Take the time to read this article from American Manufacturing.org on currency Manipulation provided by Brother Tim Larson who recently attended the CLC meeting in Glens Falss representing IUE-CWA Local 359 in this Labor Council. There is a petition that needs to be filled out and sent in. Thanks Brother Tim ( Glens Falls CLC ) along with the rest of the Stewards/members  :John Fiato, Walt Lynds ( Saratoga CLC )  , Bruce Brisson , Daryl Houshower ( Troy Area CLC ) , Dom and Mike Leone ( Albany CLC ). We are lookig for another delegate for Glens Falls and two memers/ Stewards for the Schnectady CLC. ANYONE interested in attending and being part of the outreach to the Labor community please send an e-mail to pres359@gmail.com  . We are also looking to train others in the Political Action work we do. Contact Walt Lynds or John Fiato if interested...... now is the time to train and get ready for contract 2013...... Thanks

                                                                                                      Dominick Patrignani Pres. IUE-CWA Local 359

CURRENCY MANIPULATION PETITION FROM GLENS FALLS CLC MEETING .pdf

From: Mike Keenan [mailto:mikekeenan@pefencon.info]
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 12:35 PM
To: Troy Area Labor Council
Subject: Another Victory for Corporate Greed - Harley Davidson in Wisconsin

A one day rally in DC certainly won't be enough to rescue us from these robber barons!

Harley board confirms Wis. plants to stay open

DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer

from Albany TU website

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Harley-Davidson Inc. agreed Tuesday to keep open its two Wisconsin production facilities, saying it gained the cost savings it needed when union members agreed a day earlier to a concession-laden contract.

The Milwaukee-based motorcycle company had warned that it would move the production to another state if its three Wisconsin unions rejected the deal. A move would have eliminated about 1,350 jobs.

After reviewing the results of the unions' votes, the board of directors agreed to call off the search for replacement sites.

"Change is never easy, and we have asked our employees to make difficult decisions. However, we are pleased to be keeping production operations in our hometown of Milwaukee and in Tomahawk," company President and Chief Executive Keith Wandell said in a statement.

The seven-year contract freezes employees' pay, slashes hundreds of production jobs and assigns large volumes of work to part-time workers.

Some 1,140 union members from the suburban Milwaukee plant voted, approving the contract by a 55 to 45 percent margin. Almost 300 ballots were cast at the Tomahawk plant in northern Wisconsin, where workers approved the deal by a margin of 73 to 27 percent.

A number of workers who voted to approve the deal said they did so grudgingly, accepting Harley's ultimatum for the sake of saving jobs. Others said they voted against it because the terms were too harsh.

Harley said it had to play hardball because its labor costs at the two plants were too high. The concessions made the costs more manageable, it said, so it now makes sense to keep the plants open.

Under the previous rules, it could take as long as three months to let go of unneeded workers or recall laid-off workers, Wandell told analysts this summer. Harley's goal was to gain the ability to hire and lay off workers more quickly to better adjust to seasonal business fluctuations, he said.

The company got what it wanted, but it's unclear whether the contract will lead to any lingering animosity.

Mike Masik, the president of the local chapter of the United Steel Workers, said Tuesday it wasn't about wages or medical, but that the company took out language that allowed members more decision-making abilities.

"It's a somber atmosphere today," he said. ... "Today I do not feel good. I believe that people voted what was right for them. I voted what is was right for me, but it still doesn't feel good. We gave up a lot."

Based on the agreements, the company expects to eliminate about 250 Milwaukee-area jobs when the contracts are implemented in 2012, leaving 700 full-time hourly unionized employees.

In Tomahawk, the company expects to cut about 75 jobs in the next contract, leaving 200 full-time hourly unionized work force. But the company will add 150 to 250 part-time unionized employees on an annual basis to cover seasonal volume spikes, vacations and other absences.

Harley has been dealing with its own share of problems. A shrinking market and an economic downturn have undercut demand for its pricey, chrome-laden bikes. Sales of Harley motorcycles, whose prices range from $7,000 to $25,000 can take a big hit when the economy goes south.

The company has been focused on cutting costs and streamlining its business. Last year, it announced the shutdown of its Buell sport-bike line. In December, the company and its union at its main motorcycle plant in York, Pa., agreed to a cost-cutting contract that involved layoffs for about half the company's unionized work force there.

The company also told analysts in July it expects to ship 5 percent to 10 percent fewer motorcycles to dealers this year, standing by an earlier forecast.

Some Harley workers said the company caused its own troubles through foolish business decisions, and now it's trying to make its money back by squeezing workers with an unfair contract. Tony Daube, 55, a tool grinder from Mequon who has worked for Harley for 20 years, said that's why he voted against the contract.

