NathanNewman.org: Labor Monday (12-23)

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December 23, 2002

Labor Monday (12-23)

The AFL-CIO is attacking the post-Christmas cutoff of unemployment benefits to 800,000 unemployed. See this page for details.

Bush's administration is seeking new regulations to force unions to itemize all expenditures above either a $2,000 or $5,000 threshold, a costly intrusive demand they of course would never apply to business.

In 2002, U.S. companies saw the price of health insurance increase by an average of 14.7%, which marked the highest annual increase since 1990, and the average employer paid $5,646 per employee for health insurance coverage in 2002, a hefty 56% increase from $3,594 in 1997. This is raising new tensions at the bargaining table across the country.

Schools across California must now, with new legislation, make sure all school construction meets minimum labor compliance standards, a legal change strongly backed by labor unions in the state.

The new head of Britain's Trade Unions Conference (TUC), the equivalent of our AFL-CIO, is calling for an aggressive push by labor unions to put representatives on corporate boards of directors to stop corporate abuses such as Enron and WorldCom.

Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela has sent in troops to break the oil strike called by opposition forces. The conservative opposition is being backed by all business-run media in the country.

India is debating killing off workers protections in new export zones, a common practice. A recent ILO study of 850 zones around the world, which employ 27 million workers, found that free trade unions and minimum labour standards are "extremely rare."

Posted by Nathan at December 23, 2002 02:28 AM

Related posts:

Guiliani to Get $4.3 Million from Mexico - Oct 15, 2002

Labor Monday 10-14 - Oct 14, 2002

Tapped Goes Nativist (sorta) - Oct 11, 2002

Amnesty, Partisanship and Pandering - Oct 10, 2002

Labor Monday (10-7) - Oct 07, 2002

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Comments

Re: Venezuela: Since industry management initiated the shutdown, shouldn't it be called a lockout rather than a strike? I've seen other bloggers make this point, and I'm a little surprised to see a labor guy like you not do so.

Posted by: Chris Quinones at December 24, 2002 02:37 AM

While management is promoting the shutdown, so are the unions. And the ultimate owner is the state of Venezuela, who want the oil industry up and running. In this case, managers are acting as high-level employees-- crucial ones -- defying the ultimate owners, so it is a strike, especially with many lower-level employees supporting it.

I have great sympathy for Chavez's reform agenda, but his attacks on Venezuela's labor unions have been condemned internationally as violations of international labor standards. From day one, this has been one of his stupidest moves, since it united labor unions with his business opposition.

But a strike is a strike-- workers withholding their labor in demands against its owners. Strikes against state-owned property has some different issues and class components, but I don't give Chavez a pass for his union-busting attacks in this case given his poor history here.

Posted by: Nathan Newman at December 24, 2002 02:46 AM

Thank you for the clarification!

Posted by: Chris Quinones at December 24, 2002 08:11 PM

http://www.quicktopic.com/boing/H/PCGXWGF66jG/p16.9

a "strike" is not a strike just because the media calls it one....
a lockout of workers by owners and executives is not a strike...
a "strike" in which McDonalds, Wendys and other foreign chain stores shut their doors and refuse to pay their workers is not a strike...
marching around with placards is not a strike...
feebly trying to block highways and millions of workers trying to get to work is not a strike...
a strike with no real support from the working class is not a strike...
anyone who has participated in a strike knows that the media never cheers it! the first hint that there is no strike in Venezuela is that the media supports it. Any labor organizer or union member who has ever been on strike knows how it really works.
only the rich who've never had to organize and fight for their rights as workers could possibly think that a lockout by owners against workers could be called a strike.

Posted by: tagabukid at January 27, 2003 11:13 PM

Posted by: roma at August 24, 2004 05:19 AM

December 23, 2002

Labor Monday (12-23)

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