Union-Building for the Long Haul – The Tale of Boston Fine Art Museum Security Guards
By Kurt Stand
“I often used to look at the union work as something like walking on the tightrope backwards while juggling without a net … The wire must be made of grassroots. The moment the union high wire artist feels those grassroots under foot, he or she knows they are safe. No matter how high it might seem that they are, in reality, their feet are on the ground. Conversely, if the wire is otherwise and the union artist fails to feel those good old grassroots under foot, they know (or should know) they are ready for a fall, and a mighty big one.” Michael Raysson (pp 155-156)
In those words, Michael Raysson encapsulates the reason security guards at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts were successful not only in organizing a union but also in keeping it alive. His book, The Art of Organizing: The Boston Museum of Fine Arts Union Drive (Hard Ball Press, 2020) tells the story of how the union was able to survive and thrive – and continues to thrive today – even with a turnover in the workforce, turnover in the core group of active members all the while facing the unending hostility of management with its single-minded focus on the bottom line. A management, needless to say, that would have liked nothing better than to eliminate the union altogether. What gives Raysson’s telling of this story added meaning is that he provides a level of personal detail too often lacking in accounts of union building. This isn’t the story of glorious victories or tragic defeats, rather it is the story of everyday integrity and decency, the true bedrocks of unionism.
Although being a security guard was a low-paying job, the job itself was low-stress. Part-time workers were able to follow other pursuits, full-time workers were able to make ends meet through plentiful overtime. Then in 1988, six months after Rayson began working at the museum, management changed tune – the friendly workplace atmosphere ended, strict rules with no purpose other than harassment were implemented, job security and overtime were threatened. It was in response to that shifting reality that Raysson and a few of the other guards began thinking they might need a union.
Implementing that decision required overcoming a major initial hurdle – none of the guards had any union experience and were unsure of what to do and where to go. The labor movement doesn’t have walk-in centers in shopping malls and housing developments offering advice to those who want to start up an organization – so Raysson and his co-workers had to do their own exploring. They found encouraging help from (the then still new) “Jobs with Justice” and from the long-established, still militant United Electrical Workers. However, in their research they discovered an unanticipated problem: the Taft Hartley Act does not allow guards to be in the same union as non-guards – thus affiliation with the AFL-CIO or even independent unions with members in other sectors was prohibited.
They then sought out a union for guards which did provide help with their initial organizing drive. After they won recognition and negotiated their first contract, they discovered that the union they joined wasn’t interested in truly representing them. Disaffiliation came next, after which they created a new independent union, winning recognition all over again and bargaining a contract worthy of the time and commitment already spent. Management attempted to defeat the union at that early stage by withholding dues check-off during the transition to becoming an independent union, but that step backfired – collecting dues member by member – though time consuming, laid the basis for a strong relation between stewards and officers with the entire workforce, in consequence making the union all the stronger going forward.
Most books might end there, but Raysson takes it a step further by giving a picture of subsequent negotiations which provides insight into nature of labor-management relations as a whole. And because he and his fellow unionists began negotiations as complete novices, his advice about how to set demands; resolve internal union differences around when to stand firm, when to compromise; about how to assess the relative strength/weakness across the table, is particularly valuable. The hostile atmosphere they faced while learning is revealed by the simple fact that each negotiation in which the union was successful in gaining improvements resulted in management’s chief negotiator being fired (the one exception lasted two rounds before being terminated). Clearly, the intent of the Museum’s Board was to keep up pressure. The union was small, without full-time officers, with a dispersed workforce as guards typically worked in separate galleries or areas. And they faced off against a behemoth like the Museum Board whose members came from Boston’s rich and powerful elite – yet the union was able to prevail. The reason was reliance on those grassroots, Raysson mentioned, nourished by their approach from the moment they set out to form an independent union:
“It was our job, as I saw it, to sell the guards on themselves, and ‘ourselves all together’ were the superior force and the better force … We had to convince our members that the problem was not a Union, but the type of Union, and that a new independent union was in our best interests and what we really needed.” (p. 56)
At the heart of the union they created were “communicating stewards,” to make certain that every worker (those who joined the union, those who didn’t) were spoken to and were heard. That didn’t mean that there were no internal issues, personal disputes, seemingly irresolvable differences of opinion, but ultimately trust and a need to work together enabled resolutions even when none had seemed possible. Potentially more damaging, a black-white divide almost undermined the union at its beginning. That was overcome by honesty, by looking at the world through the eyes of another – and by the intervention of one worker who stepped up, helped create a bridge and mutual understanding. That worker wasn’t active in the union for any length of time, but he stepped in at a critical time, providing help for the better when most needed. Raysson mentions others who did the same – people whose “small” contributions were as important as the large contributions of members who were more deeply active in the union. That was important with such a diverse work force, multi-racial, multinational, with political views of members ranging from right to left – for it was the multiple points of views and perspectives, the outlook of patient compromisers and push-the-envelope militants that together created a vibrant, living organization rooted in solidarity.
The workers didn’t do this alone – they had help from consultants and labor lawyers, from community members and local politicians, from other unions and activists; yet it was help, nothing more – members of the union controlled their own agenda, their own organization, which is what gave it the strength to survive.
Museum security guards are considered low skilled and easily replaceable, exhibit curators are highly educated, highly skilled. – yet the same management crackdown that caused guards to create a union was also directed at those curators – facing management alone, many were fired, others found their working conditions downgraded. There is perhaps no better explanation of the power of collective action, of unionism then that – and the story behind that explanation all the more reason to read Raysson’s reminiscence.
An Aside that is Central to All
My observation of the Museum after the corporate takeover was that for all intents and purposes, it was run like a small dictatorship or a monarchy. If you went along with the program, I suppose it was a ‘nice’ dictatorship. If you didn’t … you were out of there by the seat of your pants. And just forget freedom of speech.” (p. 29)
When growing up I used to enjoy going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York – it was free, spacious; walking through the halls and galleries, I was able to lose myself in various pieces of art and from there let my mind wander. I was not and never have been an art student, and though I respect knowledge, what mattered to me most when young was seeing works new to me (even if venerable) to challenge my eyes, ease my thoughts, allow space for my own reflections. The experience was always enhanced by the sense of sharing a yearning for quiet with other patrons, whether those more visual, more knowledgeable than myself, or those similarly there just to get away to a place filled with quiet and beauty apart from the hustle and bustle around us.
Going to museums today is a vastly different experience – they thrive on crowds, on special exhibits designed to attract visitors in ever greater numbers. Along with that are high admission costs, fancy gift shops and pricey places to eat. There are exceptions of course, and even in filled to the brim rooms, the art can be affecting, meaningful. Although the change was gradual, it has been real and noticeable. I never fully understood what that was all about until reading Raysson’s book, for he describes the takeover of museum boards by hedge fund managers and corporate executives, pushing aside the old elites that had run museums in ages past. Those elites were themselves guilty of much, museums had much to answer for by way of theft and a host of other sins. Nonetheless, the institutions themselves were designed to be a step removed from the world of commerce – unlike today’s neoliberal world, where nothing is given immunity to the almighty dollar. And part of the worship of the dollar was expressed in the management attack on the working conditions of those security guards at the bottom of the museum employment ladder. That is not the primary value of this short book, yet it is an important part of the story told and a reminder that when we look at the world through the eyes of workers at the “bottom” of an industry, it often reveals hidden truths the institution would rather conceal.
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Dear Mr Albence and Mr Benner, (Deputy Directors of ICE)
By Myrna Santiago
In response to the migrant crisis at the US – Mexico border, faculty at Saint Mary’s College of California organized a Borderlands project that entailed spending one week studying the problem first-hand. Two cohorts traveled through the Central Valley, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tijuana in July of 2018 and 2019 on a fact-finding mission. The professors, from multiple disciplines, met with a wide variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations, including Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United Farm Workers, growers’ associations, refugee centers, deported U.S. armed forces veterans, human trafficking groups, faith-based organizations and others, to gain an understanding of the issues that drive thousands of men, women, and children to leave their countries and attempt to cross over al otro lado, to the United States. Upon their return to campus, the faculty have continued to meet and to devise ways to incorporate their new knowledge into their curriculum and their lives. The letter below is part of their efforts to bring attention to the policies the U.S. government has implemented through ICE and how they are putting at risk the lives of thousands of people. Dr. Myrna Santiago, History Department, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies
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May 15, 2020
Matthew T. Albence,
Derek N. Benner,
Deputy Directors,
ICE
Dear Mr Albence and Mr Benner,
We, the undersigned faculty of Saint Mary’s College of California* who have participated in a Borderlands project designed to understand the issues surrounding immigration from Latin America to the United States, protest in the strongest terms possible the inhumane conditions that migrants and refugees are being subjected to in ICE detention camps. As we speak, more and more children, women, and men detained in the prisons you are responsible for are being infected with the deadly coronavirus and at least one person, Carlos Escobar Mejia, has died from it. None of those thousands of unfortunate souls, already traumatized by the violence, misery, or repression they faced in their own countries and the incarceration experience itself, are provided with any meaningful medical services by the agency that you direct.
