[Peace-discuss] Today's Voice: THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY (fwd)

Wed Sep 3 23:21:35 CDT 2003

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 02:00:49 -0700
From: Voice4Change <info at voice4change.org>
To: "ppatton at uiuc.edu" <ppatton at uiuc.edu>
Subject: Today's Voice: THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY

Voice4Change
Uniting Our Voices
http://www.voice4change.org

September 1, 2003

Dear ppatton at uiuc.edu,

THE GRINCH THAT STOLE LABOR DAY
by Greg Palast

Friday, 29 August, 2003

In celebration of the working person's holiday, Secretary of Labor Elaine
Chao has announced the Bush Administration's plan to end the 60-year-old
law which requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for overtime.

I'm sure you already knew that -- if you happened to have run across page
15,576 of the Federal Register.

According to the Register, where the Bush Administration likes to place
it's little gifts to major campaign donors, 2.7 million workers will lose
their overtime pay -- for a "benefit" of $1.53 billion. I put "benefit" in
quotes because, in the official cost-benefit analysis issued by Bush's
Labor Department, the amount employers will now be able to slice out of
workers' pockets is tallied on the plus side of the rules change.

For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=3D030901~v4c.asp

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Hard Talk On Labor Day
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 1 September 2003

Editor's Note: The following remarks were delivered by William Rivers Pitt
to the Greater Boston Labor Council's annual breakfast on September 1,
2003.

Did everyone have a nice weekend? Good. Thank a Union.

I was tempted to come in here today and deliver a speech about how
profoundly important unions have been to the development of this nation,
and to me personally. After all, I make my living as a writer. Before that,
I made my living as a teacher. The bedrock abilities I need to do both
those jobs were given to me by union teachers. A union member taught me to
read. A union member taught me to write. Union members taught America to
respect the rights and strengths of working people everywhere. I submit
that an America with no union organization would be an America most
citizens could not be able to recognize, an America most citizens would
want nothing to do with.

For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=3D030901~to.asp

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John Sweeney on Labor Day

Remarks by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney at Labor Day Reporter Roundtable
August 28, 2003

As we come to Labor Day 2003, working America is facing a crisis. It=92s a
jobs crisis and it=92s the number 1 issue facing Americans. Despite our
so-called recovery, far too many people are out of work and many have been
out of work for a long time. White collar as well as blue-collar employees
are losing jobs, and many of these jobs aren=92t coming back. And executive=
s
are slashing health care and retirement benefits.

President Bush has pulled the rug out from under America=92s working people
and rolled out a red carpet for the wealthy and giant corporations.

There has been more net job loss under Bush than under any President since
Herbert Hoover. One Nobel prize winning economist recently called the Bush
economic policies the worst in 200 years, adding that the Bush tax cuts
that predominantly benefited a wealthy few will mean a 10-year budget
deficit of nearly 6 trillion dollars.

For more information:
http://www.aflcio.org/

To find out what Labor Day activities are being held in your community:
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutunions/laborday/index.cfm

To Send a Labor Day e-card to a friend:
http://www.aflcio.org/familyfunresources/ecards/index.cfm

For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=3D030901~afl-cio.asp

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Jobs with Justice:  Fall 2003 Season of Struggle

Join Jobs with Justice this fall as we fight for the rights of workers in
the United States and throughout the hemisphere.

Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride
http://www.jwj.org/community/immigration/IWFR.htm

Fight the FTAA
http://www.jwj.org/global/FTAA/stopFTAA.htm

December 10 Day of Action to Restore the Freedom to Form Unions and Bargain
Collectively
http://www.jwj.org/workplace/D10/D10.htm

Our country is in crisis. The Bush administration and their corporate
cronies are pursuing a dangerous agenda that is driving down our living
standards and those of our sisters and brothers around the world in order
to increase the profits and power of a few. Their agenda is a deliberate
attack on working families that takes many forms:

For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=3D030901~jwj.asp

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The Living Wage Movement:
Building Power in our Workplaces and Neighborhoods

In 1994, an effective alliance between labor (led by AFSCME) and religious
leaders (BUILD) in Baltimore launched a successful campaign for a local law
requiring city service contractors to pay a living wage. Since then, strong
community, labor, and religious coalitions have fought for and won similar
ordinances in cities such as St. Louis, Boston, Los Angeles, Tucson, San
Jose, Portland, Milwaukee, Detroit, Minneapolis, and Oakland -- bringing
the national living wage total to 109 ordinances. Today, more than 75
living wage campaigns are underway in cities, counties, states, and college
campuses across the country. Taken collectively, these impressive instances
of local grassroots organizing is now rightfully dubbed the national living
wage movement, which syndicated columnist Robert Kuttner has described as
"the most interesting (and underreported) grassroots enterprise to emerge
since the civil rights movement =85 signaling a resurgence of local activis=
m
around pocketbook issues."

For the rest of the story:
http://www.voice4change.org/stories/showstory.asp?file=3D030901~acorn.asp

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Warm Regards,

Voice4Change.org
http://www.voice4change.org

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