Happy Labor Day, Siemens, North East, Maryland!

*** The results of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election at Siemens in North East Maryland, USA: 15 workers voted Yes and 24 voted No. 2 workers did not vote.

 

Hello, Cecil Whig- where the heck are you?  You covered sucessful unionizing efforts at the IKEA warehouse recently here in Perryville.  WHASSUP?  That one was peaceful (thumbs up to Ikea) & this one is not.  Could that be the difference?  You got me!


The conflict at Siemens (a German electronics & engineeringineering company)  has made national & international news.  The problem is being discussed on Facebook- with photos no less!  It's in North East, Md. and has 42 production employees.

In a nutshell: "It [Siemens] even just signed an agreement with labour organizations committing to respect workers’ rights around the globe. So what does Siemens do within days after signing this agreement? It launches a vicious union busting campaign. In Maryland, USA, Siemens has hired a top-dollar anti-union consultant and waged a campaign that’s included intimidation, surveillance, threats involving termination, and prohibiting Siemens employees from even talking about the union." source

Exactly what do the union busting tactics involve?  Well... you'll get fired!

Final vote to join the United Steelworkers is Sept. 6.  The Union has filed unfair labor charges against Siemens with the NLRB.

Oh, BTW: HAPPY LABOR DAY!

 

IBEW Local Protest

**They are still there today.


5 members of this IBEW Local 99 (electricians) stood with their banner: "E.F. Burman Costruction Piggish about Profits" this a.m. on the corner of Green End Ave. & Aquidneck. This is the company that is currently building the police station.

They are not protesting this specific job, but rather the company's hiring practices across the state. There are more demonstrations across the state but I lost my phone connection & rec'd no more details. None of the protesters were from here- the closest bing Bristol & one from Burriville.

From their handout:

"E.W. Burman Construction frequently employs subcontractors that do not pay their workers the community standard wages for electricians in this area.

In this time of a spiraling economy we ask you not to promote or patronize W. E. Burman Construction & add to the slowing downturn of you local eocnomy.

When standard wages are paid, employees contribute to the escalation & well being of the economy in your community.

It's time to stop the race to the bottom with substandard wages & benefits.

E.W. Burman's piggish practice is a negative contribution to your local economy's decline each & every day!

This handbill is inteded to inform the public that the International brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 99's issue is only with E.W.Burman contruction. It is not the intention of IBEW Local 99 to interfere, stop deliveries, or coerce anyone from performing their duties on this contruction site."

More later.

Labor Day Obsolete?

Another great article from Projo in case you missed it. ""WITH NO SMALL IRONY, Labor Day has become much more about finding cheap Chinese goods on sale than a celebration of the strength and dignity of the American worker."' An excellent readable article.
'"In fact, the emergence of China as the world’s factory floor appears to be the final nail in the coffin of the American labor movement."' Inevitable? Not so. China's sucess if at the expense of the American worker - record trade imbalances, loss of jobs, downward pressure on wages.
1. Unfair trade practices. Few U.S. imports, but plenty of cheap exports.
2. Cheap, sometimes slave labor, at the expense of their own people.
3. The cooperation of large multinational corps. No longer do they have to worry about the AFL-CIO, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or even the Internal Revenue Service.
The inevitable effects of globilization on the American worker? Not exactly. Has the bringing of everyone else up to our standards now sunken to the level of lowering ourselves to the lowerst common denominator? '"What these politicians and pundits miss is the critical difference between China’s pernicious brand of 'beggar thy neighbor' free trade and the kind of robust fair trade that characterized the Golden Age of the 20th Century when the labor movement was, like our country, so very strong and vital."'
Well said. If ever there was a need for strong leadership across the board in our country, state, and district, now is the time for it! It doesn't have to be this way. Otherwise, except for a few precious few, our future is not that bright.
The author's website is http://www.peternavarro.com/. His new book is the "The New China Wars" & is a Ph.D. of Economics at the Univ. Of Calif., Irvine.

Labor Day

In cased you missed it today in Projo. Who would have thought Projo? It's even more applicable today than when it was spoken 115 years ago.


‘Rights of the masses’

What does labor want? It wants the earth and the fullness thereof. There is nothing too precious, there is nothing too beautiful, too lofty, too ennobling, that is not within the scope and aspirations and wants. We want more schoolhouses and fewer jails, more books and fewer arsenals, more learning and less vice, more constant work and less crime, more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge — in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures, to make manhood nobler, womanhood more beautiful, and childhood brighter and happier. The labor movement of our country and of all countries stands for progress, for protection of the interests and rights of the masses. There can be no real freedom where labor is enslaved. It is our mission to see to it that the heritage handed down to us by our forefathers of this and other countries, who have borne scars of battle, is accepted, and that we take up the struggle where they were compelled to lay it down, be true to them, be true to ourselves and to the people of our time, and, more important than all, to hand down the heritage of freedom to those who shall come after us to bear the burden of their day, to make life and toil better — better worth the living and the doing.
— Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, 1886-1924, in a speech on Aug. 28, 1893.