District 7 News

Covering the United Steelworkers in Indiana and Illinois - MAY 2009 - #33

AGITATOR

On the marchin Granite CityOn the marchin Granite City

photo

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LABOR CLIMATE PROJECT

The Labor Climate Project arm of the BlueGreen Alliance educates local union membersabout the dangers of global warming and thesolutions that will help both the environmentand create good green sustainable union jobs.

Too many union members believe that theissues of the environment are at odds withissues of labor. In fact, the opposite is true. Inthis fight we have a common enemy and thatis large corporations whose interest is theirbottom line — often at the expense ofenvironmental and labor standards here athome and abroad.

Labor unions have always fought forenvironmental safety for our members, in theirworksites and communities. In this economicrecession, now is the time to bring the messageof global warming solutions and job creationto union members.

The Blue Green Alliance has developed aneducational presentation for local unions.Contact Tom Conway at 219-738-9029.

By Carl DavidsonWhen you walk into a Washington, DC hotellobby and find thousands of people-half inlabor union jackets, the other half dressed in30-something hip-hop causal-you know some-thing is up.

This was the scene this Feb 4-6 as nearly 3000activists and organizers gathered for the"Good Jobs, Green Jobs" National Confer-ence.

It's called the "blue-green alliance," and itscore is the United Steelworkers and the Si-erra Club, which jointly launched the "GreenJobs" movement in Pittsburgh a year ago.

The turnout this year was triple in size andhighly energized by both the victory of Presi-dent Barack Obama and the looming onset of

an economic crisis.

The building trades were also represented, andthe green groups spanned a wide range of con-cerns, from toxics to alternative energy to cli-mate change. Also notable was the participa-tion of a contingent of "high road" corpora-tions rooted in the growing "green economy."Gamesa, a major Spanish firm specializingin wind turbines, and Piper Jaffray, a largepaper company focused on recycled paperproducts were there.

But a critical new dimension was added byGreen For All, an organization rooted amonginner city youth, and led by Van Jones the au-thor of "The Green Collar Economy.”

The conference started with 'Advocacy Day,'which deployed the participants to Capitol

Hill to lobby their respective Senators andRepresentatives. With remarkable serendip-ity, the Senate was deadlocked that same dayover details of the Obama stimulus package,with the GOP trying to gut many of the GreenJobs components as "wasteful," while seek-ing tax cuts and bailouts for the rich. Thevoices and pressure from the conference ac-tivists come not have been timelier.

"A trickle has become a torrent,' said MargieAlt from Environment America the next morn-ing, comparing their present efforts with theorganizing and direct action campaign of thecivil rights movement. There are two pathsin repowering America with clean energy, sheexplained. "One would have us chase short-term profits; the other has us moves towardnew public transit and plug-in hybrid cars,built in the USA and powered by the sun andthe wind. Only the second puts us back towork.

Alt warmed up the session for RichardTrumka, the AFL-CIO's Secretary-Treasurer.Trumka was a hero to millions in the Obamacampaign for the no-nonsense way he tookon the question of racism in rallying tradeunion organizers to win over white workersto vote for a Black candidate in the Appala-chian areas.

"What a year!" Trumka proclaimed, referringnot only to the election, but the Blue-GreenAlliance's growth since Pittsburgh. "It'sbrought forward all the issues of race andclass, and there's no going back. Good ideasand loud voices are desperately needed. Inthe mines, we were often told, jobs or the en-vironment was the choice. But now we knowthe truth. It's not one or the other; it's both orneither. So get over it! This blue-green alli-ance isn't going away. We're in this togetherfor the long haul."

Trumka had warm praise for Obama, but asharp rebuke for the GOP Right. "All they cando is say, No!-No to fair trade, no to the Em-ployee Free Choice Act, no to protecting theenvironment, no to domestic investment innew manufacturing. In the face of this, wehave no guarantees; we'll get nothing herewithout a fight."

Expo Booths at Green Jobs 2009

One topic discussed was the theme of the con-ference, "What is a Green Job?" and "Whatis a 'Good Job'?" The later was easily defined:a good job was a union job, a living wagewith decent benefits. Green jobs were viewedfrom a number of angles. Trumka defined itas every job that contributes to a low-carbonfuture. Nuclear power and 'clean coal' effortsmight come under that, but would be opposedby a good number in the coalition. There was

The Blue Green Alliance is a strategic partnership between four international Unionsand two environmental organizations. It began in 2006 as a partnership between theUnited Steelworkers and the Sierra Club. Last fall CWA, SEIU, the Laborers Inter-national, and the National Resource Defense Council came on board as partners. TheBlue Green Alliance is uniting more than six million people in pursuit of good jobs, aclean environment and a green economy.

Blue-Green IndianaBlue-Green Indiana is a chapter of the nationalorganization made up of the same partnersplus Hoosier environmental groups such asSave the Dunes Council, and other state la-bor unions. Four other states have BGA’s(Kansas, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin).

When did the Indiana BGA form?

The group announced itself at a press confer-ence on March 22, USW Lobby Day. Thenfor the first time, USW members lobbied theirrepresentatives to support a state RenewableEnergy Standard (RES) through legislationcalled “Green Jobs Act of 2009”

Did the legislation pass?

A strong Green Jobs Bill designed to stimu-late the manufactur of solar and wind com-ponents, as well as thousands of other goodjobs in transportation, installation, etc.—waspassed in the Indiana House, a first. Unfortu-nately, the bill died in conference committeeand Indiana remains the only Midwest statewithout a renewable electricity standard.

Steelworkers, Hip-Hoppers and Tree-Huggers Get It On at 'Green Jobs 2009'

The clean energy movement can'tbe stopped, and labor is the pillar

of the whole pro-democracymovement we need." - Van Jones

no effort, moreover, to enforce unanimity onthe point; debate and discussion would con-tinue. There was wide agreement, however,on the Green jobs most in reach of unem-ployed youth: solar panel installations, 'win-terizing' older housing stock to Green standards,urban agriculture plans, and expansion of masstransit.

The conference planners stressed the issue in abooklet distributed to all attendees, entitled"High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in theNew Economy." Terence O'Sullivan, presidentof the Laborer's International Union, exposedthe problem:

"We did a survey of every job cur-rently being called 'Green' by em-ployers, and found the majority ofthem didn't pay enough to support afamily of two." There was nosustainability, he suggested, withoutthe working class itself being sus-tained. Borrowing from Henry Ford,he said, "Every worker building aGreen product should be able to af-ford a plug-in hybrid car. It's verypossible to build green, pay unionwages, and still make a profit. There's no car-ing for the Earth that doesn't also include car-ing for the people on it."

Labor, government and business could be part-ners, O'Sullivan explained further, so long asthe focus was "good jobs, at a living wage andthe prevailing wage." The dynamic union leader,whose union represents some 500,000 build-ing trades workers, stressed that "low road busi-nesses and policies must not be rewarded....Thisfight isn't over; it's just started. The Republi-cans can't lead us anywhere; they couldn't findthe supposed weapons of mass destruction inIraq, and today they can't find even a trace ofthe first half of $700 billion given to the bankson Wall Street." To tremendous applause, heconcluded by saying "No retreat, no surrender!"and that a "workers revolution" had to be pairedwith the "green revolution."

A workshop on capital investment strategies,discussed Ontario's Algoma Steel, one of thelargest worker-owned co-ops in North America,now thriving after a worker buyout assisted byventure capital and government funds. FredRichmond, USW International Vice President,presented the example of his union's coopera-tion with Gamesa, a Spanish firm specializingin building wind turbines. One mill has beenrecently reopened in in Eastern Pennsylvania,and another is underway in Western PA, creat-ing 1000 new USW jobs.

James Hoffa of the Teamsters explained that theblue-green alliance started in the streets of Se-attle in the massive street battles of "Teamstersand Turtles" on one side, and the World TradeOrganization and the police on the other. "Youlearn who your friends are," he declared, 'andyou learn a few things in the process. We origi-nally supported drilling in ANWAR. I'd like to

announce to you today that we no longer do."

Some of the most powerful presentations cameon the last day. First up was Winona LaDuke,member of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Tribe liv-ing in the White Earth Indian Reservation inMinnesota.

After greeting the crowd in her traditional lan-guage, LaDuke proclaimed with a smile, "I mustadmit it's a treat to come here from Minnesotato the home of the Great Black Father!" whichbrought down the house.

But she quickly turned serious, and the need tobreak with a petroleum-centered economy. "Wecan't build a society based on conquest. We are

addicted, and like addicts, we hang out withdealers and do bad stuff. Our people lived in agreen economy on this continent for nearly30,000 years, and knew how to live within theirmeans." She also took aim at the nuclear indus-try, noting that two-thirds of uranium was minedon Indian lands, and all of the proposals ofwhere to store hazardous nuclear waste wereIndian lands as well. "In what was the largesturanium mine in New Mexico, they've nowbuild three prisons. How's that for a future?"For a Green solution, she pointed out that In-dian lands were also "the windiest and sunni-est' places in the country, and welcomed windturbines and solar collectors, "but we want lo-cal ownership and control" as part of the pack-age.

Fred Richmond of the steelworkers spoke next."Feel the spirit of our sister, Winona LaDuke!Feel her passion for this land, as opposed tothose global corporations with no loyalty to any-one apart from themselves!"