The treatment those populations under your responsibility are subjected to is in violation of the most fundamental human rights recognized by international law: the right to be free from torture, the right to bodily integrity, the right to asylum, and ultimately the right to life. It is utterly shameful that your office has done little to nothing to remedy the situation, to release those you are holding pending a fair hearing, and to protect the communities where your incarceration centers are located.
It is obvious that the imprisoned are not the only ones exposed to the virus. Every ICE agent, subcontracted or not, is also at risk of infection. Every ICE employee, subcontracted or not, who goes home at night after being in close contact with migrants and refugees who are already suffering from COVID-19 is taking the risk of contagion to their families and communities after their shifts are over. Thus, the mistreatment your agency inflicts upon migrants and refugees places entire regions at risk.
It is the responsibility of ICE, and you personally as the acting director, to put an end to this situation and to protect the health and lives of the thousands of children, women, and men whom your agency has imprisoned. It is way overdue. A shameful and disgraceful policy has now turned into a death sentence for thousands of innocents. Do the right thing. Provide the necessary medical care for all people incarcerated in your prisons, subcontracted or not. Arrange for fair hearings for all. Release all people ICE is holding until their cases are resolved. Nothing less will do in this emergency.
Sincerely,
Dr. Myrna Santiago, History Department, Director, Women’s and Gender Studies
Dr. Molly Metherd, English Department
Dr. Maria Luisa Ruiz, World Languages and Cultures Department
Dr. Caroline Burns, School of Economics and Business Administration
Dr. Michael Barram, Theology and Religious Studies
Dr. John Ely, Sociology Department
Dr. Zahra Ahmed, Politics Department
Dr. Jennifer Heung, Anthropology Department
Dr. Alicia Rusoja, Justice, Leadership, and Community Program
Dr. Rebecca Anguiano, Counseling Department, School of Education
Yolanda Franco, M.A., Organizational Leadership, Saint Mary’s College Alumna
Karin L. McClelland, M.A., Mission and Ministry Center
*The views expressed in this letter are those of the undersigned. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Saint Mary’s College of California, which is mentioned for identification purposes only.
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The changing response to Covid 19: are the UK and the US moving in a similar trajectory?
By Anthony Goodman and Sue Goodman
On the 8th May, we celebrated, although remotely for many, the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) day. The COVID 19 outbreak is the greatest world-wide emergency since World War 2, and Boris Johnson, Prime Minister has been likened to Churchill in the right-wing press but an out of his depth appeaser in the smaller more left-wing press.
This picture of a rainbow kite flying freely on a breezy day is taking place in a sky free of aircraft and with roads having practically no traffic. It is flying in East London in an area called Wanstead Flats. This is common land owned by the City of London and it is being heavily used by the public during the period when we are allowed to walk for an hour to get exercise whilst staying two metres apart from others. It gives a sense of normality in an increasingly abnormal world.
With British weather it is not uncommon for there to be a rainbow over the Flats. The rainbow has morphed in recent weeks from a symbol of gay pride to include children’s positive image of support for our NHS. All is not sweetness and light, television reporters who are from black and minority ethnicity have been abused and other essential workers spat at and attacked. This is rare but regularly reported.
We have a degree of paranoia with anxiety about whether 5G masts have contributed to the spread of the virus. On the wall of the school sports changing rooms on the Flats an interesting exchange has taken place. It started with STOP 5G, then PARANOIA was added below, followed by an exchange over vaccines. SAVE OUR CHILDREN. Amen to that!
We have a new national hero, in the shape of a centenarian ex-soldier who has inadvertently raised £30 million for the NHS by walking around his garden 100 times to represent his hundredth birthday. His initial aim was to raise £1000. A marvellous modest man, they promoted him from Captain to Colonel.
We here may not have a Trump, with 50 States, each with their own local government, but we do have a Boris who is presently trying to create a path out of our COVID 19 lockdown. In the process, Johnson is busy creating a divide between the four nations which make up the UK. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have their own elected devolved parliaments, BUT Westminster is overall the government for the whole of the UK. The First Minister of Scotland was incandescent when Johnson declared that the mantra of ‘Stay at Home’ could be changed to the vague ‘Stay Alert’, stating that this could have catastrophic consequences for Scotland. Johnson pondered whether it would “soon be the time” to impose quarantine on people coming into the UK, begging the question if this was needed, why had it not been imposed at the outset?
“Did he have a carefully, thought through plan? Had this been discussed with anyone with an ounce of logic?”
Johnson is trying to walk the narrow path between the “lock down” for people to stay at home and the right-wing press who want people back at work, whether it is safe or not. Last night, Sunday 10th May, Boris Johnson made a statement to the entire nation. One of the prime suggestions that he made was that those who could not work at home, could go back to work starting the very next day. He had not thought to consult employers about the feasibility of this nor transport managers. Instead, workers were to avoid public transport as far as possible, suggesting that walking, cycling, driving would be an alternative wherever possible.
Schools may be reopened, for a small number of children. Where will safe distancing fit in, who will staff the schools? What about all the other children still at home? Will parents feel that their children will be safe from COVID 19 in such settings? The National Association of Head Teachers said that the planned date of 1 June was not feasible.
Did he have a carefully, thought through plan? Had this been discussed with anyone with an ounce of logic? So many questions arise, not only in parliament, but in many homes around the country. If large numbers of workers were supposed to return to work, did the workplaces know of these plans, and had they had opportunities to prepare their changes in work practices? How were they to travel if the Prime Minister’s suggestions were not possible. What about safe distancing on public transport, especially in towns and cities where the capacity for passengers is about one fifth of the normal available to them? Who looks after the children of these workers, as schools are not open? Many more questions than answers.
Another point made was that people are to be allowed to drive anywhere in England to get exercise. The devolved governments have not made for such a change and will not allow English people across their borders without good reason. There have been examples of English people driving into Wales to go to seaside resorts who have been fined and sent back immediately. Public facilities, such as cafes and pubs are unlikely to be opened for many weeks. Even public toilets will be unavailable.
One of the better policies put forward by the government was to provide 80% funding of wages of those unable to work and some employers have made up the other 20%. This will continue, with some changes until October when it will allow employees to start back on a part-time basis. Known as being furloughed, the goodwill has been tempered by government talk of workers becoming “addicted to the scheme”, as if it had been their choice. A minister talked of needing to wean workers off and the contempt for the workers leached out.
There are serious and deeply worrying aspects that should be the subject of a formal public enquiry. The scandal of the level of deaths in care homes, nearly 10,000 has been shocking. Many are elderly and highly vulnerable but COVID 19 has also killed those with mental health and physical disabilities. Staff in these places have been seriously failed by the lack of personal protective equipment that they needed. The lack of this equipment has been highlighted too in the national health service.
According to the Guardian newspaper, quoting figures from the Office for National Statistics, men in low-paid manual jobs are four times more likely to die from the virus than men in professional occupations. Black people are more than four times more likely to die from COVID 19 than white people. Some of this can be accounted for as the result of economic disadvantage, but not all. This needs to be researched. As this is being written, there has been the tragic case disclosed of a black woman who was working at Victoria Station who was spat at, on the day of the lock down, by a man who said that he had COVID19. She has just died. She had underlying health problems but why was she working out on the concourse?
The government made great score of building up daily testing for the COVID19 to 100,000 per day. This was theoretically achieved once when 40,000 were posted out to individuals on one day to add to other tests. Last week the government admitted that 50,000 tests were sent to the US as there had been ‘operational issues’ in the UK. The advanced warning the UK had from the experience in other European countries was squandered. Will the country be able to move on to a ‘track and trace’ strategy? Time will tell.
