Blog

Stewart Acuff
Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President, Utility Workers Union of America

This past Saturday was a perfect spring-summer day in Chicago. The sun was bright. The air and sky were clear. There was a cool breeze off the lake.

I joined with labor activists from across Chicago in a Steelworkers rally to commemorate the 1937 Republic Steel massacre.

The issues in the strike are the two issues that have been most common in our centuries long struggle for workers’ rights and rights and social and economic justice.

The martyrs of the republic steel massacre were on strike for the right to have a union and the eight hour day.

We continue to fight on both issues.

Hundreds of activists from the Steelworkers, other unions and high school students gathered at George Washington High School gathered on Sat, May 18 to commemorate the martyrs of the Republic Steel Strike 76 years ago and to re-commit ourselves to the struggles those workers were martyred for. (more…)

By Hugh J. Campbell
Philadelphia, Pa., son of a Steelworker

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), on the surface flushes out U.S. tax evaders, a pro-99% aim, but increasing the U.S. taxes collected on previously hidden offshore accounts is only the tip of the iceberg. The worldwide shadow financial system referred to in this Global Financial Integrity (GFI) article is the global corruption and trade manipulation iceberg that FATCA can start melting.

Aside from the $399 billion that GFI mentions being siphoned via illicit outflows from Greece and Portugal, Global Financial Integrity’s reports document over $5 trillion in illicit outflows from China, Russia, Mexico and other developing counties. Is there any wonder that the United States is running huge trade deficits with these counties when the 1%ers of these counties are robbing the 99% of trillions in purchasing power? Many Americans decry the senate filibuster, but the ability of one senator blocking legislation on his or her own, seems even more egregious. (more…)

By Carl Davidson
Author and Writer for Beaver County Blue

Nearly 500 workers and community actvists marched through the streets of Pittsburgh’s South Side May I celebrating the international workers holiday. The main theme of the event was linking a defense of worker’s rights with immigrant rights, and backing the passage of a just and comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress.

‘Everyone here is an immigrant or the sons and daughters of immigrants,’ declared Leo Gerard, USW President, speaking from the back of a truck. ‘We can’t separate worker’s rights and immigrant rights, they’re one and the same.!

The main organizers of the celebration were Fight Back Pittsburgh and United Steel Workers Local 3657. The United Federation of Teachers, the United Electrical Workers, SEIU, IBEW, the USW’s ‘Women of Steel’ and other unions also took part.

This was the first May Day event backed by Pittsburgh unions in some years, and it was also promoted nationally by Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO. It marks the beginning of a more militant response by labor against austerity and in defense of wider democracy for all of its allies. (more…)

A delegation of Steelworkers from Ohio on strike at Phillips Manufacturing Co. traveled to San Antonio to distribute information about their dispute at the 2013 INTEX Expo sponsored by the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry (AWCI).

While there, the group distributed hundreds of handbills and even received an audience with Phillips CEO George Kubatz.

The AWCI expo took place on Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The event attracted interior and exterior commercial construction contractors, suppliers and distributors and was billed as an assembly of “the most influential wall and ceiling professionals in the nation.”

Phillips, which is headquartered in Omaha, Neb., manufactures drywall finishing beads and trims, channels, framing components and other construction materials. About 40 members of USW Local 4564-02 have been on strike at the company’s Niles, Ohio production facility since Sept. 14, 2012. (more…)

By Gary Villani
USW Local 959 Member; Former Editor, The Local Express

As the Supreme Court began considering two cases that might well determine the fate of same-sex marriage nationwide, a skeptical friend who anticipates 5-4 party line rulings in favor of doing nothing asked me which justice I would expect to break ranks.

I replied that I wouldn’t even hazard a guess, having read so many differing bits of analysis. There are wildly differing opinions on how the high court may approach the two cases before them. They may vote to uphold Proposition 8 in California, which prohibits same-sex marriages, even as they strike down DOMA, in what could be a realistic outcome reflecting federalism. However, if “The Supremes” rule that Prop 8 is unconstitutional, then North Carolina can say goodbye to Amendment One.

In this age of sequestration due to congressional gridlock—where business as usual is “do nothing”—the Supreme Court could simply choose to march in ideological lock-step and go 5-4 in favor of the status quo. Nothing changes. The so-called “nine state tactic,” whereby the justices would test the prevailing winds of progress using as a windsock the states [Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington] where same-sex marriage is already legal, seems more plausible. The cultural climate is just right for a paradigm shift of epic proportions. Nationally, polls reflect rising numbers—both in terms of general gay rights awareness, and specifically in support of marriage equality. President Obama has been the most high profile leader demonstrating individual evolution. Meanwhile, a growing number of Republicans have also publically changed their long-held stances due to the influence of personal family members with a vested interest in the pending judicial outcome—such as with U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who has a gay son, or former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter is a lesbian.

In a letter recently sent to the judicial branch of the United States Government, I spoke personally about why my feelings run so high on this issue.

“I am not being treated like an equal,” I wrote, “even though I am a service-connected, disabled veteran. As an Army soldier with the 82^nd Airborne Division, I fought for our country in Iraq, later broke my back while parachuting into a training operation, and served nearly 11 years in the military before being honorably discharged earlier than planned. (more…)

Elected officials, workers and Hawaii residents must all work together to prevent Tesoro from closing its Kapolei, Hawaii refinery.

Shuttering this highly-profitable facility would threaten national security, force the people of Hawaii to pay higher prices for gasoline, cause fuel shortages and end the jobs of 210 well-paid workers.