Richmond went on to give a history of how theblue-green alliance started with the USW andthe Sierra Club. "We both came to understandthat we cannot get good jobs without a cleanenvironment, and that we can't get a clean en-vironment without good jobs. We both neededunconventional allies to fight the low road'sworldwide race to the bottom." Speaking aboutdecades of fathers and grandfathers killed andpoisoned in the mills, he ended with "We needto take our planet back!"

Now it was time for Green For All, which firedeveryone up with the Hip-Hop video, "GreenAnthem 1," (available on YouTube) a powerfulportrayal of the entry of multicultural youth intothe mix of "unconventional" but very natural

allies. It brought Van Jones to the stage.

"We started this because we were tired of go-ing to funerals," Jones began. "We were tiredof police killing kids, and kids killing kids."These were rooted in the oppression of the in-ner city's joblessness and hopelessness, he ex-plained and described initial work with the EllaBaker Center to fight for home repair andcleanup jobs, and called it "Green Jobs, NotJails." Later the concept deepened into majorstructural reforms described in his book, "TheGreen Collar Economy."

"This is a profound movement that goes deeperthan installing solar panels," Jones went on.This is showing the world a new America.... But

no change can come in one day. Wehave to work every day. We have tochange the economy, not just withgreen proposals, but with solidarityback in the center of it. We have tomove democracy from the ballot boxto the workplace. We are the humanfamily coming back to itself. Thinklong and hard on this question: inthe final hour, who are we? Who arewe on this planet? Are we a swarm

of locusts, devouring everything? Or are wehoneybees, building together and adding tolife?"

"This is our world historic moment, am I right,brother steelworkers?" Jones said gesturing toRichmond. "The clean energy movement can'tbe stopped, and labor is the pillar of the wholepro-democracy movement we need." To theGreen For All youth, Jones added, "You areGround Zero in this fight. To green the planet,we must green the city, and there's no greeningthe city without greening the ghetto. This is amovement that let's you rise!

Jones was adamant on the need to organize andmobilize at the base, to go back to the unionhalls and neighborhoods, and speak to all thosenot yet involved. He was warmly supportive ofObama, and the need to back him up. "But therewill be times to push him, and times to be afew steps in front on him."

The question of war and militarism was broughtfront and center by Rev. Lenox Yearwood whois president of the Hip-Hop Caucus and a min-ister. Formerly an Air Force officer and chap-lain, he raised a ruckus when he delivered asermon to the Joint Chiefs of Staff entitled,"Who Would Jesus Bomb?."

""No War, No Warming!' is a slogan that has tolink our struggles," said Yearwood. "This isour generation's lunch-counter moment. Onehundred years from now, not of us in this roomwill be here; but we have to make sure the planetwill still be inhabitable for our children andgrandchildren. Organize everywhere, mobilizeeveryone, and lift up all! Power to the people!"

Carl Davidson writes for "Beaver County Blue," awebsite anchored in Western Pennsylvania. He is alsoa member of the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network(http://ussen.org)

EAST CHICAGO IN: Remarks by TomHargrove:

“As a member of the ArcelorMittal GlobalHealth & Safety Group, I have seen first handsafety improvements around the world. I havealso seen our shortcomings. Workers’ safetyhas no borders.

Last June, a global safety agreement settingminimum standards and joint safety commit-tees around the World was signed by L. Mittalfor ArcelorMittal and Leo Gerard for theUnited Steelworkers, the International Met-alworkers Federation, European Metalwork-ers Federation, and the Brazilan union Cen-tral Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) alsosigned.

The Global agreement is a very good docu-ment, but in most locations, the problem isgetting it applied on the shop floor.

Our Joint Committee visits have taken us toKazakhstan, Brazil and Mexico. In June wewill visit Romania

So far this year, we have had 10 fatalitiesworld wide. None in the USA.

We must do more each and every day in theUSA, and around the World, to make ourplants safer by removing hazards.”

Local 1010 HostsArcelorMittal World

Safety Day

USW L.U. 1010 Tom Hargrove

PHOTO LEFT: Laying a rose at the workers me-morial in the 1010 hall is Jerry Scherwood,sister in law of Tony Parker who was killed inthe mill in 2004.

A bus load of South Chicago SOARmembers from Chapter 31-9 joinedhundreds at a rally at St. Augustine Col-lege on Chicago’s North Side in sup-port of President Obama’s health carereform plan on April 18th. The rally wascalled by Citizen’s Action and HealthCare for America Now. Many differentunions participated along with the USWand SOAR.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill) was the main speaker. She noted thatshe is an original co-sponsor of HR-676the single payer Medicare for All Act,but said that passing the Obama planwith a strong public option was a criti-cal first step towards even greater healthcare reform like HR 676. Schakowskycalled for unity of all fighting for healthcare reform. She also praised the labormovement for its leadership in the fightfor comprehensive health care reform.

-by Scott Marshall

SOAR - Fighting For Health Care For All

photos: Jim Spazoff

PHOTO LEFT -Trades & Labor Presi-dent, Bill Franisco, Il-linois Governor PatQuinn in middle, Illi-nois AFL-CIO Presi-dent MichealCarringan And Mayorof Decatur, IL.

RIGHT - IllinoisGovernor Pat Quinn

Decatur IL Workers’ Memorial Day

ALTON IL: The Greater Madison County(IL) Federation of Labor held their annualWorkers’ Memorial Day observance at theirmonument in Gordon F. Moore Park in Alton,IL. Among those remembered wasSteelworker Brother Jeff “J.T.” Pace LU 3643who was killed on the job at Alton Steel.

ABOVE: Workers’ Memorial statue in silhouette in foreground at candlelight ceremony.PHOTO RIGHT: States Attorney Bill Mudge

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Madison County (IL) States Attorney BillMudge was the keynote speaker (photo lowerright). His comments focused on the needfor greater enforcement of health & safetyregulations in the workplace - includingcriminal prosecution.

Several states have taken similar actions inrecent years, placing employers andsupervisors on trial for their roles inworkplace accidents and deaths.

Workers’ Memorial DayMadison County IL

photos: Andy Clark

FORT WAYNE IN - April 21, 2009 - TheFort Wayne City Council voted to “BuyAmerican” with the Federal Stimulus fundscoming to the area. Members of theUnited Steelworkers, the Alliancefor American Manufacturing andallies had been working with thecity council for 3 weeks in order todrive home the need for its constitu-ents to see that the council supportsworking families in the area. USWLocal 715L Rapid Response Coor-dinator Charlie Odier spoke at several coun-cil meetings on behalf of Northeast Indianaworkers. Denny Leazier, president of USWLocal 903 and President of the Fort WayneUnion Label and Service TradesCouncil also addressed the council.Additional representatives fromUSW Local 7-304, USW Local715L, the Iron Workers Union, La-borers Union, and the Alliance forAmerican Manufacturing also spokewith council members about the im-portance of domestic manufacturing.

The resolution, R-09-04-08, intro-duced by council members Goldnerand Hines encouraged the FortWayne Board of Works, the FortWayne Department of Purchasingand Mayor Tom Henry to use themoney designated for Fort Wayne onAmerican iron, steel and manufac-tured goods and services. Council-man Tom Didier explained that while

Denny Leazier USW L.U. 903 rallies the crowd on the importance of Buy American provisions in the stimulus bill.

council to act in a “concerted effort to encour-age the purchase of locally and Americanmade product” was unclear to her as she ex-

plained that: “I don’t know whata concerted effort is or what buy-ing a local product means”.

A series of “Rebuild America”Rallies have been occurring at theAllen County Courthouse in FortWayne for months to reinforcethe need for Fort Wayne city

council to support area workers and to drivehome the message to “Keep it Made inAmerica”.

“I don’t know what a concerted effort is or whatbuying a local product means.” -

Liz Brown, Republican at-Large who voted against the

Buy American provision

Steelworkers Rally Fort Wayne to “Buy American”

Union members from UAW Local 2209, and USW Local 634L

the city purchasing personnel is already dili-gent about buying domestic goods, a futurechange in personnel may bring a different set

of priorities to the job. The only opposing votewas from Liz Brown, Republican at-Largeserving her first term on the council. A sec-tion of the resolution, which called for the

photos: Rachel Bennett Steury

Brian McIntosh, (above) addresses thecrowd outside the Georgia Pacific-Wheatfield/USW negotiations in Valpo onMarch 31. The NLRB has recently issueda complaint against the company for ille-gally firing McIntosh. About 100 peoplechanted “Bring Back Mac” and “Two Years,

Georgia PacificWheatfield workers

battle for two years toachive first contract

VALPARASIO IN - Union activists fromacross the region rallied outside a local ho-tel as Georgia Pacific workers met againwith the company and a Federal Mediatorto bargain a labor agreement.

The workers’ perserverance paid off. At theend of two days of bargaining and media-tion, the Company finally moved off ofwage concessions. On April 29, after twoyears of bargaining, the workers ratifiedtheir first labor agreement, most seeing itas a small first step toward fairness and im-proved working conditions at GP. One daylater, the National Labor Relations Boardmoved forward on the Union’s charges andissued a complaint on behalf of Brian McIn-tosh and other illegally disciplined work-ers. As of this writing, the Board has alsoblocked any further action on a decertifi-cation petition filed by some workers at GPwho were tired of the long fight for justice.

We salute the Georgia Pacific-Wheatfieldworkers for their steadfast support for theirbargaining committee and their achieve-ment of their first contract. Their story is aperfect example of why we need to changethe law NOW. Nobody in America shouldhave to go through what they did to getunion representation and a labor agreement.We hope that by the next issue of this pa-per we will report that “Mac is Back” andthat the new GP union has elected their firstofficers!

photos: B. Carey

Buril Smith L.U. 9231

Too Long!” and called for swift passageof the Employee Free Choice Act. A del-egation of union and community activiststhen delivered a petition to Management,demanding an immediate settlement tothe 2 year ordeal.