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Nursing home for COVID-19 patients to be run by firm with history of safety violations and lawsuits
By Ed Williams and Rachel Mabe
As cases of COVID-19 mount in New Mexico’s nursing homes, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has announced that the state will partner with Genesis Healthcare, a for-profit chain that has been denounced by the U.S. Department of Justice as an “unscrupulous provider” that routinely provides “grossly substandard nursing care.”
The plan, announced April 10, calls for elderly nursing home residents who test positive for the virus to be transferred to Canyon Transitional Rehabilitation Center, a 73-bed Genesis-owned facility in Albuquerque with a history of sometimes life-threatening health and safety violations.
In the last four years and as recently as this January, inspectors uncovered a pattern of deficiencies so severe that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) assigned Canyon a one-star health rating — the lowest possible score. The facility has also been cited for a complete lack of infection control, massive staff shortages and staff incompetence. Canyon has been named as a defendant in at least 13 lawsuits in state court, alleging negligence, fraud and wrongful death.
Gov. Lujan Grisham did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
The decision to place coronavirus-positive nursing home patients at Canyon — where they will be cared for by Genesis employees — has been lauded by the secretaries of the Aging and Long-Term Services Department and of the Department of Health, who said the move will protect nursing home residents and staff who have not yet been exposed and provide the “treatment and quality of care necessary to give them the best possible opportunity to recover and rehabilitate from COVID-19 infection.” In an email to Searchlight, DOH said that the facility is now in compliance with all regulations.
But the plan has been met with dismay from attorneys, families and elder care experts, who say the facility is woefully unprepared to meet the needs of the state’s most vulnerable patients, even as the federal government scales back nursing home inspections.
“It’s a disaster,” said Charlene Harrington, a professor at University of California San Francisco who researches the business practices of Genesis and other for-profit nursing home chains. “They’re going to get away with bloody murder because they’re going to get top dollar for these patients and with no oversight.”
The state is currently in negotiations to pay the all-COVID nursing home a rate of $600 per patient per day. That money would likely be in addition to high-tier reimbursements from Medicare.
“This is a big business opportunity” for for-profit chains, Harrington said.
Canyon is one of 25 for-profit nursing homes in New Mexico owned by Genesis, a Pennsylvania-based chain that has come under increasing scrutiny by federal investigators in recent years. In 2017, the Department of Justice forced Genesis to pay a $53.6 million settlement after investigators uncovered alleged violations of the False Claims Act.
According to state court filings, Genesis’s New Mexico nursing homes have regularly been tied up in civil cases — at least 65 in the past four years alone. Many of those suits accuse Genesis of “maximizing profits by operating Nursing Homes so that they were underfunded and understaffed.”
Filling the beds
In recent weeks, nursing homes across the country have emerged as hot zones in the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 7,000 deaths of nursing home patients reported nationally as of Tuesday.
In New York, an astounding 2,800 nursing-home residents have so far died amid outbreaks — a death rate made all the worse by chronic understaffing. In early April, CMS officials issued a $611,000 fine and threatened to withhold Medicaid and Medicare funding to Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington — the first epicenter of coronavirus in the U.S. — after finding a slew of deficiencies that allowed the virus to spread, killing dozens of residents.
An aide in a nursing home facility in Los Alamos makes a call while a resident sleeps on her walker, 2002. Photo by Sam Adams, courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives HP.2012.18.734.
The risks are especially acute in New Mexico, which has by far the highest rate of serious deficiencies per nursing home in the entire country, according to a national database compiled by the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica. Nearly half are concentrated in the facilities owned by Genesis Healthcare.
In the past four years alone, CMS cited New Mexico’s 25 Genesis-owned nursing homes for nearly 1,000 violations of health and safety standards, according to the database. Forty-one of those deficiencies were issued to Canyon, inspection reports show — double the average number of health citations in other New Mexico nursing homes.
Those federal inspection reports reveal a catalog of dangerously substandard care.
In May 2018, inspectors arrived at Canyon to discover an elderly man with a known history of respiratory problems gasping for air as his legs turned blue from a dangerous drop in oxygen. The nursing home, which at the time was understaffed by 18 positions, had no protocol for responding to such an emergency. Inspectors watched as employees stood by, unsure what to do before finally picking up a phone to call 911 for help.
When the inspectors later quizzed staff on how they should have responded, they were met with a “long silence,” according to CMS documents. Canyon was cited for employee incompetence over the incident.
Authorities have discovered even more egregious violations at other Genesis facilities in New Mexico. Among those violations: catheter tubes lying on the floor; employees reusing dirty syringes; the dealing of illegal drugs (“small bags of white powder”) throughout one nursing home. Inspectors documented infection control and nursing care practices so deficient that residents have developed gangrene or had limbs amputated from untreated wounds.
Indeed, 80 percent of Genesis homes in New Mexico have been cited for substandard infection control, according to a Searchlight analysis of federal inspection data. Among those is Uptown Rehabilitation in Albuquerque, where 16 staff members and 10 residents have so far tested positive for coronavirus. Inspectors had previously found that Uptown failed to properly disinfect equipment, perform regular “IV dressing changes,” or avoid “unnecessary exposure to bacterial organisms,” according to CMS documents.
“There is just a huge lack of lack of training,” said Melanie Bossie, an attorney whose Phoenix-based firm filed several dozen wrongful death and negligence suits against Genesis facilities in New Mexico. “If I walked into a deposition of [a Genesis employee], I can guarantee you they would not be able to tell us appropriate infection control practices.”
Genesis Healthcare declined to comment for this story, stating in an email: “We are not granting interviews at this time.”
But internal corporate emails obtained by Searchlight show a preoccupation with nursing homes’ “census” counts — the number of residents in each nursing home — with Genesis management directing homes to bring in as many new clients as possible. In 2014, the company went as far as to hold a “Fill the Bed Challenge” contest for its New Mexico and Arizona homes, emails show, offering a cash prize for the nursing home that maintained full capacity for the longest period.
An ongoing case against Canyon alleges that in 2018, a 77-year-old resident was sexually assaulted by another patient and had to wait more than 20 minutes with the “problem patient” before staff responded to her call light. Excessive wait times for staff to respond to call lights has been well documented. In 2019, a CMS reportdescribed a patient complaining that, “The other night a man fell out of bed and was left on the floor for many hours screaming for help.”
Although inspections are overseen by the federal government, states are accorded the right to levy penalties. The average fine in New Mexico is $37,100, compared to $120,000 in Maryland and $199,000 in West Virginia.
Even when a facility receives a fine, follow-up is inconsistent, said Dusti Harvey, an Albuquerque lawyer who for years was an in-house attorney for a major nursing home chain. “Basically they have to come up with a plan of correction for deficiencies: ‘We promise to fix these things in the following ways.’ Sometimes inspectors come back to check and sometimes they don’t. It’s a lot of lip service.”
That’s been the case for Canyon. After CMS inspectors determined that it failed to “provide and implement an infection prevention and control program” in 2018 and 2019, the facility received only one modest fine of $13,605from New Mexico.
Canyon’s record of infection deficiencies has continued unabated. Reports from the previous two years cite a slew of issues, including poor ventilation between the biohazard storage room and the laundry room, equipment not being disinfected between use and residents sitting in soiled clothing for hours.
“Regulators have for years taught nursing homes that infection control just isn’t that serious an issue,” said Mike Dark, a staff attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit elder rights organization.
“Now we find ourselves in the middle of a viral pandemic, and in six weeks we’re trying to turn around three decades of lax regulation. It’s just not possible,” he said. “This was a tinderbox and it was ready to go.”
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Are you a nursing home employee? Do you have a loved one in a nursing home? We want to hear from you—text ‘nursing’ to 505 427 2777 or email reporter Ed Williams at ed@searchlightnm.org.
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This article comes through the wonderful work of Searchlight New Mexico where is was originally published. It is a source we hope to use again and highly recommend our readers to add to their sources of information.
Searchlight New Mexico is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigative reporting and innovative data journalism.
In a landscape of shrinking media resources, our mission is to focus high-impact journalism on topics of local, regional and national interest in order to allow the public to see into the remote recesses of government and to expose abuses of power.
We believe great reporting empowers people to demand honest, effective public policy and to seek appropriate remedies.