"This ultimatum has no guarantees that they're even going to stay around," he said. "They're just going to keep on doing what they want."

Brian Harycki, a 36-year-old machinist from West Bend, said he was equally disillusioned.

"I don't agree with what the company is doing, with the direction it's going. It's ridiculous," said Harycki. He said he was disappointed that his fellow union members voted to approve such a draconian contract.

"I'm not OK with it, but I guess it keeps jobs in Wisconsin," he said. He looked at the ground for a few moments, then sighed and added, "for now."

___

Associated Press Writer Carrie Antlfinger contributed to this report.

Please read below: Workshop for Union members that want to learn about Single Payer Healthcare. Anyone interested in attending this call cell 935-3445 or e-mail me pres359@gmail.com . Local will cover registration cost if anyone want to learn and attend with me. Need to learn about this.......

Hi Dominic:

GlobalFoundries Wants $300 Million More from NYS Taxpayers While Paying Down Debt for Singapore Chip Fab Plant


by Jon Flanders

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/flanders300310.html


When it comes to scamming workers in the name of "JOBS," big multinational corporations have few peers.  Case in point: GlobalFoundries, the chip fab company set up by AMD, now majority-owned by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).

GlobalFoundries has already hit up New York State taxpayers for a cool 1.2 billion to build a chip fabrication plant in upstate New York.  Construction is underway, and now the company says it wants to expand on its original plans, and is coming hat in hand to New York State with a request for $300 million more aid.

According to the Troy Record, "Company spokesperson Travis Bullard confirmed Friday that GlobalFoundries is considering expanding the planned 'cleanroom' -- the manufacturing floor of the plant -- by as much as 50 percent.  The current plans call for the cleanroom to be 210,000 square-feet."

Meanwhile over in Singapore, according to Business Week, "GlobalFoundries Singapore has paid down about a quarter of its debt since the end of 2009, when its long-term debt and capital lease obligations totaled $1.91 billion.  The company said it has already retired $565 million of that debt, and is on track to reduce total indebtedness by around $861 million due to actions taken since it was acquired by Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), which is AMD's joint venture partner in GlobalFoundries."

And the response of local New York State politicians to GlobalFoundries' request, politicians who have no fear of citing the state deficit as a reason to cut jobs, pensions, and close state parks?

According to the Troy Record, Republican State Senator Roy McDonald "said the project is so important to the area that the incentives are worthwhile.  'We've got the biggest construction project in the U.S. going on right now in our backyard,' he said.  'If we weren't pursuing this economic development, the money would be going elsewhere in the state to create jobs."

Democratic State Assemblyman Ron Canestrari told the Albany Business Journal: "They're just too important to ignore.  They have a proven track record; it's not like a new kid on the block looking for additional money, I want to do all we can to secure them here."  According to the Business Review, "If a budget passes with no capital funds, Canestrari said he could 'scrounge around' to collect unspent capital funds from
the state's current fiscal year, and redirect them to GlobalFoundries."

To add insult to injury, Abu Dhabi, through another investment arm, owns nine percent of Apollo Management, owner of Momentive Performance Materials, whose Waterford, New York chemical plant cut production workers pay anywhere from 25 to 50 percent in 2008.  The workers there, represented by IUE/CWA 81359, are fighting the pay cuts through the National Labor Relations Board and have a contract that expires in June.

There is reason to believe that the attack on the Momentive workers pay is related to the chip fab industry's union free status.  The median pay for production workers in the industry here in the USA is $15 per hour.

IUE/CWA 81359 members and members of the local labor movement in the Capital Region of New York are meeting on Wednesday, March 31 with noted labor activist Steve Early, to discuss how to respond to the wage cuts at Momentive.  This new development around GlobalFoundries will only add fuel to the fire fraying the relations between New York workers and a state government less and less responsive to workers concerns.

Attached you will find a copy of the annual report on union membership the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor released this morning and accompanying talking points. Following two years of growth, the data shows a decline of 771,000 union members in 2009 and an essentially stable percentage of union membership at 12.3%.  Across the board, our economy is hemorrhaging jobs – particularly in the manufacturing and construction industries – at alarming speeds. 

These numbers cry out for urgent, bold action by our leaders to invest in America and create good jobs – including passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.  Now, more than ever, we must lead the fight to rebuild the middle class and build a strong economy.

BLS Talking Points 1-22-10.doc

BLSannual2009.pdf

Take the time to read the full Article Published by our Labor friend Jon Flanders and think carefully! He and the

Labor Community are looking out for our Members! Thanks Jon......

Good 21st-century jobs will be built on the basis of high-tech computer-based industries -- this is a narrative that we have been told many times in the corporate press.