Put an End to the Abuse of Workers’ RightsWe Experienced at Georgia Pacific- Wheatfield!

PHOTO BELOW: Tom Perez, a member ofthe bargaining committee.

In 2007, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh wasa co-sponsor of the Employee Free ChoiceAct. But now he is witholding support.Call Sen. Bayh and ask him to co-spon-sor and support the Employee Free ChoiceAct

Call Toll Free: 1-866-207-2060 Useyour own words, but here is a samplephone message:

“Please co-sponsor and vote for the Em-ployee Free Choice Act. In these perilouseconomic times, we must restore work-ers’ freedom to bargain with their em-

ployers for secure jobs, health care andretirement benefits and fair pay. It’s timeto rebuild the middle class and help strug-gling working families.” For more info:www.EmployeeFreeChoiceAct.org

Ask Evan Bayh whyhe’s not supporting theEmployee Free Choice

Act

by Rachel Bennett Steury

INDIANAPOLIS, IN. - The United Steel-workers (USW) applauded the Indiana Sen-ate which pledged to “Buy American” by vot-ing unanimously in favor of a resolution insupport of American workers on April 24.

Introduced by Sen. Vi Simpson(Bloomington), with co-authors Sens. Den-nis Kruse (DeKalb, Allen), and Randy Head(Cass, Fulton, Kosciusko, Miami, Pulaski andWabash), Senate Resolution 37 made its wayfrom the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee tothe Rules and Legislative Procedures Com-mittee to its’ final stage on the Senate floor.

USW members from around the state, alongwith field coordinators from the Alliance forAmerican Manufacturing (AAM) have beenworking for Senate passage since its introduc-tion on March 10th. The Indiana House in-troduced and passed its Buy American reso-lution on the very same day in March.

Multiple visits to the Statehouse, where hun-dreds of union workers called on their legis-lators to support the resolution, reinforced theneed for Hoosiers to have their elected offi-cials help working Indiana.

“We are pleased the Indiana Senate and theHouse join the growing number of states tosupport working families,” says JimRobinson, USW’s District 7 Director. “It isimportant for American workers to know theirlegislators will use their collective power todemand American-made iron, steel and manu-factured goods be used in a time when un-fairly imported products have flooded ourmarkets and have sent thousands of Steel-workers to the unemployment lines.”

“Most Senators were very receptive to thepersonal stories of lay-offs and downsizingthat their constituents described at the state-house,” says Rachel Bennett Steury, field co-ordinator for the AAM.

“It would be hard not to feel compelled to actwhen thousands of Indiana workers all havethe same story and come to you for help. Sena-tors Simpson, Kruse and Head made a dy-namic bi-partisan team to move the resolu-tion in the right direction.”

The resolution, calls on the Senate to:

Maximize the creation of American jobs andrestore economic growth and opportunity byspending economic recovery plan funds onproducts and services that both create jobsand help keep Americans employed.

Commit to purchasing only products and ser-vices that are made or performed in the UnitedStates of America whenever and whereverpossible with any economic recovery monies

AUBURN IN: March 26 - The Mayors ofButler, Garrett and Auburn Indiana signedUSW Buy American Resolutions during aroundtable meeting. John Jones L.U. 634L,Dave Kobiela SOAR L.U. 903, CharlieOdier L.U. 715L and Tom Emerick L.U.9463 took the lead on this event and reallydid a tremendous job of bringing reality tothe mayors of DeKalb County. In attendancewere folks from local union shops (USW,UAW) and non-union shops (New Milleniumand Nucor). Also present were small businessowners, laid off workers, those on short weeksand those about to lose their jobs; from fac-tories to tech jobs.

All this good work paid off when on Tues-day May 5, the Garrett City Council voted

DeKalb County IN Public Officials Back Buy American

Left to right: Rachel Bennett Steury (AAM) John Jones (634L), Dave Kobiela (903), ButlerMayor Coburn, Auburn Mayor Yoder, Tom Emerick (9463), Deb Steury (634L), Charlie Odier(715L), Steve Kuffer (UAW 164) (not pictured is Mayor Wiant from Garrett, IN.

unanimously to pass the Buy America Reso-lution. The Garrett Council was the first inDeKalb Co. to adopt the resolution, with Au-burn, Butler and the DeKalb County commis-sioners yet to vote. USW Local 903 Retiree,SOAR member and Garrett resident DaveKobiela worked with the council to explainthe reasoning behind the resolution.City Councilman Tom Blotkamp, a formerInternational Harvester UAW member, alsomet with Mr. Kobiela and was instumental inhelping to educate his fellow council mem-bers, leading to their unanimous vote. Mr.Kobiela thanked the Council for their vote tosupport “...putting the taxpayer’s moneywhere it will do the most good for those yourepresent”.

Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Actwas passed in February, Local Union leaders, SOARactivists, Women of Steel and Rapid Response Co-ordinators, as well as representatives of the Alliancefor American Manufacturing (AAM) have taken the“Buy American” resolutions ball and run with it.

We’ve run all over District 7 and convinced SchoolBoards, City Councils, County Commissioners andMayors to publicly commit to using Federal stimu-lus funds for American-made products in order toboth save and create U.S. jobs.

In Indiana, “Buy America” resolutions have passed(usually unanimously) in: Auburn, Boonville, But-ler, Dyer, Chesterton, East Chicago, Elkhart, Evans-ville, Fort Wayne, Garrett, Gary, Hammond, High-land, Howard County, Indianapolis, Jasper, Knox,Kokomo, LaPorte, Lafayette, Logansport, Lowell,Merrillville, Miami County, Michigan City,Mishawaka, Porter, Starke County, TippecanoeCounty, Valparaiso & Winchester!

In Illinois, we had victories in: Alton, Cahokia,Fairmount, Granite City, Madison, Madison County,Madison and Pontoon Beach.

Our resolution passed the Indiana House in Marchand the Indiana Senate in April.

Congratulations to everyone. For more info seemakeourfuturework.org or contact Robin at 219-881-6224

District 7 hard at work onBuy American resolutions

Indiana Senate, H

Jeff Rains, field coordinator for AAM [Alliancefor American Manufacturing] and DennisBarker attended the Maryville, Illinois CityCouncil meeting March 18th where they unani-mously passed the USW Buy American Reso-

lution.

Jeff Rains left receives the signed Buy Americanresolution from Larry Gulledge, Mayor ofMaryville.

Maryville IL is on board

other local governments including Gary, FortWayne, Kokomo, Evansville and Indianapo-lis, Indiana. USW members have introducedmore than 1,000 resolutions across the coun-try and are working hard every day to ensure

LEFT: Mike Mitchell (AAM), Sens. Randy Head,and Vi Simpson who were authors of theresolution, and Chris Lovitt (AAM). Not picturedis Senator Dennis Kruse, the third author of theresolution.

provided by the American people.

Commit to publish any requests to waive theseprocurement priorities so as to give Ameri-can workers and producers the opportunityto identify and provide the American prod-ucts and services that will maximize the suc-cess of our nation’s economic recovery pro-gram.

Indiana is slated to receive approximately$4.3 billion dollars from the ARRA funding.At a time when the unemployment rate in thestate has topped 10 percent, spending thefunds domestically would put more Hoosiersback to work providing steel and iron andmanufactured goods needed to rebuild thestate.

According to the Bureau of Labor StatisticsIndiana has lost 71,100 manufacturing jobssince March of last year. A recent Universityof Massachusetts study finds that infrastruc-ture investment could create as many as18,000 jobs for every $1 billion invested.

The Indiana House passed a similar BuyAmerican resolution (HR 0035) in March withunanimous support. Spearheaded by Speakerof the House Patrick Bauer (St. JosephCounty), House Majority Leader Russ Stilwell(Warrick, Spencer, Perry and Dubois Coun-ties), and Representative Charles Moseley(Porter County), passage of the resolution wasmet with cheers and applause from the over400 Steelworkers who visited the statehousethat day in support of putting Americans backto work.

Recent polls by Pew and Harris Interactiveshow that more than 80 percent of Americanssupport “Buy American” provisions.

So far, more than 400 “Buy American” reso-lutions have been passed around the nationby cities, states, towns, boroughs, villages and

Come join with Steelworkers as wecelebrate the memory of the 10brave men who died in the strugglefor union representation.

In 1937, without a union, steelworkers made $.47 an hour for atwelve hour day, no vacation time,no insurance, no pensions. Today,unions offer a better life with fairwages, pensions, insurance, andvacation time. The Employee FreeChoice Act makes union jobs moreavailable to workers and leads torestoring our economy and raisingour standard of living.

CELEBRATE, ORGANIZE,AND REMEMBER:

WHEN:SATURDAY MAY 30, 2009

2:00PMWHERE:

MEMORIAL HALL 117 &AVENUE “O”, CHICAGO

SPONSOR: STEELWORKERSORGANIZATION OF ACTIVE

RETIREESSpeakers, refreshments, music

773-646-0800

U.S. tax dollars are kept at home to creategood jobs at home.

For more information about “Buy American”and the USW’s economic renewal campaign,visit www.makeourfuturework.org.