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Trump and the Militias Consummate Their Marriage
By Max Elbaum
Donald Trump tweets so many outrageous things and tells so many lies, it’s easy for any particular statement to get buried in the shitstorm.
But a presidential call to “liberate” states led by elected officials of the opposition party while Trump supporters carry guns into their state capitols shouldn’t be one of them.
A CALL TO ARMS
In the last three weeks the country has seen a series of “anti-lockdown” protests in states with Democratic governors. Two protesting Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 emergency stay-at-home order received the most media coverage. Rifle-carrying members of the Michigan Liberty Militia entered the statehouse, some carrying signs saying “Punish treason by hanging.”
Republicans legislators, instead of condemning these threats of violence, voted to authorize a suit against the Governor for exceeding her authority.
And Trump tweeted “Liberate Virginia,” “Liberate Michigan” and stressed the “Second Amendment” (read: “Bring Your Guns”) dimension of the protests.
Alignment between Trump, the GOP establishment and armed confederate flag-wavers isn’t surprising or new. But these demonstrations saw a level of coordinated action and messaging that went beyond their previous associations.
At Charlottesville, for instance, Trump saw good people “on both sides” of the fascist violence. Numerous Republicans attempted to distance themselves from the naked white supremacists. And the Charlottesville right-wing rally was not organized out of the White House or by top GOP donors and lawyers.
This round was different. The anti-lockdown rallies were part of a coordinated campaign anchored by former White House officials, a number of state-based conservative policy groups, and a coalition of high level GOP donors. Attorney General William Barr has aligned the Justice Department with the protesters’ goals. From Fox News to talk radio the entire right-wing media machine promoted the actions.
Most important, Trump’s tweets signaled that the White House itself backed the rifle-carrying militia component of the protests. His message was a call to defy legal authority and to oust elected officials not to Trump’s liking.
Trump’s tweets were immediately embraced as a “call to arms” throughout the insurrectionist right wing. There was an immediate surge in twitter posts about the President and the “boogaloo” (a term denoting armed insurrection in the world of the conspiracy-theory infused right).
It’s the new normal: armed fascists intimidate elected officials who oppose the President as Republicans either stay silent or – like Trump himself – egg them on.
WHY NOW?
The tightening of the Trump-GOP-Militia embrace is rooted in the way the COVID-19 crisis has affected Trump’s re-election plans and, beyond that, the underlying agenda of the ruling class faction his administration represents.
Pre-pandemic, Trump and his team were confident they had a formula that would win the President a second term. Run on racism and a “humming economy.” That the economy was far from humming for the majority was of little concern. It was benefitting enough sectors in battleground states that – combined with those roped in by MAGA-brand bigotry and with aggressive voter suppression – he would win a majority in the racially skewed electoral college.
COVID-19 has thrown that plan up in the air. The economy is in shambles and all but certain to be in trouble through the election. Trump’s China-bashing resonates in many sectors, but so far hasn’t proved sufficient to erase awareness of Trump dismissing the danger of COVID-19 and doing nothing about it for eight crucial weeks. And his rally-substitute daily press briefings have been a disaster, putting his self-centeredness and bleach-injecting ignorance on display.
PIVOT TO AN “ANTI-LOCKDOWN” MESSAGE
A repackaging of the racism, xenophobia, and all-wealth-to-the-rich core of Trumpism was required. The result, insightfully dissected in a recent column by Thomas Edsall, puts “anti-lockdown” at the center:
“…offers something for everyone: small-business, concerns for the working class, anti-elitism for resentful rural whites, fetishism of guns for NRA, dislike of government for traditional conservatives…. anti-quarantine protests will distract the electorate. If the election is a fight between Trump vs governors who refuse to open their economies, Trump doesn’t have to defend his record on Covid-19. He’s an advocate for liberty! [He] will frame the 2020 election as a choice between the pro-open economy Trump versus the Washington insider #BeijingBiden who is complicit in China’s efforts to hurt working class Americans.”
It is a powerful message with the potential to influence large numbers well beyond Trump’s base. With the economic crisis deepening millions have to worry about how to feed, clothe and house themselves and their families as well as keeping them healthy. Government assistance is totally inadequate, and even if our side makes the maximum gains possible under the current balance of forces, it is likely to stay that way. So sentiment in favor of “getting back to work” – even with major health risks – is likely to grow.
NEED FOR SHOCK TROOPS
But Trump’s problem is that his inaction and blunders – combined with effective messaging by public health experts, Bernie Sanders, and a host of progressive, labor and community-based organizations – means the majority is still concerned about “reopening too soon” and favors protecting people’s health. After an initial bump, the President’s approval rating has started to sink, even in battleground states.
So the Trumpists’ looked for a way to jump-start their adjusted message. For that Fox News and twitter are not enough. Drawing from their anti-Obama Tea Party playbook, they decided it was time for actual physical demonstrations to gin up their base, grab headlines, and infuse every news cycle with their frame on the 2020 contest.
But who is going to go out there in a crowd with no social distancing, no masks, and a message that, at least initially, is not going to be popular? Certainly that’s not a risk big funders, GOP lawyers and elected officials are going to take!
Who do you turn to? How about blatant white supremacists, conspiracy mongers, confederate flag-wavers, anti-vaxxers, and armed militias? These are the people willing to defy public health regulations, pose for cameras brandishing weapons, and carry signs that say, “Sacrifice the Weak.”
So the welcome mat was put out for them by the President himself.
Juan González drew the appropriate conclusion on Democracy Now!:
“I’d like our viewers and listeners to ask themselves a question: If hundreds of African Americans or Latinos showed up in cities around the country brandishing automatic weapons, what would be the response of the country to this? Why is this being almost accepted and normalized now as a method of protest? …we should make no mistake, that this country is edging closer and closer to neo-fascist authoritarianism.”
A DEEPER LEVEL: STAVE OFF RADICAL CHANGE
There is a deeper level as well. Unlike the narcissist in the White House, the people in the top echelon of the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex and the leading right-wing billionaires have bigger concerns than what happens to Trump individually. To them, he’s just the best choice for implementing their agenda of transferring more wealth to the 1%, more austerity for the 99%, doing nothing about climate change and maintaining U.S. global hegemony through military might. Trumpism is also their ideal vehicle for suppressing opposition to this unpopular program by smashing the labor movement and undermining the power of communities of color through large-scale disenfranchisement, incarceration and deportation.
These parasites aren’t haters on Joe Biden. He’s not their first choice. But they could easily live with a President who carried out the “back to the old normal” program that Biden often indicates is his vision of the future.
But the heavyweights in the Trump coalition do not believe a Biden administration could pull it off.
Those who guide Trump to power are closely attuned to the political winds and they can count. They recognize there is growing support for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and an end to mass incarceration. They see that that the pandemic is sparking tenant organizing, rent strikes, job actions, and worker strikes that demand protections for renters, workers and the poor way beyond anything that existed pre-COVID-19.
They know that even before the pandemic people under 30 were the most left-wing generation in decades. They see that COVID-19 fightback efforts like Bernie Sanders’ post-campaign stance, The People’s Bailout (whose principles have over 100 congressional endorsers), and many others are pushing demands for structural change into the mainstream. They notice that even the major liberal media are carrying critiques not just of the disparities in the way COVID-19 is impacting different populations but of longstanding inequalities in U.S. society. They see handwriting on the wall as labor organizations support incarcerated people, domestic workers ally with LGBTQ organizations, climate justice activists rally for immigrant rights and a general spirit of “social solidarity” builds among a host of vulnerable and less vulnerable sectors.
They observe the New York Times running a major piece titled “The America We Need” which more or less promotes Bernie’s program without Bernie. They monitor demographic change and know that their core base among older whites is declining while the country’s proportion of people of color is growing.
THEIR NIGHTMARE IS OUR DREAM
They add it all up and see a Biden win not as a safe harbor but as a dangerous open door. They believe coming out of the pandemic there will be irresistible pressure on a new administration to provide universal health and economic protection for working people, tax the wealthy, tackle climate change and restore voting rights.
They fear even small steps in those directions would start an avalanche capable of toppling their already shaky neo-liberal order.
So their faction of big capital goes all in for Trump and the GOP, and deploys fascist militias as the shock troops of their campaign.
Historical experience shows that when a powerful wing of a ruling class throws in with grassroots fascists, a fascist or fascist-like regime moves from back-drawer possibility to imminent danger.