The construction of a new computer chip fabrication plant just north of the Capital District of upstate New York by GlobalFoundries is touted by the business and political establishment here as just such a boon for the area.

But, for the union production workers at the Momentive Performance Materials plant just south of the GlobalFoundries project, it might mean the end of any hope of maintaining the living standards that generations of workers fought for.....

full:

New Chip Fab Plant Fabulous for Workers?

http://labornotes.org/2010/01/anger-over-health-care-bill-creates-uncertain-
future

Anger over Health Care Bill Creates Uncertain Future
by Jane Slaughter, January 20, 2010

A Massachusetts local union president called it before the January 19  
vote for senator: Ive never seen this much anger at the Democrats from  
union people,said Jeff Crosby, president of a General Electric factory  
local near Boston, as he prepared a last-minute leaflet to hand out in  
the plant. Its worse than NAFTA.

Top union leaders had bargained a compromise [1] slowing down the  
health care benefits tax President Obama insisted on, but it was not  
enough to placate union membersand othersinfuriated that Obama had  
broken his campaign promise not to tax benefits.

Crosby said his members were threatening to vote Republican to stop  
the tax, since 60 Democratic senators and no Republicans had voted for  
it. In Massachusettsspecial election they chose empty-suit Republican  
Scott Brown over a Democrat bound to cement the benefits tax in place.

In a Suffolk University poll conducted a week before the election,  
union-household voters in Massachusetts reported only 45 percent  
support for the Democratic candidate; union voters nationally backed  
Obama by 60 percent in 2008.

According to those on a January 14 conference call with AFL-CIO  
President Rich Trumka, Massachusetts state fed President Bobby Haynes  
exploded in anger, blaming top union leaders for a terrible health  
care bill and for losing the Massachusetts electionand thus the  
Dems60th Senate seat, needed to ensure the health care bills passage  
(and the rest of labors agenda, labor law and immigration reform).

Obama took a hands-off approach to the content of the bill as it crept  
through Congress. He didnt insist on a public option nor a strong  
employer mandate to provide insurance. It was hard not to notice that  
the only issue on which he took a hard stand was taxing benefits.

At his meeting with a dozen labor leaders at the White House January  
11, Obama was firm that a tax on benefits was a must-havedespite his  
campaign promise to the contrary. We have a lot of video clips,said  
Machinists President Thomas Buffenbarger.

Although the benefits tax was not the only issue on Massachusetts  
votersminds (the faltering economy was the No. 1 concern in the  
Suffolk poll), it was one of the clearest examples of the Obama  
administrations tilt away from working class voters, beginning with  
the bank bailout.

Trumka too had predicted that the health care mess would backfire on  
Democrats. In a January 11 speech [2] at the National Press Club, he  
said, In 1992, workers voted for Democrats who promised action on  
jobs, who talked about reining in corporate greed, and who promised  
health care reform. Instead, we got NAFTA, an emboldened Wall  
Streetand not much more. [In 1994] there was no way to persuade enough  
working Americans to go to the polls when they couldn't tell the  
difference between the two parties.

NAFTA, which dealt a heavy blow to U.S. manufacturing, was voted up by  
Congress in 1993 after intense cajoling by President Clinton,  
garnering the votes of 102 House Democrats. Clinton lost the  
Democratic majority in Congress the next yearand never got it back.

LETS MAKE A DEAL
As the likely House-Senate compromise took shape in early January, it  
appeared certain that if the bill passed, people with good (or just  
expensive) benefits would face a steep 40 percent tax likely to push  
them into inferior plans.

So labor leaders reached a deal [3] with White House negotiators  
January 14 that accepted the tax theyd previously declared  
unacceptable. The deal announced by Trumka and his counterparts at  
Change to Win and the National Education Association would have  
exempted those in union-negotiated plans and state and local employees  
from the tax until 2018.

It also would have raised the threshold at which the tax kicked in for  
many other plans: those containing significant numbers of women, older  
workers, or retirees age 55 and up, or those in high-cost states, the  
latter affecting more than 38 million workers. Those provisions would  
have delayed those groupshit as well.

Trumkas goal was to exempt as many people as possible, union and non- 
union, from ever paying the tax, though only the velocity of health  
care cost inflation would have proved how successful he was.

Most of the 31 million insured employees who would be hit by the  
excise tax are not union members,Trumka noted before the deal was  
struck. But in the end unions bought extra time for their members at  
the cost of making themselves look self-interested. The deal will  
create awkward moments for union health care activists whove spent  
years trying to build broad coalitions.

STILL OPPOSED
Not all top union leaders backed the compromise plan. Buffenbarger  
told Labor Notes his members at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General  
Dynamics were already over the $23,000 threshold at which the tax  
would originally kick in.