Ten murdered, 105 injured for unionrepresentation at Republic Steel

House Support Spending Stimulus Funds Domestically

MEMORIAL DAYMay 30, 1937

ON STRIKE - MEANS GATE CLOSED

Preparation for street blockade

March tothe plantgates

The Red andBlack flag isthe symbol

for on strike

Scenes froma strike

CananeaMexico

Union meeting

Mass picketting

Picketcaptainsmeeting

Balloonrelease

District 7solidarity

visit- Lazaro

Cardenas

Los Mineros, the metalworkers union in Mexico hasbeen on strike for 20 months against their employer,Grupo Mexico’s attempt to destroy their union. Dis-trict 7 has been active in support of brothers andsisters in Cananea. As evidenced by the photos, theyare an organized and determined group. Thanks toBlanca Morales for keeping in contact with theWomen’s group in Cananea and passing on the pho-tos.

photo: Doug May

February 10, 2009: Paper mache puppets of Barak Obama and Joe Biden joined5000 steelworkers from Granite City IL during their Put America Back to Work March

Put AmericaBack to Work rally

draws 5,000

photo: John Logan

The evil banker brigade continued their efforts to bury the middle class under six feet of credit default swaps. Returning to the role he owned on Broadwaywas Dennis Barker as “Wall Street”, menacingly evil was Mike Fultz as “AIG” Toby Keller as Citi-Corp brought new meaning to the word Greed, Walt Winter as“Bank of America” prepped for the role by repossessing wheel chairs and Floyd Watson as Bear Stearns is not in the photo as he was arrested before the marchtrying to pickpocket an orphan.

GRANITE CITY February 10, 2009 - Fivethousand steelworkers thronged the streets ofGranite City to bring attention to the crisisbrewing on Main Street as Wall Street getsbillions in bailouts. The workers directed theiranger at the financiers who precipitated thecurrent crisis by engaging in casino capital-ism as the expense of the majority of workingAmericans..

To drive home the point, several steelworkersdressed as bankers in their black suits markedwith the words "AIG" and "Bank of America"and carried a black coffin marked "AmericanMiddle Class."

Attending the march was Dan McDowell, aGranite City alderman and a member of thecongregation at Third Street Baptist Churchin Granite City. He said the church's food pan-try has been busy since the layoffs.

"We're very hopeful," he said. "We have apresident who I think recognizes how bad itreally is, and being from Illinois, he could bethe one to make a difference."

Dave Dowling, USW Sub 2 director said theturnout for the march exceeded organizers' ex-pectations.

"We just knew there was a lot of enthusiasm

in the community," he said. "We feel verypositive about the turnout and the messagewe think the turnout sent to Congress aboutthe need to pass a stimulus bill immediately."

A partial list of sponsoring organizations of the“March To Put America Back To Work” in-cluded: United Autoworkers, Illinois AFL-CIO,Greater Madison County Federation of Labor,

Southwestern Illinois Central Labor Council,Ironworkers (East St. Louis), Quad City Ministe-rial Alliance, Chamber of Commerce of South-west Madison County, Jobs with Justice, Egyp-tian Building Trades, United Congregations ofMetro East, Steamfitters Local 439, Piasa Pali-sades Group of the Sierra Club, SIUE Raise YourVoice Student Organization, Illinois Federationof Teachers Local 743 and Steamfitters Local 268.

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14 District 7 News Agitator

LAFAYETTE IN: - USW L.U. 115A andsupporters gathered at Riehle Plaza beforemarching to and around the TippecanoeCounty Courthouse in downtown Lafayette.PHOTO RIGHT: Wayne “Crash” Dale re-minds the crowd that the official unemploy-ment rate in Indiana is above 10 percent andthe point of the Recovery bill is supposed tostimulate job and economic activity here soBuying American ought to be a no-brainer.State Rep. Sheila Klinker also addressed thecrowd.

MADISON COUNTY IL - May 1, 2009:The Madison County Bar Associationhonored steelworker Norma Gaines for herlifelong activism in the community andorganized labor. Norma serves as Co-Coordinator of the District 7 “Women ofSteel”. They adopted the Phoenix CrisisCenter, a shelter for abused women and theirchildren in GraniteCity. Yearlyperformances ofEve Ensler’s stageproduction “TheV a g i n aMonologues” underNorma’s leadership,has raised nearly $50,000 for the CrisisCenter.

“The Liberty Bell Award is presented madeannually to a non-lawyer who promotes betterunderstanding of the rule of law, encouragesgreater respect for law and the courts, andstimulates a sense of civic responsibility. TheLiberty Bell Award was established more thanthirty years ago. Prior recipients includeSenator Evelyn Bowles, Margarette Trushel(Director of Oasis Women’s Center), and pastIL AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshereand other community leaders.”

Bar Association bestows LibertyBell Award to Norma Gaines

WEST LAFAYETTE - Purdue Universityannounced its decision to terminate its licens-ing contract with Russell Athletic effectiveMarch 31 due to anti-union actions surround-ing the closure of two factories in Honduras– a decision which has been urged by thePurdue Organization for Labor Equality(POLE) for several months. POLE com-mends the University for acknowledging thesedisturbing violations to Purdue’s Code ofConduct for Licensees and taking action toresolve them. We will continue to support Uni-versity actions which protect the rights ofworkers around the world to live and workwith freedom and safety.

Since 2000 POLE has consistently organizedaround issues of labor equality and workers’rights through teach-ins, informational fo-rums, co-hosted events with allies, media ac-tions, rallies, and even a sit-in and 27-dayhunger strike in 2006. This past Thursday rep-resented the first time in over nine years thatPurdue University has taken constructive ac-tion to uphold our Codes of Conduct ForLicencees and protect the rights of the work-ers who produce our apparel.

Purdue joins ten other universities – includ-ing Cornell, Penn State, and Columbia Uni-

Purdue Organization for Labor Equality celebates university’s cancellation of contract with anti union supplier

Lafayette IN Ralliesfor Buy American

photos: Gerald Miser

versity – in condemning Russell Athletic’ssystematic disregard for workers’ rights.Russell has shown time and time again itsrefusal to respect these basic standards ofhuman rights. Its actions have violated notonly Purdue’s Code of Conduct, but alsoHonduran and International law. POLE isdemanding that Russell reopen the theJerzees de Honduras factory with all ter-minated workers rehired at full capacity,provided back pay since their termination,and allowed to freely associate and estab-lish a union without interference.

DECATUR, IL: Dave Salogga, L.U. 7-838 shop steward, was pre-sented the George Meany Award on February, 26, 2009, in a ceremony

conducted at Decatur Trades and LaborAssembly’s February meeting in Decatur.

The presentation was made by Amy Girardi, Re-source Director for the Illinois AFL-CIO, whocited Mr. Salogga for over 8 years of volunteerleadership for his work with the Lincoln TrailsBoys Scout Council.

The award, a recognition approved by the na-tional AFL-CIO Executive Council, gives or-

ganized labor an opportunity to recognize members for their serviceto youth, and also makes the public aware of the important role unionmembers play in the community.

Steelworker receives George Meany Award

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LOGANSPORT IN: A group of steelworkers gather outside the local Walmart store to demonstrate that we as Americans need to try andbuy American products whenever we can. Walmart is notorious for demanding that suppliers move their operations to China to takeadvantage of low wages and lax safety and environmental standards. Not in photo: At an earlier rally, State Senator Randy Head andLogansport Mayor Mike Fincher gave inspiring talks.

PHOTO BELOW: Standing next to USW local 3261 PresidentKevin Cooper and Bill Scales, Congressman Joe Donnellyaddress the sidewalk rally

Buy American messagewarmly received in

Logansport IN

Steelworkers at US Steel’s Granite City Works were outraged when they discovered that a new pipeline being of steel used for this kind of pipe and ship it to Lone Star Steel in Texas to be made into pipe. The Granthe pipe is being shipped into the Port District facility in Granite City on rail cars and then onto truck

GRANITE CITY IL: The staging of a train load of im-ported steel pipe was too much for over 1500 steelworkerswho used the occasion to point out the effects of our failedtrade policies and to bring heat on the politicians in Wash-ington to enforce the Buy American provisions of the re-cently passed stimulus bill.

A “Buy American” clause tucked in the nearly $800 billionstimulus package President Barack Obama signed in Febru-ary requires the use of U.S. iron, steel and other manufac-tured goods for public buildings and public works fundedunder the bill.

But the clause does not apply to private projects such as the2,148-mile, $5.2 billion Keystone Pipeline that, when com-pleted by Alberta-based TransCanada and ConocoPhillipsby the end of this year, will send Canadian tar sands crudeoil from Calgary to southwestern Illinois.

photo: Dennis Barker

Steelworkers protest im

built from Canada to IL was using pipe made in India. Members of Locals 50, 68 and 1899 make the same typenite City and Texas facilities are completely shut down due to the economic crisis. To make matters worse,ks to take it to the work site. The Port District facility was created to help the local economy.

WARSAW IN: One of the many “Rebuild America: Main Street Revolution” rallies was held at theKosciusko County Courthouse, in Warsaw IN

The Steelworkers organized these rallies to support spending U.S. tax dollars on U.S. products;investing tax dollars in U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure jobs; developing incentives to createand retain U.S. jobs; and making it easier to unionize.

Members of the United Auto Workers and labor-affiliated group Jobs With Justice also participatedin the rally.

Buy American Message Shouted From Kosciusko County Courthouse

photos: Charlie Averill

photos: Doug May

mported steel in IL

Thanks to writers andphotographers of this edi-tion of the AGITATOR :Gary Gaines, Robin Rich,Jim Spazoff, Ray Jack-son, Blanca Morales,Dennis Barker, DougMay, Andy Clark, SteveHartoin, Scott MarshallRachel Bennett Steury,Norma Gaines, CharlieAverill and John Logan.

