, and the Day Laborer Center is doing that."

From the open publishing newswire: I went to the labor day picnic at Oaks Park. Frankly, the free food and rides are about all I get from my union anymore. My wages have failed to keep up with inflation, I work longer hours than I think anyone should, and my health benefits have eroded, yet again. But I get this one bone, year after year. The union picnic. So I went. And I could not help but notice a few things... First, I have to say, it was a strange epiphany to look around and realize, while listening to the lyrics of "Which Side Are You On" by the band General Strike, that almost everyone there was a public employee. I saw almost no representation from the manufacturing or trade jobs, for example. Is that because so very few workers outside of the public sphere are represented by a union? There's some food for thought we should be chewing on along with our free potato salad.

I have to really, seriously question why my union, of all things, would allow Bradwood Landing to hold their PR stunt at MY LABOR DAY PICNIC. Is nothing sacred? Bradwood Landing is NOT EVEN A UNION SHOP! The best they can claim, as they do on their website, is that they "plan" to hire union construction workers to build the unwanted facility. Sorry, that's not union enough. Do you think, for one moment, that once the plant is built, the workers who labor there will be allowed to unionize? Think again. I can't imagine a more stark illustration of how far unions have come from representing the interests of working people, to representing the status quo. This was really despicable.

If you care about keeping LNGs off your river, by the way, you should probably realize that the company that wants to force it on us has obviously launched a very far-reaching PR campaign. It was bad enough to be hearing their ads on NPR, but finding them salaciously doling out free ice cream in exchange for good will and signatures at a UNION PICNIC was beyond words. So much for solidarity.

From the open publishing newswire: On Monday July 28th from 3p to 6p (media arriving at 5p....most important time to be there....) We are holding an informational picket in front of Emanuel Hospital on Vancouver Ave. THIS IS NOT A STRIKE

Legacy continues to ask most Emanuel Members of Local SEIU 49 to accept a 1% cost of living raise for 2008--that's 2% less than members at Good Samaritan are receiving this year. We need fair compensation and benefits to recruit and retain good staff so we can provide consistent, quality patient care. We have been bargaining for months and our contract ended June 30th. Legacy Admin. refuses to offer anything better than the 1% raise. April Whitworth sent out an email to over 50 Dr.s, and also to ALL EMANUEL USERS stating she "has been working with the State Appointed Mediator and the SEIU" on settling the new contract. there was almost no movement on our most important issues, and especially the insulting 1% raise.

From the open publishing newswire: Utah Phillips, a seminal figure in American folk music who performed extensively and tirelessly for audiences on two continents for 38 years, died Friday of congestive heart failure in Nevada City, California a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains where he lived for the last 21 years with his wife, Joanna Robinson, a freelance editor. Born Bruce Duncan Phillips on May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, he was the son of labor organizers. Whether through this early influence or an early life that was not always tranquil or easy, by his twenties Phillips demonstrated a lifelong concern with the living conditions of working people.

He was a proud member of the Industrial Workers of the World, popularly known as "the Wobblies," an organizational artifact of early twentieth-century labor struggles that has seen renewed interest and growth in membership in the last decade, not in small part due to his efforts to popularize it.

utahphillips.org | utahphillips.org/utah.html | utahphillips.blogspot.com | Mooseturd Pie, the signature Utah story

Utah Phillips has left the stage | Utah Phillips Was a Legend (David Rovics) | Indybay Coverage

From the open publishing newswire: [May 1, 2008] Minutes ago, I spoke with Clarence Thomas of the ILWU executive board. "The rank and file action against the war is indeed happening right now", he said. And today the workers will write history.

In an attempt to head this off last night the PMA went to court, "Employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), will not agree to it, and threatened union leaders with court action under Taft-Hartley if they don't call it all off."

but the judge refused to take any action, until there is concrete action by the union in violation of their contract. This is a rank and file action by union members who are united by their opposition to the war. They disagree with the decision of the arbitrator who has dis-allowed the choice of May Day, by the ILWU, as a "day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. A "day for union business" is allowed by their contract. Their original intent was to use this day for their official protest, but official or not, the protest is on. Protests in the Bay Area began early today, led by Direct Action to Stop the War. DASW organized the famous march on Washington that gathered 500,000 people from groups across the nation. Today, they will close down the war effort in San Fransisco. Their effort to shut down the Union Pacific Rail lines began at sunrise this morning. Indybay reported:

From the open publishing newswire: On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast are to be shut down by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a historic event of international significance: labor action against imperialist war by a major American union. The strategically placed port workers in the ILWU can bring commerce with Asia to a grinding halt, and they're about to demonstrate it. The maritime employers are already screaming, and you can bet it's got the attention of the warmongers in Washington. All labor should take up the challenge this poses: For workers strikes against the war! M

eanwhile, immigrants' rights groups are once again mobilizing on May Day. And on April 30 and May 1, the independent truckers who move cargo to and from the docks may play an important role in a shutdown. The imperialist war on Afghanistan and Iraq is also a war on immigrants, minorities, working people and democratic rights "at home." We need to defeat this attack here and abroad, in opposition to both the capitalist war parties. The "antiwar movement," whose aim has always been to pressure the Democrats, is at a dead end. What's needed is working-class action independent of the bosses. What that takes is a fundamental break from the Democratic Party and the pro-capitalist politics that infuse the labor bureaucracy.