We need to be as clear-eyed as our enemies about the stakes in the current polarization, the possible roads ahead, and where the pivot point of battle lies.
They think November will mark a choice between two roads.
I agree.
…
First ran in Organizing Upgrade
GUEST WORKERS ON FARMS STAND IN THE EYE OF THE COVID STORM
By David Bacon
No to family immigration, but yes to guest workers
On April 21 President Trump announced in a tweet that, while stopping almost all kinds of legal immigration for at least two months, he was placing no limits on the continued recruitment of H-2A guest workers by growers. Trump claimed the spreading COVID-19 pandemic made his order necessary, but he cited no evidence to show that a ban covering all forms of family-based migration would stop the virus’ spread, while leaving employer-based migration unchanged would not exacerbate the pandemic.
Trump has repeatedly declared his support for the guest worker program. In a 2018 Michigan speech he told a grower audience, “We’re going to let your guest workers come in, because we have to have strong borders, but we have to let your workers in … They’re going to work on your farms … but then they have to go out. But we’re gonna let them in because you need them … We have to have them.”
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue explained the apparent contradiction. He wants Trump “to separate immigration, which is people wanting to become citizens, [from] a temporary, legal guest-worker program. That’s what agriculture needs, and that’s what we want. It doesn’t offend people who are anti-immigrant because they don’t want more immigrant citizens here. We need people who can help U.S. agriculture meet the production.”
This promise is more than election-year politics. It is a big step towards creating a captive workforce in agriculture, based on a program notorious for abuse of the workers in it, and for placing them into low-wage competition with farmworkers already living in the U.S.
It is also a step into the past. Family preference migration, in which immigrants can get residence visas (green cards) based on their family relationships, was won by the civil rights movement. Bert Corona, Cesar Chavez and others convinced Congress to end the bracero program in 1964. They fought for an immigration policy based on family unification, instead of one based on growers’ desire for a low-wage labor supply.
Especially for immigrants coming from Asia, Africa and Latin America, this new system made it possible to unite families in the U.S., settle down and become part of communities. Before that watershed step, people could come from Mexico to work as braceros, but not to stay, and not with families. Immigration quotas favoring white migration from Europe made it very hard for families in general to come from non-European countries.
When President Trump said, in a 2018 meeting with Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), “Why do we want these people from all these shithole countries here? We should have more people from places like Norway,” he was voicing his nostalgia for that pre-civil rights past.
Trump has now suspended the family preference system. Whether it will be reinstated at some point is anyone’s guess. And the H-2A program, which is growing rapidly, is a direct descendant of the old bracero regime. It will continue, given its support in a Congress that is much more conservative than the one in 1964, which abolished the bracero program and established the family migration system. Even Democrats in the current Congress have introduced legislation that would greatly expand H-2A.
Although growers have claimed the coronavirus has created a labor shortage making the H-2A program vital, the program was mushrooming long before the pandemic hit. Last year the U.S. Department of Labor gave agribusiness permission to fill 257,667 jobs with workers brought almost entirely from Mexico, with H-2A visas. That amounted to 10 percent of all the jobs in U.S. agriculture.
The program is five times bigger than the 48,336 jobs certified under George W. Bush in 2005. In some states H-2A certifications now make up more than 10 percent of farmworker jobs. In Georgia growers fill a quarter of all farm labor jobs with H-2A workers.
An agricultural system in which half the workforce would eventually consist of H2-A workers is not unlikely. Florida, Georgia, and Washington are already heading in this direction. Rosalinda Guillen, director of Community to Community, a farmworker advocacy organization in Bellingham, Washington, charges that this expansion “shifts agriculture in the wrong direction, which will lead to the eventual replacement of domestic workers and create even more of a crisis than currently exists for their families and communities.”
The problem with H-2A
H-2A workers are given contracts for less than one year, they can only work for the company that contracts them, and they must leave the country at the end of the contract. If they protest abusive conditions they can be fired and deported. And because they must reapply to come back for the following season, they are uniquely vulnerable to blacklisting.
Investigators from the Centro de los Derechos de Migrante (the Migrant Rights Center, CDM) reported in a detailed study released in March, “Ripe for Reform,” that “many believed that they would not be allowed to return to work in the U.S. at all if they did not complete a contract, regardless of the reason.”
One large recruiter, CSI Visa Processing, with 12 offices in Mexico, brings more than 25,000 workers to the U.S. every year. It has them sign a pledge that authorizes a blacklist: “The boss has the right to fire me and I … will have to go back to Mexico, and the boss will report me to the authorities. This will obviously affect my ability to return legally to the United States in the future.”
“The vast majority of workers start their H-2A jobs deeply in debt,” the CDM reported, some paying bribes as much as $4,500, despite legal prohibitions on such “fees.” They are often housed in barracks on the grower’s property, miles from the nearest town, surrounded by barbed wire fences. “Some workers stated that they needed permission to leave the housing. Others indicated they were prohibited from leaving other than to buy groceries,” the CDM study found.
One worker, Mario, said he was charged $1,000 a month for a bunk bed in a barrack with 30 to 40 other workers. When some workers tried to leave, the boss illegally took their passports. “They didn’t want us to leave or go anywhere,” Mario said.
All interviewees in the CDM report suffered violations of basic labor laws, including receiving wages less than the minimum for H-2A workers and the denial of required breaks. Eighty-six percent reported that companies wouldn’t hire women or paid them less when they did. Half complained of bad housing, and a third said they were not provided needed safety equipment. Forty-three percent were not paid the wages promised in their contracts.
“Fraud and misrepresentation about wages were very common,” according to the CDM.
One worker reported getting paid $1.25 per hour after illegal kickbacks. Another got $400 for a seven-day week, working 11 hours a day. Underpayment over the lifetime of his contract was $11,000. Multiplied by the dozens of workers in an average crew picking fruit or harvesting vegetables gives an idea of the illegal profits available to employers who seemingly have little fear of consequences.
That lack of fear is understandable given the virtual absence of enforcement. In 2019, out of 11,472 employers using the H-2A program, the Department of Labor filed cases against only 431 (3.73 percent), and of them only 26 (0.25 percent) were barred from recruiting for three years, with an average fine of $109,098.
After one H-2A worker, Honesto Silva, collapsed in a field in Washington State three years ago, and later died, 70 of his co-workers refused to go into the fields. The company, Sarbanand Farms, fired them, and threw them out of the labor camp. Because the H-2A regulations require workers to leave the country if they are terminated, firing effectively meant deporting them.
Washington’s new union for farmworkers, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, supported that protest and others by H-2A workers – in 2018 at Crystal View farm and in 2019 at the King Fuji apple ranch. According to Edgar Franks, organizer for Familias Unidas, most of the workers who participated in the Crystal View and King Fuji strikes were not working for the company in the following season.
Favors for growers, COVID for workers
Since his election, Trump has continually tried to make the H-2A program more accessible and profitable for growers. Earlier this year the government dropped a restriction to allow growers to recruit only workers who’d been recruited in the past. Then it suspended a regulation barring growers from keeping workers in the U.S. beyond the end of their old contracts.
Another promised rule change would relax the requirement that companies advertise jobs first to local residents before applying for H-2As. The most important promise was to cut the wage that growers must pay H-2A workers, the Adverse Effect Wage Rate. Set high enough, in theory, not to undermine the prevailing wages of local farmworkers, it actually puts a ceiling on them. If local workers demand wage increases, growers can hire H-2A workers instead.
Low wages put enormous pressure on all farmworkers to go to work, even during the coronavirus crisis. Farmworker families are among the poorest in the U.S., with an average annual income between $17,500 and $20,000-below the official poverty line. Increasing that pressure during the COVID-19 crisis is the fact that half of the country’s 2.5 million farmworkers-those without legal status-were written out of all the relief programs passed by Congress. A quarter of a million H-2A workers were written out of the relief bills as well.
The coronavirus crisis adds risk to inequality. Like everyone, H-2A workers must try to maintain the recommended six feet of distance between people in housing, transportation and working conditions. But the CDM report concludes: “That will be impossible under conditions H-2A workers typically experience in the United States.” There is no testing for them as they enter the country nor while they’re here.
Employers are not required to provide health insurance to H-2A workers. If they stop working because they get sick, the conditions of their visa require them to leave the country. Once in Mexico they then have to find medical care, while their families and communities face the danger of infection.