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By Doug May - Editor USW L.U. 1899

COLLINSVILLE IL: Over 40 people fromUSW Locals 1899, 1063 and 4449 and mem-bers of our ally for social justice, United Con-gregations of Metro-East, UCM met in frontof Congressman John Shimkus R-IL 19th Dis-trict office to urge him to support makingquality, affordable healthcare for all a prior-ity.

Retired USW Local 50 John Heaton describedhis healthcare mess when after retiring, hiswife developed breast cancer. His COBRAinsurance, after the bankruptcy of his em-ployer National Steel and the termination ofhis medical insurance, cost him over $800 permonth. The Steelworkers VEBA fund thank-fully rescued him but countless others havethe same circumstance.

Reverend Helen Stumpe, leader of UCM andMember of Central Christian Church, Gran-ite City, pointed out the irony of political of-ficials who speak of morality but think noth-ing of the moral injustice served to those whosuffer without proper medical care.

Members of United Steel L.U. 1899 joined with others outside of U.S. Rep. John Shimkus’ office in Collinsville pushing for the congressmanto support health care reform. The demonstration was one of five “Out in Front” events spearheaded by the Health Care Justice Campaign.

“Healthcare for all is a moral imperative andwe need to do it now” she said.

Mike Pedesky, President of United Congre-gations of Metro-East mentioned the “scan-dal on our nation” as millions of Americanshave no healthcare.

Russ Saltsgaver, USW Local 1899 Presidenttold Congressman Shimkus’ assistant SteveKonasheski, “Those without healthcare thatuse the emergency room at hospitals for theirmedical care are sometimes sent home to dieas the brother of one of our executive boardmembers’ experienced.”

As part of the gathering, participants soundeda bell 18 times. Mike Bedesky, president ofthe United Congregations of Metro-East, saidthe number is significant.

”There are 1.8 million people in Illinois whoare uninsured,” he said. “There are also 18people who die per week, because they don’thave proper access to health care.”

Lenroy Johnson, President of USW Local1063 said, “Everytime I negotiate a contract

USW and Faith Leaders Call Upon Illinois Legislatorsto Get Out in Front For Health Care Justice

for our members healthcare is issue numberone. As a result the wages and additional ben-efit negotiations are reduced. I am sick ofthis healthcare issue forgoing other contrac-tual improvements for my members. We havemembers who are laid off making decisionsbetween food or purchasing their family’s pre-scription drugs.”

After all these personal testimonials Bedeskyasked Shimkus’ Congressional stafferStevenTomaszewski “Is CongressmanShimkus in favor of healthcare reform?”Tomaszewski provided a long pause but noanswer. Bedesky again asked “Is he aware ofthe need for federal policies to assist the un-insured?” Tomaszewski said Shimkus has notcome out in support but he is participating indialogue as a member of the congressionalhealth sub-committee. He does not support aone payer program but he wants a mechanismfor portability and affordability.

Lto R: Randy Virgin LU 1899 Contract Coordi-nator and Mark Fischer LU 1899 - Taking themessage to the Congressman’s doorstep.

James Perry, Gus Mason, Local UnionPresident Mark York from USW 7-960and Joyce Harant joined other sup-porters of the Campaign For BetterHealth Care in Peoria outside theFederal Building before heading in-side to talk to Illinois Congressmencalling for health care reform.

Campaigning for better health care in Peoria

The Spectacular,Sudden Crash of the

Global Economy

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet.

In a period of months, the entire system ofglobal capitalism has screeched to a halt.

The worldwide economic meltdown has sentthe wheels spinning off the project of build-ing a single, business-friendly globaleconomy.

Worldwide, industrial production has groundto a halt. Goods are stacking up, but nobody’sbuying; the Washington Post reports that “theworld is suddenly awash in almost everything:flat-panel televisions, bulldozers, Barbiedolls, strip malls, Burberry stores.” A HongKong-based shipping broker told The Tele-graph that his firm had “seen trade activityfall off a cliff. Asia-Europe is an unmitigateddisaster.” Global airfreight dropped byalmost a quarter in December alone.

And while Americans have every rea-son to be terrified the New York Timesnoted that everything is relative:

In the fourth quarter of last year, the Ameri-can economy shrank at a 3.8 percent annualrate, the worst such performance in a quarter-century. However in Japan the comparablefigure is negative 12.7 percent, three times asbad.

Industrial production in the United States isfalling at the fastest rate in three decades. Butthe 10 percent year-over-year plunge reportedthis week for January looks good in compari-son to the declines in countries like Germany,off almost 13 percent in its most recently re-ported month, and South Korea, down about21 percent.

Chinese manufacturing declined in each of thelast five months; according to the FinancialTimes, “More than 20 [million] rural migrantworkers in China have lost their jobs and re-turned to their home villages or towns as aresult of the global economic crisis.” The UNestimates that the downturn could claim 50million jobs worldwide, prompting DennisBlair, the US. National Intelligence Director,to warn Congress that, “instability caused bythe global economic crisis had become thebiggest security threat facing the UnitedStates, outpacing terrorism.”

Riots, strikes and other forms of civil unresthave become widespread the world over; gov-ernments have fallen. In Europe, parties ofthe far right and left have seen their fortunesrise.

The model of economic globalization that’sdominated during the past 40 years is, if not

dead, at least in critical condition. Fewprogressives will mourn its demise — it wasboth a proximate cause of the economic melt-down in which we find ourselves today, andone of its victims. But if we are reaching theend of an era, questions arise about not onlywhat will replace it, but also how we’ll financethe government spending that most econo-mists agree will be required to stave off a long,painful depression.

Always a Flawed Model

For almost 40 years, smooth-talking snake-oil salesmen have pitched the wonders of aglobalized economy. They insisted that thewealthy countries could shift labor-intensiveproduction to the poorer countries at theedges, in search of a cheaper pair of handsand less nettlesome regulations, and that or-dinary working people would benefit. What-ever pain Americans might feel as a result ofthe project was merely temporary displace-ment, they argued, and anyway those cheap

toys at Wal-Mart more than offset any prob-lems that might come along with the decima-tion of Americas middle class. After all, a littlelead never hurt anyone.

The same hucksters sold a similar bill of goodsto the developing world. Build export econo-mies and turn those peasants into factory lineworkers. Sign treaties forcing governments tolet multinationals move goods and capitalfreely, keep their regulators out of the way ofBig Businesss profits and prosperity willsurely follow. Most governments adhered tothis pro-corporate orthodoxy, slashing taxeson foreign companies and scrapping variouscontrols on foreign investment. Largely un-regulated free trade zones proliferated alongthe worlds significant shipping routes.

The result was an explosion in internationaltrade and a distinct increase in economic in-equality in both poorer and richer countries.

Among the wealthy countries, nowhere wasthis more true than in the United States, withits love of a mythic free market. After union-busting, global trade deals have done the mostdamage to workers bargaining power.Whereas companies used to negotiate withtheir employees in relatively good faith, thosenegotiations are now overshadowed by thethreat to simply move the whole plant toMexico or China.

The result was an illusion of prosperity.Corporate profits rose (in 2004, corporateprofits took the largest share of national in-

come since they started tracking the data in1929 and wages took the smallest), and highearners did very well too. When the oil shockhit in 1973, those in the top one percent ofthe income ladder took in just over 9 percentof the nations income; by 2006, they grabbedalmost 23 percent. In the intervening years,their average incomes more than tripled

The rest of us didnt do as well. In 1973, thebottom 90 percent of the economic pile —most of us — shared two-thirds of the nationsincome; by 2006, we got half. If you take offthe top ten percent of the income ladder, therest of the country in 2006 earned, on average,2 percent less than they did 30 plus years ear-lier, despite the fact that the economy as a wholehad grown by 160 percent over that time.

But how did we continue to buy with incomesstagnating?

First, women entered the workforce in hugenumbers, transforming the typical single-bread-winner family into a two-earner household. (Be-

tween 1955 and 2002, the percentage ofworking-age women who had jobs out-side the home almost doubled.)

After that, we started financing ourlifestyles through debt. Consumer debtblossomed; trade deficits (which are ul-timately financed by debt) exploded and

the government started running big budget defi-cits year in an year out. In the period after WorldWar Two, while wages were rising along withthe overall economy, Americans socked awayover 10 percent of the nations income in sav-ings. But in the 1980s, that began to decline —the savings rate fell from 11 percent in the 1960sand 70s, to 7 percent in the 1980s, and by 2005,it stood at just one percent (household savingsthat year were actually in negative territory).

After the collapse of the dot-com bubble andthe recession that followed, the economic ex-pansion of the Bush era was the first on recordin which median incomes never got back towhere they were before the crash. Fortunatelyfor Wal-Mart shoppers, a massive housingbubble was rising. Americans started financingtheir consumption by taking chunks of equityout of their homes. The result: in 2005, longbefore the housing bubble crashed, the averageamount of equity Americans had in their homeswas already the lowest it had ever been.

Already deeply in the hole, when the marketscrashed, consumers stopped spending, andthat’s fueled millions of layoffs, led to a moun-tain of foreclosures, and left state budgets deci-mated. The connection between decades of falseprosperity, the piles of household debt that re-sulted, and the degree to which that left Ameri-can families vulnerable to the bubbles crash isnot difficult to see.