Refinery owner Tesoro said in January it would stop refining at the facility and convert it into an import, storage and distribution terminal.

Before the refinery was constructed in 1972, Hawaii imported gasoline and other oil products at high cost and supply was routinely a problem. The state’s residents should not be subjected to that again just so Tesoro can make even higher profits.

In addition, national security is at stake. The Tesoro refinery supplies as much as 70 percent of the fuel needed for Hawaiian military bases. Importing that fuel, especially from foreign sources, puts those bases in jeopardy. (more…)

Conservatives’ favorite battle cry, personal responsibility, is a glittering generality. A highly effective technique of propagandists and per Wikipedia, the emotionally appealing words are so closely associated with highly-valued concepts and beliefs that they carry conviction without supporting information or reason.

The latest indication of the CPAC darlings’ unwillingness to take any responsibility for the many “Tea Party one-term wonders” losing their seats in 2012 was apparent in Conservatism Hasn’t Failed; Republicans Have. One of the best indications of their arrogance is the statement: “We define culture; not the other way around.” Put another way, they have the illusion that the world revolves around them.

Jim DeMint claims the National Republican leaders have not advanced a conservative agenda for almost 20 years, yet they gave Bush-43 their support at every turn, on the Wars, Tax-cuts, Medicare Part D, on and on.

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By Jamie West
USW Local 6500

I often hear people (who are probably misinformed about unions) say: “Unions once had a place but are not longer needed.” Recently, I was trying to understand which year unions officially became “no longer needed.”

• In Canada, private-sector unions have only been recognized since 1950, and it wasn’t until 1960 that public-sector unions were recognized, so unions must have been “needed” 50 years ago.

• Saskatchewan created Canada’s first Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1971, so unions must have been “needed” 40 years ago.

•  Ontario didn’t get an Occupational Health and Safety Act until 1978, so unions must have been “needed” 30 years ago.

•  Canada’s Federal employees didn’t get an Occupational Health and Safety Act until 1984; and WHMIS legislation wasn’t passed until 1988, so unions must have been “needed” 25 years ago.

• The Westray Act, which allows criminal charges against corporate officials for workplace deaths, was passed in 1992, so unions must have been “needed” 20 years ago.

• During the SARS medical crisis, hospital workers were directed to treat highly infectious patients without precautions or MOL involvement. This inaction led to the death of three workers in 2003 (the SARS Commission clearly identifies that more could have been done to protect the safety of health-care workers), so unions must have been “needed” 10 years ago. (more…)

By Hugh J. Campbell
Philadelphia, Pa., son of a Steelworker

Highlighted in Nate Silvers’ New York Times article: Conservatives’ Love Affair With Christie Is Over was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie becoming the eighth Republican governor to announce that he will accept Medicaid expansion under the President’s health care law, in spite of Christie’s party’s general opposition to the law.

Some human endeavors bring out the best in people, others the best and worse. Still others, like politics, more often than not, bring out the worse in people. Perhaps the reason for this is that the life-blood of politics practiced by both U.S. political parties is something we try to teach our children and grandchildren to resist, namely peer pressure. Likewise being a good sport, i.e. neither a gloating winner nor a sorehead loser.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) snubbing of Chris Christie over his Medicaid choice demonstrates peer pressure by sorehead losers.

If you are interested in reducing the burden of illness to working families by delivering to them the access to healthcare that is set to begin January 1, 2014, please click either or both of the following links:

Bring your tax dollars home!

Medicaid Expansion: State Updates and Opportunities to Get Involved

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To submit a blog to Free Speech Zone, e-mail it to bstack@usw.org. Keep it to 250 words or fewer. You MUST include your full name, hometown, and state. You may attach a photograph of yourself. Please include a phone number. This WILL NOT be published. Posting any given blog is within the discretion of the USW. No blog using foul language (this is a family site), false information (we don’t want to get sued), or unnecessary personal attacks (again, we don’t want to get sued) will be used. Wait a reasonable period of time, then blog again! This is a Free Speech Zone.

Stewart Acuff
Chief of Staff and Assistant to the President, Utility Workers Union of America

Wednesday night I watched a recording of Lyndon Johnson making a speech for passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Johnson’s statement in the course of the speech, “We Shall Overcome,” stills moves me.

The Supreme Court of a truly democratic nation would not even hear this case seeking to overturn the Voting Rights Act. My friend Rev. James Orange helped ogranize the Selma to Montgomery march. Every year he took me to the historical re-enactment. The amount of blood that the passage of the Voting Rights Act required is a stain on our nation. Its repeal by an un-elected rightwing Supreme Court would be a dishonor to our nation and a dishonor to all the sacrifice of all those who struggled for its passage

All the radical right wing efforts to frustrate voters of color this year is nauseating, as is so-called Justice Scalia saying there is “racial entitlement.” Our nation’s democracy is threatened continually by radical right wing Republicans who don’t want a real democracy, who try to buy elections, and who change voting rules to intimidate and frustrate voters.

The radical right wing Republicans would make a mockery of our martyrs and slowly but surely dismantle American Democracy.

Brothers and sisters, we will have to sacrifice to protect this democracy.

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To submit a blog to Free Speech Zone, e-mail it to bstack@usw.org. Keep it to 250 words or fewer. You MUST include your full name, hometown, and state. You may attach a photograph of yourself. Please include a phone number. This WILL NOT be published. Posting any given blog is within the discretion of the USW. No blog using foul language (this is a family site), false information (we don’t want to get sued), or unnecessary personal attacks (again, we don’t want to get sued) will be used. Wait a reasonable period of time, then blog again! This is a Free Speech Zone.