Uncomfortably close
As Congress began discussing bailout and relief packages in March, however, unions and community organizations began drafting proposals and demands. Thirty-six groups signed a letter drafted by the Washington, D.C. advocates Farmworker Justice, calling for more protections for H-2A workers. Recommendations include safe housing with quarantining facilities, safe transportation, testing of workers before entering the U.S., social distancing at work, and paid treatment for those who get sick. In Washington State Columbia Legal Services filed suit, together with the United Farm Workers, Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Community2Community, a farmworker organizing project, to force the state to set health standards for H-2A workers.
The H-2A program, as changed by the administration, will not likely revert to its pre-pandemic state, however. And H-2A regulations were clearly ineffective in protecting workers before the crisis. Fourteen years ago conditions of H-2A workers were described in a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Close to Slavery.” CDM counsel Mary Bauer, who authored that report, charges, “I haven’t seen any significant improvement in 30 years. Abuse is baked into a structure in which workers are vulnerable, and where there’s always a new supply of workers to replace the old, the sick or those who complain and protest. A program that gives workers virtually no bargaining power creates a perfect storm of vulnerability in the context of this pandemic.”
The CDM report makes the same point. “The problem with protecting workers merely by promulgating regulations,” it emphasizes, “is that regulations cannot overcome the profound power imbalance between employer and worker.”
In the 1960s the Chicano civil rights movement campaigned not to regulate guest worker programs, but to abolish them. Activists fought for an immigration system based on family unification instead. That is the change President Trump now wants to reverse with a tweet.
…
This piece originally ran in Capital & Main
COVID 19 in the construction industry: Dueling instructions: Be safe, but not if it impedes production
By Noah Carmichael
As a union organizer, there are the obvious daily obstacles to getting folks to recognize that they can do something about their working conditions. Whether that calls for directly demonstrating collective power to correct safety issues immediately on a non-union jobsite, or joining an already established bargaining unit, is up to the workforce. Those endeavors are winding roads – full of intricacies that are almost never linear. Anyone who has ever done any type of workplace or community organizing knows all about the irregularities and complex human dynamics at work. Now add to that the layers of confusion that are presented by the outbreak of a virus that requires stay at home orders for probably 50% of the population and creates hazardous conditions for the other 50% which are either expected to/or required to work. Construction at this point, is a maze of concern, confusion, fear, indecision, solidarity and leadership.
My experience in the construction industry, in Northeast Ohio, has mirrored the chaos. Governor Mike DeWine listened to scientists and doctors in March and issued a stay at home order earlier than many other states. Nevertheless the exceptions and exemptions have proven to be precarious at times, simultaneously demanding caution while putting workers in peril. Even though many building trades members and representatives in Northeast Ohio have experienced slowdowns, for those that remain in the workforce the questions still linger; “How do we keep a 6-foot distance from each other if we are building something together?” “If healthcare workers are struggling to find masks, will there be enough to protect construction workers from the virus, or the other hazardous materials that they are exposed to?” “Will there be adequate handwashing stations on construction sites?” And “what impact does this have on collective bargaining agreements?” These are all questions that good union stewards should be asking, and safety measures that all good union representatives should be demanding that General Contractors and Construction managers provide. As for now, there are few answers to these questions, and little to no help from Federal and State government to address them.
Workers are always told to be safe and put their health first, and then soon after asked to do something that directly flies in the face of this policy. For instance, a group of bricklayers in Northeast Ohio was asked to gather in a trailer for a 15-minute jobsite orientation on a school project by the construction manager. Immediately the proximity of the gathering raised concern for the members, and they brought the issue to the job steward, who then told the CM that he didn’t think this enclosed meeting was a good idea. He suggested that they either have the meeting outside, or to just share the material with the members electronically. In this instance, outstanding solidarity among members and good stewardship allowed common sense to prevail and the meetings to cease. It is easy to imagine however, how many times this type of unsafe activity goes unchallenged. Particularly in a non-union workplace.
Another example of this is that two of the largest, wealthiest, contractors in the Midwest are squabbling over face masks and gloves. One (a top ten nationally ranked construction manager) the other, (one of the largest restoration contractors in the Midwest) put workers directly in the middle of a dispute over who will pay for PPE. The construction manager took aggressive and bold steps for worker safety by setting up hand washing stations and demanding that safety masks and face shields be provided, but then put the burden of obtaining the masks solely on the subcontractor, who then put it on the workers. As so often happens in the workplace, the mantra seems to be: “Be safe, so long as it doesn’t inconvenience management or production.” There are other examples, and some far worse to be sure.
Union Organizers and Reps have their hands full trying to adequately represent their own membership during this ever-changing crisis. Rules change constantly – things not contained in Collective bargaining agreements must be revisited and policies added for safety to prevail. As an organizer at heart, I think that when the crisis subsides, the workers will remember how they were treated by employers and managers. This makes it even more important to be remembered as the ones that stood up for them. Stay safe brothers and sisters. Be sure to look out for one another.
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ALL WE HAVE IS EACH OTHER – Of Crime and Sports
By Gary Phillips
Hunkered down at home is mostly what me and other fiction writers do most of the time. In my case it’s crime and mystery stories I generally write, making up bad shit all the time. Now unless it’s for research purposes and I need to talk to someone who knows what I need to know, it’s just me and my imagination or lack thereof. That does mean though when I’ve made my word count for the day or simply can’t get the words out of my brain onto the virtual page, I need to decompress. This often translates into watching a sports event on television or the rarity of even going out to see one live. Yet rightly so, both the NBA and pro baseball have had to forgo their seasons during this pandemic. Even as the president held a group call with the sports commissioners envisioning stadiums back to normal in August and September. Meanwhile back in reality, stars of basketball and other pro sports have stepped up in this crisis.
The Golden State Warriors Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha have donated 1M toward providing meals for the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Even that Trump lovin’ Super Bowl winning Tom Brady (who had a mansion out here in Beverly Hills torn down to build one more to his liking) ponied up ducats for a free meals program. So yeah, big time sports stars will weather this shutdown just fine. But what of those folks earning minimum wage selling you hot dogs and beer and the ones who have to clean up those fancy arenas when the fans go home?
Pro basketball stars such as Zion Williamson, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, the aforementioned Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo have each pledged $100,000 and upwards to help arena workers who are now out of work due to no fault of their own. But as Dave Zirin, The Nation’s sports writer pointed out, the damn millionaire and billionaire owners of these teams, mostly a bunch of white men, need to step up and do what’s right by these hard-hit arena workers as well. What he wrote is best summed up with his line, “The ownership plutocracy must provide paid leave for these workers, because promises made have to be matched by promises kept.” Some of these owners have come across but it’s clear that across the board all of them can do much more for those not getting paid to throw that rock through a hoop.
Thinking about the sports venues got me wondering about robbing such – in a literary sense of course. For is not the thief what Jean Genet wrote in his book The Thieves Journal, “Repudiating the virtues of your world, criminals hopelessly agree to organize a forbidden universe.” Mindful that Woody Guthrie noted you can rob more people with a pen than a gun, the thief is the representation of naked capitalism who at least if he or she is “honest” splits the spoils with their crew.
In particular I recall heist films of sports venues set in Los Angeles. In the 1950s film The Armored Car Robbery, thieves use tear gas to boost the gate from Wrigley Field. Not the famous one in Chicago, but the one that used to be in South Central where the Triple A Angels once played. In the ‘60s film The Split, based on the novel by Donald Westlake, ex-football star turned actor Jim Brown is a professional thief who masterminds robbing the Coliseum, also in South Central, during a football game. As far as I know, there’s yet to be a heist film about robbing a rap concert though in the novel Deadly Edge, also by Westlake, the thieves cut through the roof of an old arena during a rock concert to steal the receipts.
Maybe it’s not an arena I’ll have my crew rob, given these days too much plastic is used. But what about one of those ultra-swank bunkers the one percenters are buying for three or four million a pop in preparation for doomsday be it a pandemic or the have nots rising up. These are not your grandpappy’s Eisenhower era fallout shelters stocked with canned goods and bottled water in case the Ruskies dropped the Big One. No these bad rascals come with NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) air-filtration systems, big screen smart TVs (like Netflix will still be operating in the apocalypse?), the bunkers themselves encased in steel and equipped with pepper spray portals. For 8.35M the Aristocrat comes equipped with a sauna, gym, swimming pool and billiards room. Yeah, these bastards plan to shoot eightball while we perish. Certainly these bunkers must come with vaults for the fat cats to put their cash and jewels in what with banks failing as civilization collapses. After all their brokers will be hunting each other down and eating the loser, right?