Global Illusion of Prosperity

During the era of globalization,” massive in-creases in trade created a similar illusion of

The result was an explosion in international tradeand a distinct increase in economic inequality inboth poorer and richer countries.

prosperity, masking a long-term decline in realeconomic growth worldwide.

Much of Asia has become a huge productionplatform for the West. Its been said, half-jok-ingly, that the modern global economy workssomething like this: the U.S. produces pieces ofgreen paper, which it trades to China for thegoods lining the shelves of Wal-Mart and Tar-get, the Chinese trade those pieces of paper tothe oil-producing states for energy, and the oilproducers exchange them with Europe forMercedes and foie gras.

Economist Robert Brenner described a “longdownturn” in the world’s wealthiest coun-tries, noting that their economies grew by asteady rate of 5 percent or more each yearfrom the end of World War II through the1960s, but in the 1970s their growth fell to3.6 percent, and it has averaged around 3percent since 1980.

But as the social scientist Walden Bello pointedout, even those anemic numbers are mislead-ing. China’s 8-10% annual growth rate has prob-ably been the principal stimulus of growth inthe world economy in the last decade, he wrote.Without Chinas consistent growth rates, globaleconomic expansion has been all but nonexist-ent.

China became an export engine by keepingwages down through repressive union-bustingand by drawing on an almost endless supply ofpoor rural peasants to work its production lines.

While global trade flows have exploded, muchof that trade has been between multinationalsbased in the advanced economies and their ownoffshore units. They ship production overseas,but the goods produced end up back in domes-tic markets; its a means of avoiding first-worldwages, public interest regulations and environ-mental restrictions.

As Walden Bello wrote, with its reserve armyof cheap labor unmatched by any country in theworld, China became the workshop of the world,drawing in $50 billion in foreign investment an-nually by the first half of this decade. To sur-vive, firms all over the world, had no choice butto transfer their labor-intensive operations toChina to take advantage of “the China price”,provoking a tremendous crisis in the advancedcapitalist countries labor forces.

It was always an unsustainable model; theUnited States annual trade deficit with China— financed by debt — was $6 billion in themid-1980s, exploded to $266 billion last year.

Defenders of the global trade regime have longargued that Chinas currency will rise in valueagainst the dollar, the trade deficit will shrink,and there will be significant decoupling betweenthe two economic powerhouses as a new gen-eration of middle-class consumers in the EastAsian countries begin demanding a greater shareof all those manufactured goods.

On the surface, it appeared that at least the lastpart of that was indeed happening. As Bellonoted, To satisfy China’s thirst for capital and

technology-intensive goods, Japanese exportsshot up by a record 44%, or $60 billion. Indeed,China became the main destination for Asia’sexports, accounting for 31% while Japan’s sharedropped from 20% to 10%. China is now theoverwhelming driver of export growth in Tai-wan and the Philippines, and the majority buyerof products from Japan, South Korea, Malay-sia, and Australia.

But Bello went on to describe that this“decoupling” was also an illusion:

Research by economists C.P. Chandrasekhar andJayati Ghosh, underlined that China was indeed

importing intermediate goods and parts from Ja-pan, Korea, and ASEAN, but only to put themtogether mainly for export as finished goods tothe United States and Europe, not for its domes-tic market Thus, “if demand for Chinese exportsfrom the United States and the EU slow down,as will be likely with a U.S. recession,” theyasserted, “this will not only affect Chinese manu-facturing production, but also Chinese demandfor imports from these Asian developing coun-tries.”

The collapse of Asia’s key market has banishedall talk of decoupling. The image of decoupledlocomotives one coming to a halt, the other chug-ging along on a separate track no longer applies,if it ever had. Rather, U.S.-East Asia economicrelations today resemble a chain-gang linkingnot only China and the United States but a hostof other satellite economies. They are all linkedto debt-financed middle-class spending in theUnited States, which has collapsed.

We often hear that U.S. consumer spending ac-counts for 70 percent of the economic activityin the country. Do the math: with 20 percent ofthe worlds economic activity, U.S. consumers— most weighed down with stagnant wages andmaxed-out credit — make up about 14 percentof the planets economic demand. Add the otheraffluent countries (which were also heavily in-vested in our real estate market and related se-curities), and its easy to see why the economicmeltdown has grown to global proportions. Thedominoes are tumbling.

Whats Next?

International trade existed long before “global-ization”, and will continue after its demise. Theso-called free trade agreements championed byliberals and conservatives alike were always lessabout trade than constraining the policy optionsof governments through treaty.

The one likely bright spot in all this is that thefree trade economic orthodoxy lies in ruins.What will replace it is a question for the long-term.

The more immediate question is two-fold. First,in a global economic crisis such as the one were

experiencing today, where is the engine of rapidgrowth that might pull the worlds economy outof the doldrums? Recessions of recent years —in the early 1980s, the early 1990s and the early2000s — werent global in nature; rapidly de-veloping economies in Asia and Eastern Europe,and later the rise of the U.S. housing market,pulled the world out of the doldrums. Its diffi-cult to see where that kind of growth might befound today.

And then there is the question of how long for-eign investors will continue to run our tab. AsAmericans demand for just about everything hastanked, economists from across the politicalspectrum have called on the government to takeup the slack. So we got a big stimulus package— probably the first in a series — which willbe tacked onto a budget that was already deeplyin the red. The hole is cavernous, and we havelittle choice to dig deeper. In 2008, the officialdeficit was around $500 billion; the most opti-mistic projections are deficits averaging around$1.35 trillion in both 2009 and 2010.

In 2006, economist Barry Bosworth testified be-fore Congress that net foreign lending had beenalmost $800 billion in the red — a negative 7.2percent of national income. This degree of reli-ance on foreign financing is unprecedented, heexplained, but has been achieved with relativelyfew strains because foreigners perceive theUnited States as offering safe and attractive in-vestment opportunities.

Right now, foreign investors are still snappingup American debt. But how long will they con-tinue to do so are crucial questions.

China, with the worlds largest foreign currencyholdings — about 70 percent of which is in U.S.treasury bills — is still buying, at least for themoment.

But the Chinese are concerned about the stabil-ity of their investments. If the U.S. governmentneeds to raise the interest rates on its securitiesto attract enough foreign investment to cover ourshortfall, the value of those T-bills China andother central governments are holding will drop.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ac-knowledged that the world economy is anythingbut decoupled, all but begging the Chinese tocontinue to buy our debt. According to AgenceFrance Presse, Clinton and Chinese ForeignMinister Yang Jiechi largely agreed to disagreeon human rights, while she focused on the needfor China to help finance the massive 787-bil-lion-dollar US economic stimulus plan by con-tinuing to buy US Treasuries.

In a moment of clarity — one that shone a lighton the rot of the global economic system thathas prevailed for the past 40 years, Clinton ex-plained to the Chinese media, “We have to in-cur more debt . . . the US needs the investmentin Treasury bonds to shore up its economy tocontinue to buy Chinese products.”

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer atAlterNet. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/128412/?page=entire -

The so-called free trade agreements,were always less about trade thanconstraining the policy options of

governments through treaty.

CHICAGO - April 30, 2009: Busloads ofsteelworker families from Hennepin, IL trav-eled to downtown Chicago to give their bossArcelorMittal Steel a simple message. “Run itor Sell it!” thundered the angry members ofUSW Local 7367 who were joined by unionbrothers and sisters from other Mittal mills,first at Federal Plaza and then, after a shortmarch, at the offices of the steel giant at 1 EastDearborn.

ArcelorMittal shut the mill in December 2008,laying off almost 300 workers. Mittal manage-ment has indicated they have no intention tolet anyone else re-open and run their highlyprofitable and productive facility as they makeplans to ship the equipment out of the coun-try..

In front of the Federal building, KevinColeman, the Mayor of Hennepin, where thesteel mill is the main employer; USW VicePresident Fred Redmond, District DirectorJim Robinson and Local 7367 leaders andactivists all gave rousing speeches vowing tofight Mittal’s greedy refusal to sell.

The Governor of Illinois, Patrick Quinnjoined the rally and voiced his support and de-termination to get the Company to respond tothe viable bids being made for the mill. (TheUSW members from Indiana were in awe of aGovernor who shows solidarity with workingpeople!)

The Union then marched two blocks toArcelorMittal headquarters (for which the tax-

payers of Illinois gave $10 million in taxbreaks for locating in Chicago)- shouting“Let’s make steel!” as they did in 2001 out-

side the LTV bankruptcy court when that com-pany was trying to wreck the mill.

The Company got the message. Local 7367President Dave York reported that on their wayhome he got a call from their Congressman’soffice. The Company had called Representa-tive Schock to discuss the their side of thestory, and his staff made it clear to the com-pany that they support the workers in Hennepinand that they are aware of the situation inLackawana NY (where ArcelorMittal promisedthey would be open to viable bidders and thenbacked off their commitment) and they don’twant the same thing to happen at Hennepin.

The working families of Hennepin have been

Let’s Make Steel - The Sequel

District 7 Director Jim Robinson(right) USW 7367President Dave York.

Veteran steel union activist and SOAR member Vic Storino leadsthe way out of Federal Plaza in Chicago

Hennepin Steelworkers from L.U. 7367 were joined at Federal Plaza in Chicago by ArcelorMittal workers from Locals 1010, 1011, 6787 and SOAR along

with members of Locals 2154, 9777,and 5133 and others to protest Arcelor Mittals plan to close their mill and ship the equipment to France and Brazil.

through other bankruptcies and shutdowns andthey are proud of their record in repeatedly sav-ing the company- as well as helping to savethe industry, and they will fight hard to get backto being productive, efficient makers of steel.