MayDay Picnic Noon-4pm | Mayday Immigrants Rights Demo 3 - 4 pm | Mayday GUELAGUETZA! 6-10pm | Red & Black mayday celebration starting at 7pm

From the open publishing newswire: The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor work stoppage against the war in Iraq. The work stoppage, [which was] being organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), will seek to shutdown all west coast ports during the day on May 1st 2008. The Vermont AFL-CIO is the first state labor federation to publicly back the Longshoremen; other state federations are expected to follow.

The resolution, among other things, calls the war in Iraq "immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary", states that the vast majority of working Vermonters oppose the war, and contends that the war will only be brought to an end by "the direct actions of working people." Many other Vermont labor unions and organizations, including the Vermont Workers' Center, have also made official statements condemning the war.

"Workers in Vermont and all across this nation are against this war. We have already demanded that the government end it, but they have consistently failed to heed our words. Therefore working people are beginning to take concrete steps to make our resistance known. If the war does not immediately end we, the unions and working people of Vermont, will also be compelled to take appropriate action," said David Van Deusen, District Vice President of the AFL-CIO.

Related: ILWU Antiwar Shutdown of West Coast Ports on May Day is Blocked
Airline Workers to lead General Strike?

From the open publishing newswire: The ILWU's planned antiwar West Coast work stoppage on international workers' rights day would have been one of the first such actions of its kind by a major American union since the Iraq war began. Plans for an unprecedented display of labor muscle on May 1 in support of the peace movement have been blocked for now, though it remains anybody's guess what might actually happen.

An estimated 25,000 longshore workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) were planning to take part in a May Day antiwar shutdown of all West Coast ports, including the ports of Portland and Vancouver. The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), charged with negotiating and administering maritime labor agreements with the ILWU, however, has nixed those dayshift May Day stop-work sessions.

maushard.net

comment: In summer of '01, Carlo Giulini was murdered in Genoa by carabinieri at G-8 Summit, & many many protesters were beaten half to death. Shortly after, an Italian ship docked at Port of Portland, & some of us set up a picket line outside the gates, & ILWU honored our line!

From the open publishing newswire: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) - an organization of low-wage workers based in Immokalee, Florida - has launched a national petition campaign to demand that Burger King and other food industry leaders work with the CIW to improve the wages & working conditions of the workers who pick their tomatoes, and join with the CIW in an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery & human rights abuses from Florida's fields.

Farmworkers are among the poorest workers in the United States, and have very few labor protections. Most workers earn sub-poverty wages and do not have the legal rights to overtime pay, to organize, or to bargain collectively. in the most extreme conditions, workers are forced to work under conditions of modern-day slavery, receiving little or no pay through violence & threats of violence.

The petition not only calls on Burger King & other food industry leaders to join McDonald's & Yum Brands (parent company of Taco Bell) in addressing human rights abuses in the fields where their tomatoes are picked, but will serve as notice that the petitioners are "prepared to stop patronizing Burger King now, and other food industry leaders in the future, should they fail to do so."

To read & sign the petition, visit fairfoodnation.org/petition

Coalition of Immokalee Workers www.ciw-online.org

From the open publishing newswire: Friday March 28, 2008, the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters staged a picket line at the site of the Mississippi Avenue Lofts project (Skidmore and Mississippi Ave), demanding that contractor Gray Purcell pay area standard wages and offer area standard benefits.

The union picketers showed up at 6:30 am in the rainy and snowy morning, but the situation got heated when a private security guard for the condo-project used the metal fence to to push against the picketers, threatened to mace them, then called the police, reporting a "riot." [ Read More ]

From the open publishing newswire: Square dancing with a cause!!!

IWW Restaurant Workers Fund-raiser Square Dance (and Bake Sale!)
[Saturday] March 22nd Liberty Hall (311 N. Ivy) 6:30-10pm

From the open publishing newswire: We are a group of activist union trades workers who want to see more cross-trade solidarity here in Portland.

We are hoping to organize building trades workers from the Portland metro area to travel to the Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, MI on April 11-13, 2008. We are also planning three sessions at the conference on issues in the building trades: diversity in the trades, building cross-trade solidarity, and the building trades unions and immigrant workers.

FUNDRAISER...

• WHEN.. This Saturday the 23rd 7:00pm to 11pm
• Where... Musicians union hall 325 NE 20th, Portland OR..... This is on NE 20th between Sandy and Burnside..
• What... Keynote speaker Tom Leedham, Music by General Strike & Guest DJ. Raffle and silent auction.. Beer + Wine + Food = A rip-Roaring TROUBLEMAKING TIME.
• $5 Donation gets you a pint of the good stuff and a raffle ticket.

Hope to see you there!
In Solidarity! ,p> http://www.labornotes.org/