Stay safe and stay sanitized, y’all.
…
First ran 5 April 2020 in PM Press
It’s totally illegal
By Garrett Brown
Firing workers for raising health & safety concerns is illegal, and yet employers get away with it all the time
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States this year, health care and other essential workers still on the job have been reprimanded, disciplined, and fired by their employers for expressing concerns about their health and safety on the job. It is totally illegal to do so – yet employers have been getting away with doing exactly that for years before coronavirus.
All workers – union or non-union, documented or undocumented – have the legal right to raise health and safety issues on the job without fear of reprisal or discrimination by their employers. Moreover, all workers have the “right to refuse unsafe work” if they follow the procedures that are set out in national and state law.
Nationally, these rights are protected by the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and its “Whistleblower Protection Program.” In California, these rights are set forth in the state’s Labor Code (Here, Here and Here) and protected by the Division of Labor Standards and Enforcement (DLSE) and its “Retaliation Complaint Investigation” unit.
All these laws have been around for decades now. Workers in various industries – facing workplace hazards as deadly as COVID-19 – have also tried to exercise their rights in the past. But the fact of the matter is that these rights have not been effectively enforced by government regulatory agencies, and very few employers have actually had to compensate and reinstate workers that have disciplined and/or fired in violation of the law.
National Non-Enforcement
Federal OSHA not only has the responsibility for investigating worker complaints and enforcing the worker protection section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, but also the anti-retaliation sections of more than 20 other federal laws. Fed OSHA has the responsibility for not only worker safety, but also whistleblower protection in transportation (such as railroads), environmental protection (such as oil spills), financial and health insurance fraud, and also consumer products, motor vehicle and food safety.
Staffing at Fed OSHA, especially the Whistleblower Protection Program, has been on the decline during the Trump Administration. But the program under Democrats also never had the staff and political will required to conduct enough investigations and issue enough decisions to be a deterrent to employers violating these laws.
Under the Trump Administration, especially now that hard-line corporate attorney Eugene Scalia is the Secretary of Labor, whistleblowers retaliated against in violation of two-dozen federal laws are basically on their own.
California Non-Enforcement
As bad as the federal situation is, whistleblower protection in California would be comical if it did not result in job-ending and poverty-producing reprisals, discrimination and firings by Golden State employers.
The DLSE Retaliation Complaint Investigation (RCI) unit has only five (5) investigators for a workforce of 19 million workers in more than one million worksites throughout the state. Retaliation investigations require considerable time and skill to complete because the employers involved tend to lie from the get-go of the investigation, and the investigator must find enough incriminating evidence (such as internal documents and corroborating testimony) that will “prove” retaliation and get beyond the usual “he said, she said” stalemate.
The abysmal performance of the California RCI has been documented annually in the “Federal Annual Monitoring and Evaluation” (FAME) reports conducted by Fed OSHA. The Feds conduct a “comprehensive” investigation in one year, a “follow-up” investigation the next year, and then start the sequence again.
The FAME reports cover federal fiscal years – starting October 1st of one year and ending on September 30th of the following calendar year – and are usually issued six months after the September date. The two most recent FAME reports on California’s whistleblower protection were issued in early 2018 (comprehensive) and in early 2019 (follow-up).
The last FAME report indicated the following head-spinning performance of California’s RCI:
- The percentage of retaliation investigations completed within 90 days (the federal benchmark) = 4%
- The average number of calendar days needed to complete a retaliation investigation in California = 588 days
- The percent of retaliation investigations in California that are closed as “non-meritorious” = 81%
This last FAME report (issued in early 2019) noted deficiencies that were also the subject of repeated earlier reports:
- The RCI “does not have an updated whistleblower investigation manual” that is at least as effective as the federal investigation unit;
- In 68% of reviewed RCI case files, “there was no evidence that DLSE referred the retaliation claim to Cal/OSHA;”
- In 96% of reviewed RCI case files, “there was no evidence that DLSE conducted a screening interview and created a Memorandum of Interview based on information learned during the screening interview;”
- In 53% of reviewed RCI case files “there was no proof of receipt that the Complainant or Respondent received a closing letter;” and
- In 33% of reviewed RCI case files, “there is no evidence that a DLSE supervisor reviewed and approved the decision to administratively close complaints.”
For workers in California, perhaps even more than in states covered by Federal OSHA, their right to protection against illegal retaliation and reprisals from their employers basically does not exist.
Worker protection in the real world
Photo: © Robert Gumpert 2000
Since workers are on their own when it comes to protecting their freedom of speech and right to refuse unsafe work on the job, other strategies have to be explored and adopted to fight the illegal acts against them. This has always been the case, but, in the COVID era, it becomes even more important.
Work with your union: Workers who have a union in their workplace (less than 7% in the private sector now) have the opportunity to file grievances and have the union represent them in grievance and arbitration hearings. Some unions will file legal action on behalf of their members to gain reinstatement and back wages if the grievance and arbitration routes fail.
Notify the news media: As indicated in the articles in the New York Times and Washington Post above, the news media is interested in covering what is happening to health care and other essential workers in the midst of the pandemic. Most articles have been sympathetic to workers still on the job saving lives and keeping people fed and supplied with the basics. “Naming and shaming” employers engaged in violating workers’ rights via the media has proven successful in the past in getting some workers back on the job and their rights respected.
Notify your elected officials: While we all know some federal, state and local officials that have forgotten who they are paid to work for, there are others who have championed the cause of workers who have suffered illegal reprisals and terminations. Public pressure on employers via elected officials has proven effective in cases in the past, and will likely be so now in the midst of so much pain and suffering in society.
So workers whose rights are violated should definitely file retaliation complaints with the appropriate government agency. They should also understand that the chances for success via that route alone are very, very slim, and would take months and months to be realized. But there are other routes – always best working collectively with coworkers in legally-protected “concerted activity” – that workers can take to get their jobs back, to prevent employer discrimination, and protect the rights of all.
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U.S. Labor in the Time of the Corona Virus
By Peter Olney and Rand Wilson
Union responses to the pandemic reflect the relatively weak state of the U.S. labor movement, but also reveal the potential for new militancy and growth!
President Trump proclaimed on March 24 that the U.S. would be open for business by Easter Sunday with churches filled with devout worshippers. Not only was this a massive slight to the millions of non-Christians, it was fundamentally a toxic recipe for escalating the COVID-19 public health menace. Only a few days later, the reality of the escalating public health disaster got the better of his foolish narcissism: Trump now says that the country must remain on lock down through April 30. It may go much longer.
Signaling both growing anxiety and the need for solidarity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, workers across the country are protesting what they see as inadequate safety measures and insufficient pay for the risks they are confronting. The response by American workers reflects the relatively weak state of the U.S. labor movement, but also reveals the potential for a new militancy and growth.[1]
U.S. unions only unite 7% of private sector workers and some 35% of public sector workers. In the private sector, the structure is characterized by “enterprise” bargaining rather than national sector or “category” bargaining that is seen in Italia or many other European countries. This has meant that instead of U.S. unions acting together under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the response has been fragmented. Nevertheless, there have been many impressive initiatives both legislatively and by industry and in geographical areas.
When the U.S. Congress passed a nearly $2 trillion financial bailout bill for corporations, labor was able to attach a “union neutrality” clause for companies employing more than 500 workers who seek to unionize.[2] Winning union neutrality has long been one of labor’s major legislative goals. Given the already weak enforcement of U.S. labor laws, this provision will be even harder to enforce, as the National Labor Relations Board has been all but shut down during the Corona crisis.[3]
Where the U.S. labor movement still has membership “density” and particularly in sectors now considered essential because of the virus, unions have been able to achieve some impressive results. Transportation is one of those sectors. The airline unions, led by Sara Nelson, the dynamic President of the Flight Attendants, won a provision in the massive industry bailout to pay all direct airline employees (pilots, mechanics, flight attendants) through September 30. Even more impressive is that airport contract workers like cleaners, food service workers, and other ground personnel will also be paid through the same date.[4]
Bus drivers and train operators in many urban areas have demanded protections from infection while operating their equipment. On March 17, Detroit bus drivers declared that they were not going to work without safety precautions. Bus service was cancelled and within 24 hours, workers won all their demands, including an agreement that fares will not be collected during the coronavirus crisis. Passengers will now enter and exit from the rear entrance — avoiding contact with the operator.[5] Sadly on April 1, Jason Hargrove, a rank and file Detroit driver, died of the virus after being coughed on by a woman entering his bus. His video of that event went viral on March 21 and helped to spread awareness of the need for protection for essential workers.