Rapid Response Coordinator Joe Pakula,Grievance Chair and Putnam County Commis-sioner Duane Calbow, Pres. Dave York, sign-maker Kathy Bohm and many other activistsat Local 7367 worked hard to mobilize theirforces and send a strong message through theApril 30 action. The Local urges supporters towrite to Sen. Dick Durbin durbin.senate.govas well as Vice President Joe Biden at theMiddle Class Task Forceastrongmiddleclass.gov and urge them tofight for the running or selling of Arcelor-Mittal at Hennepin.

Governor of Illinois, Patrick Quinn voicedhis support to keep Hennepin open.

photo

: Ray

Jack

son

By Roger Bybee

“Is it too late? I hope not,” said an exasper-ated Anthony Fortunato, president of the 260-member USW L.U. 2604 at the ArcelorMittalmill in Lackawanna, New York, as he and hisco-workers watch the mill being systematicallytaken apart.

An eager buyer has been pressing the com-pany—the world’s largest steel firm—forat least two months to sell the mill andthus keep the profitable operation openand the jobs alive. Fortunato is hoping thebuyer will remain interested despiteArcelorMittal’s aggressive drive to gut themill. ArcelorMittal is rushing to dismantlecomplex, custom-built ovens and otherequipment that will take months to re-place.

Day by day, the dismantling continues, re-ducing the value of the mill. “Our mem-bers are getting sick watching this hap-pen,” said Fortunato.

Arcelor’s plans to close the Lackawannamill are occurring against a backdrop ofa widely supported effort by PresidentBarack Obama to stimulate the nation’sflat-lining economy with the $787 billion“American Recovery and ReinvestmentAct.” But even as Obama is moving tocounter the nation’s economic free-fall,major corporations are moving in the op-posite direction when it comes to main-taining employment and consumer de-mand. A recent survey showed 71% ofCEOs expecting more layoffs in the com-ing six months.

Not only are they accelerating the pace ofoutsourcing to low-wage nations like China,but there have been several recent instancesof corporations closing profitable plants in theUnited States and then refusing to sell them toother companies interested in keeping theplants open and retaining the currentworkforce.

“These jobs aren’t coming back”

The Lackawanna mill isn’t ArcelorMittal’sonly closure. ArcelorMittal is also shuttingdown its Hennepin, IL mill, even though otherfirms have expressed strong interest in buy-ing that mill, reports USW L.U. 7367 presi-dent David York.

At a moment when unemployment aroundHennepin—about 100 miles west of Chi-cago—has hit 10%, ArcelorMittal is prepar-ing to permanemtly lay off 285 USW mem-bers.

The plant has been consistently profitable,

earning $48.4 million in 2008. YetArcelorMittal is intent on shipping one prod-uct line to Brazil and another to France. More-over, ArcelorMittal has rebuffed a proposalby another major steel company to buy theHennepin mill and keep it running.

The Hennepin workers have little prospect offinding jobs paying anywhere close to the

$70,000 their old jobs averaged, includingovertime and productivity bonuses, says York.

And ArcelorMittal’s strategy is not unique.Last fall, the Cerberus private equity group,through its NewPage subsidiary, shut down ahighly profitable, technologically advancedpaper mill in Kimberly, Wis. Cerberus isheaded up by John Snow, former Treasury sec-retary under George W. Bush; Dan Quayle,former vice president under George H.W.Bush; and Richard Feinberg, who personallyraked in $330 million in compensation fromCerberus in 2007. USW Local 2-9 PresidentAndy Nirschl speculates that Cerberus (thename is derived from the mythological dogswho guard the gates of Hades) essentiallywanted to raise paper prices by reducing ca-pacity, regardless of the human cost to 600workers and their families.

“This wasn’t like the usual scenario we’ve seenagain and again,” says Nirschl, “where a cor-poration move jobs to Mexico or China to in-

crease their profits by paying less than a dol-lar an hour. This was a case of a corporationtaking a productive, profitable plant and clos-ing it, refusing to sell it to anyone.” The papermill turned a profit of $66 million in 2007,says Nirschl. Four firms showed interest inbuying the plant, but Cerberus and NewPageremained uninterested, frankly admitting that

they had no plan at all to market theplant to another buyer.

From Manufacturing to Finance

While America’s productive base suf-fers from under-investment or is lostto off-shoring to Mexico, China, andother low-wage countries, U.S. cor-porations have engaged in specula-tion, using supposedly more profitablepaper assets such as mortgage-backedderivatives. “The only thing that haskept the economy going since Reaganis one sort of artificial bubble or an-other, because Corporate America hasbeen destroying real production,” de-clares UE Western Regional PresidentCarl Rosen.

One stunning symptom of America’sdeclining productive capacity: thecontrast between the nature of theimports and exports clogging themammoth West Coast port of LongBeach. On the import side, ware-houses and parking lots around theport are filled with imported cars andelectronic products from mainlyChina and Korea—an enormousbacklog due to the current crisis in theworld economy. On the export side,

the profound shift in the U.S. economy fromproduction to finance is reflected in the lead-ing U.S. export from Long Beach: recycledpaper and cardboard.

At the same time that capital has flowed awayfrom U.S. factories to low-wage sites abroad,it has also been increasingly channeled intothe financial sector. This has occurred withinmajor manufacturing corporations like Gen-eral Motors and General Electric, which hadbeen extracting a growing share of profits fromtheir financing arms as investments have in-creasingly shifted away from production tofinance.

Reflecting this shift, the U.S. financial sectorproduced $313 billion in profits in 2003, com-pared with just $119 billion for Americanmanufacturing, as economist William K. Tabbhas pointed out. Where the financial sectoraccounted for less than 2% of total domesticcorporate profits in the mid-1950’s, in 2007 it

Corporate America’s counter-stimulus strategy -

firms decide to shut profitable plants while spurning buyers

provided close to 40% of all domestic corpo-rate profits.

Tabb aptly describes the seemingly “magical”process behind the expansion of the financialsector:

Money could be made solely out of money,without the intervention of actual production.The new secret was presumed to be leverageand risk management, which allowed the pur-chase of assets that promised higher returnseven if they carried a higher risk.

This was both an economic and a political de-velopment, as the financial sector gained le-verage over the rest of the economy, in effectgaining the power to dictate priorities to debt-ors, vulnerable corporations, and govern-ments. As its power grew, it could demandgreater deregulation, allowing it to grow stillfurther and endangering the stability of thelarger financial system.

Meanwhile, many major firms are adoptingwhat can best be described as a“counter-stimulus” economic program,precisely following what Nirschl called“the usual scenario.” The New YorkTimes reported on a massive wave ofjob offshoring and wholesale divestingof product lines.

“These jobs aren’t coming back,” JohnE. Silvia, chief economist at Wachoviain Charlotte, N.C., told the Times. “Alot of production either isn’t going tohappen at all, or it’s going to happen some-where other than the United States. There aregoing to be fewer stores, fewer factories, andfewer financial services operations. Firms aremaking strategic decisions that they don’t wantto be in their businesses.”

Productive Base Goes out the Window

Mark Meinster, a representative of the UnitedElectrical Workers (UE) international, saidthat this latest round of job destruction is sim-ply an intensification of trends visible in re-cent decades, but made all the more gallingbecause of the wanton closing of profitableplants at a time when good jobs are increas-ingly scarce. “We see this every day,” saidMeinster. For the past 20 years, there has beeneverything from out-and-out trickery to pri-vate equity firms transferring debt from amoney-losing operation to a profitable plant,and then shutting down the plant and strip-ping its assets. “Meanwhile, our productivecapacity completely goes out the window.”

Meinster helped to coordinate the Decembersit-down strike at Chicago’s Republic Win-dows and Doors. Workers there faced bothan employer secretly moving equipment to anew non-union plant in Iowa and the Bank ofAmerica—which received $20 billion ingrants and $118 billion in loan guarantees fromthe bank bailout—cutting off the firm’s line

of credit, which, in turn, deprived workers ofvacation and severance pay.

With the plant already closed, the workersdecided to take over the plant, thereby takingcontrol of Republic’s valuable inventory andholding it hostage. The result: Bank of Americare-opened the financial spigot, the workerswere paid, an environmentally oriented firmbought the plant and will be rehiring the work-ers, and the sit-down achieved worldwidefame.

The Republic sit-down also inspired non-unionworkers, faced with a plant closing at theColibri Group jewelry factory in East Provi-dence, R.I., to stage a sit-in. The action re-sulted in 15 arrests while intensifying pres-sure on the firm’s owner, the Founders’ Groupprivate-equity firm.

UE Western Regional President Carl Rosen,who played a leading role in backing the sit-down strike, noted that the action—both ille-

gal and highly unusual in the United States—ignited enormous support, including fromPresident Obama. “We made our messageeverybody’s message,” explained Rosen.“This economy is failing because workers can-not buy back what they are making. Corpora-tions are being bailed out and workers arebeing sold out.”

Corporations claim “We’re willing to sell”

As a Luxembourg-based firm owned by anIndian-born billionaire living in London,ArcelorMittal is clearly following the “take themoney and run” model of Anglo-Americancapitalism. This system is far harsher than theWestern European model in which employ-ers’ incentives have been more influenced bysocial-democratic traditions and the ongoingstrength of the labor movement.