No bill is better than this bill,Buffenbarger said. We don't care what  
the amount is that they peg it to: because of inflation, whatever  
number will be gobbled up pretty quickly.

Firefighters President Harold Schaitberger said his union didnt ask  
for the bills special, higher threshold for first responders, $26,000  
rather than $23,000. The provision was worthless, he said, because  
most of his members are pooled in larger municipal plans, with no  
mechanism to segregate them out. Were not going to buy into a special  
deal for us,Schaitberger said.

The Steelworkers Leo Gerard backed the compromise, telling Labor Notes  
he was thinking about Senator Jim DeMint, that right-wing nut from one  
of the Carolinas,who  said he wants to make health care Obamas Waterloo.

We have to do everything to make sure we get a good bill so we can  
move forward with the rest of the presidents agenda as quickly as  
possible,Gerard said.

Insiders say Trumka sold his compromise by arguing that health care  
reform had to get done so Congress could tackle long-delayed labor law  
reform the Employee Free Choice Act.

Labors weakness throughout the health care reform process put a  
question mark over EFCA anyway, and even the question mark lay in  
tatters after the Massachusetts election.

Buffenbarger who backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries was a pessimist  
in any case. We're not going to get EFCA anyway,he said. Its an  
election year. No way they're going to touch it.

TURN TO THE STATES
One bright spot could emerge from this winters health care debacle:  
union members not pushed into the arms of the tea-partiers could  
become convinced that Medicare for All is the only solution.

It may mean more people are apt to be engaged on single payer because  
they are getting hit themselves,said Lenny Potash, a retired AFSCME  
member and co-chair of the Labor Taskforce for Universal Healthcare  
[4] in Los Angeles.

Activists in California and Vermont have already begun serious work on  
state single-payer efforts.

The Vermont Workers Center [5] turned out 350 people to legislative  
hearings January 12 to testify for the states single-payer bill.  
Senator Bernie Sanders was followed by union nurses.

The center, the states Jobs with Justice affiliate, began organizing  
in earnest last year: a rally of 1,000 at the State Capitol on a work  
day; organized committees in every county; a dozen regional hearings.  
The result, says co-chair Traven Leyshon, is that we have changed  
whats politically possible. As recently as September the legislature  
said they couldn't be bothered with single payer.

All Democratic candidates for governor next fall say they support  
single payer (though Leyshon recalls former Governor Howard Dean, who  
was always for single payer till the day he became governor). The  
Democrats and the Progressive Party together have a veto-proof two- 
thirds majority in both houses.

A new single-payer bill, just introduced by a Progressive legislator,  
includes a just transition for insurance company workers and others  
who would lose their jobs under a single-payer system. The legislation  
was written so as to survive legal challenges.

SINGLE PAYER IN ONE STATE

California activists will back a single-payer bill starting this  
month, though Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whos in his last year,  
is certain to veto it for the third time (similar bills passed in 2006  
and 2008). The campaign kicked off January 11 with 1,000 members of  
the California Health Professional Student Alliance and others  
rallying in Sacramento.

Michael Lighty of the California Nurses Association [6] explained that  
winning single payer is a multi-year project: heavy education this  
year, electing a Democratic governor who wont veto single payer this  
fall, passing a new bill, taking the measure to the voters in a  
referendum. The media campaign alone could cost as much as $20 million.

What about the cost, in a state thats broke? Cate Engel of the Labor  
Taskforce for Universal Healthcare said the bill ultimately would save  
California billions of dollars, by reducing administrative costs and  
using the states mammoth purchasing power to force drug and equipment  
prices down.

What about California unions that havent backed single payeror ditched  
the idea before the fight even began, citing political viabi lity?  
Well, said Lighty, we saw what happened on the national level when  
they went for public option over single payer because of viability.

Bill Bryce is the Jobs with Justice organizer in Detroit. Hes shaking  
his head over the lost opportunities of 2009the year when Obama rode  
in on a wave of hope for change and corporations were in disgrace  
because of the financial fiasco.

Youre the president, you appear on TV and say, I have a suggestion,  
lets tax Wall Street bonuses at 50 percent and defray the cost of  
health care,'Bryce said. If this was not the time to take on the  
insurance companies and the banks, just when will that time come?
Source URL:
http://www.labornotes.org/2010/01/anger-over-health-care-bill-creates-uncert
ain-future
Links:
[1]
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/01/14/health-care-tax-union-leaders-outline-big-
improvements-for-all-working-families
[2] http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/sp01112010.cfm
[3] http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2010/01/victory-or-pretzel
[4] http://laborforsinglepayer.com
[5] http://www.workerscenter.org
[6] http://www.calnurses.org

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