As the public has come to understand that grocery store workers are essential, it’s put their union, the United Food and Commercial Workers in a good bargaining position. UFCW has won significant raises and protections for its stressed-out members selling groceries. Workers also won additional paid time off (PTO) and generous provisions for sick leave. Los Angeles took the lead by mandating sick leave and other benefits far beyond the usual contractual requirements for grocery workers.[6]
The response by construction unions has been uneven. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a former construction union leader, shut down all non-essential construction on March 16 while his counterpart in New York City permitted construction of non-essential luxury condominiums to continue until March 27. On April 6, the Massachusetts Carpenters Union went a step further and walked all of their 10,000 members out in protest of continuing hazardous conditions. The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 35 followed suit, with the union issuing a stay-at-home order for its thousands of members the next day.[7]
Automobile assembly has been shut down throughout the U.S., however auto parts production continues in many areas supplying assembly plants that continue to operate in Canada and Mexico, a reflection of the United Auto Workers weakness.[8]
One of the most inspiring actions during the crisis was the walkout by thousands of General Electric workers who make jet engines in Lynn, Massachusetts on March 30. Along with a vigorous protest concerning their safety at work, they demanded that their employer convert to making ventilators![9]
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) representing 34,000 employees at the telecommunications giant Verizon won paid leave for workers unable to work during the crisis.[10]
These examples are a reflection of the low level (currently under 7%) of union representation in the private sector. In places where unions are still strong, like transportation, communications and grocery, labor is winning victories, but the 93% of American workers without representation have had to make do with valiant initiatives despite having no pre-existing or formally recognized organization.[11]
So often dismissed as low-skilled and now on the frontlines of a pandemic, many not-yet-union workers in the U.S. are discovering the power of collective industrial action. Despite their lack of formal organization, many workers in the so-called stars of the new economy are demonstrating the capacity to rise up. Amazonians United, a warehouse-based organization with strength at distribution centers in Chicago, Sacramento and Queens, NY has waged a long fight for paid time off (PTO) for warehouse workers. As a result of their actions and others, Amazon finally agreed to grant PTO to all employees in mid-March.[12],[13]
Thousands of drivers for the online grocery delivery service, Instacart also struck on March 30. On March 31, Whole Foods workers engaged in a global sickout to protest their working conditions and publicize their fear of working and contracting COVID 19. In nearly every example of the new militancy, workers have used online organizing tools and social media to reach their co-workers and gain public support. For example, workers at Fred Meyer launched an online petition for hazard pay.[14],[15]
Workers are also showing compassionate solidarity in the midst of the pandemic. For example, the restaurant support group One Fair Wage is providing cash assistance to restaurant workers, car service drivers, delivery workers, personal service workers and others who have lost their incomes.[16]
Along with the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, the pandemic is happening at a moment that working-class politics are on the rise. Sanders, and the movement behind him, have introduced a set of bold initiatives into the mainstream of political discourse. Now the public health crisis has added additional credibility to his proposed policies.
In a first for an American political campaign, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (who dropped out of the race on April 8) has reached out to his enormous campaign base to raise millions of dollars to support many of these workers. He has used emails and texts requesting contributions to a variety of worker relief organizations and urging supporters to make phone calls and send letters to shame corporate executives.[17]
Labor for Bernie, the trade union support coalition for the Sanders candidacy, is working with its member unions and allies to promote a national program of demands on the federal government regarding health care, sick leave and extended unemployment benefits. At the end of April, as many as 35 million Americans will lose their employer-based health insurance. The scale of that crisis is an opening for legislation to provide emergency health insurance to all Americans who do not have it. The price tag of over one trillion dollars no longer seems extraordinary after the two trillion-dollar bailout for American corporations![18]
Crisis can birth opportunity, and there is the potential for game changing political demands on the state to strengthen the horribly weak U.S. social safety net and build new membership and power for labor. Many on the left in the U.S., particularly the young members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are aggressively organizing. Activists are finding strength, encouragement and support in countless online video hookups that enable organizing nationwide while sheltering in their homes.
American society is getting a large and dramatic lesson in who is “essential” and “non-essential.” The lowest paid workers, often immigrants, women, and people of color make up the ranks of the service and agricultural sectors. Now the public is discovering these workers are far more crucial to the functioning of society than the owners and their professional managerial class. American workers are getting a powerful lesson on the power of collective bargaining and unionization. They are finding that without a union they are employees at will with little right to address their challenges in the workplace.
There is obviously great potential for radical change and restructuring to emerge from this crisis. The need for dramatic federal intervention on behalf of working people has probably not been this keenly felt since the 1930s. But without escalated organizing and action, the end result of the crisis will be another massive corporate bailout, similar to what happened in 2009 after the Wall Street meltdown. We believe the potential for renaissance and revelation has never been greater for American labor: but only if we seize that opportunity and organize!
…
This piece ran April 13 in the Italian publication Sinistra Sindicale
[1] “Strikes at Instacart and Amazon Over Coronavirus Health Concerns,”
[2] “Virus Loans to Come With Union Neutrality Pledge for Companies,” by Jaclyn Diaz, Daily Labor Report, March 26, 2020,
[3] “In Midst of a Pandemic, Trump’s NLRB Makes it Nearly Impossible for Workers to Organize a Union,” Celine McNicholas, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, April 1, 2020
[4] “How Labor Unions Won Historic Pay Protection For Aviation Workers,” Ted Reed, Forbes, March 26, 2020
[5] “Detroit Bus Drivers Win Protections Against Virus Through Strike,” Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes, March 18, 2020.
[6] “The Danger We’re Facing: A Grocery Worker Speaks Out,” Chris Brooks, Labor Notes, March 23, 2020.
[7] “Thousands of Mass. Union Members Walk Off Jobs Due to COVID-19 Fears,” Scott Van Voorhis, Engineering News-Record, April 6, 2020,
[8] “Auto Companies Announce Closure Following Outbreak of Wildcat Strikes” Chris Brooks, Labor Notes, March 18, 2020, https://labornotes.org/blogs/2020/03/auto-companies-announce-closure-following-outbreak-wildcat-strikes
[9] “General Electric Workers Launch Protest, Demand to Make Ventilators,” By Edward Ongweso Jr, VICE, March 30 2020
[10] “Verizon Unions Win Model Paid Leave Policy for Coronavirus—Will Other Unions Demand the Same?”
March 18, 2020, Labor Notes, and “Sample COVID-19 Health and Safety Measures to Demand from Management”
By Communications Workers of America Organizers, Labor Notes, March 31
[11] “‘The Strike Wave Is in Full Swing’: Amazon, Whole Foods Workers Walk Off Job to Protest Unjust and Unsafe Labor Practices,” by Julia Conley, Common Dreams, March 30, 2020
[12] “The US’s week of strikes,” BY EMILY TAMKIN, New Statesman, April 4, 2020
[13] “Amazonians United Wins PTO for all Amazon Workers,” by DCH1 Amazonians United, March 22, 2020
[14] “Work strikes at Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods show essential workers’ safety concerns,” Mike Snider, USA TODAY, March 31, 2020, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/strikes-amazon-instacart-whole-foods-172609317.html
[15] “Fred Meyer associates deserve hazard pay!!” Grocery Store Workers Confront Coronavirus, Co-Worker.com
[16] “ONE FAIR WAGE — Emergency Coronavirus Tipped and Service Worker Support Fund”
[17] Bernie campaign volunteers texted the author on April 2, 2020 “Hi Rand, it’s Sydney with Bernie 2020! Thank you so much for standing with Amazon workers this week by signing their petition and emailing Jeff Bezos. Adding your voice is how we win. Will you amplify our message even further by calling Amazon and demanding that they take every measure possible to protect their workers during this crisis? We can help you with what to say!”
[18] “COVID-19 job losses could drive down employer plan enrollment by as much as 35M, report shows,” by Paige Minemyer, FierceHealthcare, April 3, 2020.