In Lackawanna, ArcelorMittal’s foot-draggingon a potential sale could soon mean the lossof 260 jobs. “Until March 26, the companywas not admitting that they even had heard ofany interested buyers,” said USW Local 2604president Fortunato. But the forceful interven-tion of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) finallyproduced a meeting between ArcelorMittal’sU.S. CEO Mike Ripey and one interestedbuyer.

“At this point, we don’t know the results ofthe negotiations,” Fortunato told Dollars &

Sense, the frustration and anxiety evident inhis voice. The outcome of the negotiations maydepend on whether ArcelorMittal’s decisionto aggressively dismantle the steel operationhas made purchasing the existing, hollowed-out plant and re-starting production far moredifficult and costly than simply beginning pro-duction from scratch.

The involvement of members of the U.S. Con-gress at Lackawanna—as at Hennepin andKimberly—has forced the corporations toclaim that they were willing to sell the plantsand retain jobs. But once the meetings wereconcluded, corporate interest in selling andsaving the jobs of local workers rapidly meltedaway. For example, a Cerberus/NewPage of-ficial was asked recently whether the companyhad any plans in place to market the Kimberlyplant. The response: “No.”

Cooperation: A One-Way Street

Particularly frustrating for Local 2604 is thefact that the union made such extensiveefforts to assist the corporation. It lob-bied successfully for a two-thirds reduc-tion in their electricity costs, lined uptraining grants, and supported reductionsin sales and property-tax rates for thecorporation. “We as a union have donea lot to help the company. They’ve triedto tell us we’re not competitive as a plant.If that’s the case, why not sell us?”

Rather than being grateful for the union’sefforts to lower its costs, ArcelorMittal insteadchanged its internal accounting procedures sothat the Lackawanna plant actually booked aloss, by charging that plant more for shippingand supplies from other ArcelorMittal plantsaround the United States. In that way,ArcelorMittal aimed to evade New York’shigher corporate taxes, Fortunato suspects.Until ArcelorMittal made that shift in account-ing, the plant had been consistently showing aprofit of about $6 million a month.

With annual wages typically running in the$40,000-to-$50,000 range, his members willhave a hard time finding comparable-payingwork. Fortunato believes the real unemploy-ment rate in Lackawanna, near the similarlyhard-hit industrial city of Buffalo, is about 25%to 30%. “Our guys will have to work two orthree jobs to make what they earn here,” hesaid.

The steelworkers in Illinois also complain ofthe corporation’s indifference to commitmentsby the public to subsidize ArcelorMittal.ArcelorMittal’s decision to locate its U.S.headquarters in Chicago unleashed a flow ofincentives, including $2 million in assistancefor furnishing corporate offices.

At Hennepin, the union’s current contract com-mits ArcelorMittal to keeping the plant open

Continued on page 24

This would be unthinkable in a number of

Western European democracies like

Germany and Sweden that have long

required that corporations provide a

compelling rationale for shutdowns to

regional government labor-market bodies.

through the agreement and maintaining its vi-ability through adequate investment. Theunion has taken the case to arbitration.

Corporate Royalty Ignores Workers’Years of Loyalty

Corporations are often accused of having animperious, Marie Antoinette-style attitude to-ward their workers, unaware and uncaringabout their daily struggles to provide for theirfamilies.

Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, was in-formed that the poor of Paris were too poor toafford bread. Her supposedly infamous re-sponse: “Let them eat cake.” She was laterbeheaded in 1793 during the French Revolu-tion.

The Excecution of Marie Antoinette

But in the case of ArcelorMittal, which is pre-paring to shut down steel mills in Hennepin, Ill.and Lackawanna, N.Y., the comparison to MarieAntoinette may not be much of an exaggeration.The workers and local communities have beenbewildered by the corporation’s commitment toclosing the profitable mills despite offers fromother firms that wanted to keep them open.

Meanwhile, corporate CEO Lakshmi Mittal livesin near-royal grandeur in London in a $125 mil-lion home right next to the posh Kensington Pal-ace. The swimming pool is inlaid with jewels,and the estate includes a 20-car garage. LakshmiMittal has a personal fortune estimated at $25billion.

For the wedding of his daughter Vanisha, who isalso a member of the corporation’s board of di-rectors, Mittal shelled out $55 million. If you’rewondering how even the super-rich could man-age to spend such a sum on a wedding, it mighthelp to know that the five-day celebration wascapped by a party—at Versailles.

That’s right—Versailles, the magnificent and leg-endary palace that King Louis XVI gave to his19-year-old bride, Marie Antoinette, as a wed-ding present. Plus ça change...

What Benefits? What Retraining?

As major corporations continue to underminethe impact of Obama’s stimulus efforts by slash-ing jobs, the conventional wisdom among lead-ing economists and elected officials in both par-ties is that worker retraining is the best public-policy response.

But this approach, while conveniently allowingelected officials to sidestep an uncomfortableconfrontation with corporations’ unilateral con-trol over the fate of workers and communities,has little empirical support as a successful strat-egy for “adapting” to deindustrialization and theoffshoring of jobs. As the supply of family-sup-porting jobs is reduced, workers are essentiallylosing at a game of musical chairs in which goodjobs are disappearing and not being replaced.

When displaced workers successfully completeretraining programs, they are generally unableto find jobs comparable in pay and benefits tothe ones they lost.

“Out of a hundred laid-off workers,” says NewYork Times economics writer Louis Uchitellesays, “27 are making their old salary again, ormore, and 73 are making less, or not working atall.” But even if retraining were an effective strat-egy, the very politicians who tout it as a solu-tion have been unwilling to fund training in aserious way. Funding for training has plummetedfrom $20 billion in 1979 to just $6 billion lastyear (in constant dollars), according to one ex-pert cited by the Times. These cutbacks in fund-ing would seem to indicate that leading politi-cians, especially in the Bush era, were neverquite sincere in their willingness to match theirproclaimed faith in the power of retraining withan equivalent level of funding.

Further, the traditional unemployment-compen-sation safety net has been shredded over the pastfour decades, reaching a much smaller percent-age of workers than in past, less severe reces-sions. During the 1975 recession, unemploymentcompensation reached 75% of the jobless andthus was a significant factor in restoring con-sumer demand. But thanks to radical cuts in un-employment compensation eligibility rammedthrough by the Reagan administration, only 45%of the unemployed received any benefits dur-ing the much more severe recession of 1982-83. The National Association of Manufacturerswas delighted with the cutbacks in eligibility,crowing that under the old rules, “there was noincentive to go back to work under that pro-gram.”

By 2003, the number of unemployed workerseligible for benefits had fallen further from the1982 level of 45% down to just 41%, accord-ing to the Ohio-based group Public Policy Mat-ters. While Obama’s American Recovery andReinvestment Act may begin to reverse somecutbacks in eligibility, it remains to be seen howwidely these changes will positively affect thefates of the jobless.

Needless Job Losses

The toll of unemployment extends far beyond adrop in family income, access to health care,and a loss of self-esteem for the displaced work.Peter Dreier, a political scientist at OccidentalCollege, recently released a study showing thateach 1% increase in the national U.S. unem-ployment rate produces an additional 47,000deaths, with 26,000 of the fatalities cardiac-re-lated, 1,200 due to suicides, and 831 due tohomicides.

Given these grim realities about passively ac-cepting the consequences of deindustrialization,coupled with growing resentment about thegreed and malfeasance of Wall Street, the egre-gious damage to workers and communities im-posed by firms like Cerberus and ArcelorMittal

Jim Robinson, DirectorSal Aguilar, Assistant DirectorBill Carey, Editor - wcarey@USW.org1301 Texas Street 2nd Floor – Room 200Gary, Indiana 46402Phone: 219.886.2596Fax: 219.886.8686Sub-District OfficesBridgeview IL 708.233.0800Granite City IL 618.452.1130Indianapolis IN 317.845.0495Plymouth IN 574.935.3563Gary, IN 219.881.6207Staff OfficesGalesburg, IL 309.342.2635Jasper, IN 812.367.2765Copyright 2009 by the United Steelworkers. All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication may be reproduced without written consent of the USW.Member of the USPA. Articles and photographs from members are wel-come. Thanks to contributors: Gary Gaines, Robin Rich, Jim Spazoff, RayJackson, Blanca Morales, Dennis Barker, Doug May, Andy Clark, SteveHartoin, Scott Marshall Rachel Bennett Steury, Norma Gaines, CharlieAverill and John Logan.

NEWS & AGITATOROfficial Publication of the UnitedSteelworkers - District 7Published as an insert in USW@Work

may raise corporate investment decisions to ahigh-profile political issue. Corporations areclosing profitable, productive plants in the midstof a severe economic crisis, and then capri-ciously refusing to seriously consider selling theplants to keep them open.

This would be unthinkable in a number of West-ern European democracies like Germany andSweden that have long required that corpora-tions provide a compelling rationale for shut-downs to regional government labor-marketbodies. Most other Western European nationsoffer workers and communities some degree ofprotection from the effects of shutdowns, al-though not as extensively as in Germany orSweden, nor with the same degree of workerand community participation in decisions aboutthe company’s plans.

In the United States, the increasingly destruc-tive impact of arbitrary corporate decisions toclose plants amidst a severe economic crisis mayfinally unleash public demands to place corpo-rations’ conduct under democratic constraints.

Roger Bybee is the former editor of Racine Labor Visithis webpage at www.zmag.org/zspace/rogerdbybee.

Continued from page 23

DISTRICT 7 Issue #33 MAY 2009