"Grill" in absentia, of course. Parker Griffith, who once begged for introductions at union halls, wouldn't be caught dead in a ditch with members of a labor organization these days. He's a "conservative Republican" and, you know, they don't associate with the working classes.
Al Henley, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alabama AFL-CIO opened the show.
Here are selected quotes ...
The Alabama labor union community feels that it's necessary to straighten out some confusion about refunds of the contributions we made to the Parker Griffith campaign for Congress. There've been reports from the Congressman's office that no money has been requested to be returned.
The truth is, most of the area's unions have requested, in writing, a refund of their donations. So let the record be clear. Those of us that are here, and many people who wanted to be here and could not be here, we want our money back.
Henley said the labor community was not pleased when Griffith decided to leave his state Senate seat and pursue a risky congressional campaign. They decided to back him anyway in the hope of gaining a "pro-working family congressman." He said unions went "all-in" with volunteers and contributions to help elect Griffith. He promised to be a 100% voter on issues that we felt would benefit the district's working families, including Health Care, the Stimulus and the Employee Free Choice Act."
Henley said labor contributed $219K to elect Griffith and they felt they had been instrumental in electing a pro-working family congressman.
Shortly after he was elected, Dr. Griffith turned into Mr. Hyde. It began with his votes on the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Everybody in America knew the Supreme Court ruling was wrong and when Congress voted to remedy the issue, he voted against it. And against the best interest of the district. ... When a man and a woman work side by side, doing the exact same work, it's a no-brainer that they should be paid the same. What a slap in the face to all the women in the district, and especially our women union members.
When a Congressman blasts the Stimulus Package at every chance he gets, votes against it and then issues stimulus funding to his constituents and claims he's respinsible for delivering it, that's plain old-fashioned hypocrisy. ... As a State Senator, Parker Griffith never saw an incentive program he didn't like. He voted to give enormous amounts of taxpayer money to one of the world's largest corporations in the form of incentives to lure them to Mobile County. It amounted to over $350K per job and the principle is the same.
Parker Griffith promised to support our position on health care. ... We all know now he sold us out and aligned with the medical and insurance industries. ... doing nothing is not an option. Our health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 10 years and are projected to double again over the next 10 years.
Parker Griffith promised us during the campaign that he would support working families:
After he got elected he decided that equal pay for equal work was wrong.
After he got elected he decided laid off workers didn't need unemployment compensation and help with COBRA payments for their health insurance.
After he got elected he decided Alabama would be better off when state employees and police officers and firefighters and EMTs and teachers were without jobs.
After he got elected he decided America would be better off without the American automobile industry.
After he got elected he decided Alabama working families had too much help here and the system did not need changing.
Labor unions in Alabama are serious when we endorse candidates to represent working families ... His public service as a Congressman has ranged from disappointing at its best to disgusting at its worst.
Parker Griffith is an extremely wealthy man ... he also has a very healthy campaign fund. It's obvious to all of us that he had no intention of keeping his promises to us so we again ask publicly for our money back.
Parker Griffith, we feel you have swindled us. We feel you have used us for name recognition purposes and used our volunteers to countradict all the horrible campaign ads your new found friends aired against you during the last campaign. Parker Griffith, give us our money back.
To our Republican friends who plan on reelecting Parker Griffith. It's very important that you understand these facts:
He knowingly resigned from three key committees ... these committees have been essential in getting aerospace and defense contracts in Alabama's 5th congressional district.
Griffith claimed ideological frustration when he did the party switch, but he commissioned a poll right before he made this move.
He does not represent the best interests of the working families in the 5th congressional district. We don't believe not one single word he says. We believe he has no core or no principles. So -- God bless you folks -- you can have him. We don't want him no more and we'll see all of you on the campaign trail.
Henley's last warning to Republicans is the real deal: Don't trust anything Parker Griffith tells you. As long as your interest aligns with his self interest, you might be ok, but as soon as he senses a better opportunity, Griffith will drop you like a hot potato.
After Henley's remarks, representatives of several other organizations stood up to ask that Griffith also return their contributions. In the interest of keeping this to a manageable length, I'll post that separately.
The Communication Workers of America, Local 3902 have announced their support of Artur Davis for Governor. The campaign says it's the first union endorsement for either side. From their press release:
The Communications Workers of America Local 3902 represents approximately 2,500 workers in the Birmingham, Centreville/West Blocton and Shelby County areas. “More than anything, Alabama needs a governor who will stand up for hard-working families and work to get our economy moving again,” said Communications Workers of America Local 3902 President Rhonda Taylor. “Artur Davis has the integrity, the leadership ability and the vision to lead Alabama to a brighter future.”
Artur Davis welcomed the support of the communications workers. “I am pleased to have the support of the hard-working individuals who make up the Communications Workers of America Local 3902. As a congressman, I have stood with them to fight for a more fair, more secure workplace and I look forward to continuing that fight as Alabama’s next governor.”
Davis has a good voting record on labor issues -- SEIU had some good words for him last year.
Two-thirds of those surveyed had suffered some form of wage violation. Some had been paid significantly less than the prevailing minimum wage; many had worked overtime without being paid at the required overtime rate. Others were simply not paid at all for hours worked outside of their regular shifts. Those who were seriously hurt on the job often were given no recourse: Just 8 percent who experienced an injury filed a workers' compensation claim, and workers' compensation insurance paid medical costs for only 6 percent of the injured employees.
The report is Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in America's Cities -- read more here. About 35% of the workers surveyed were undocumented. This is the real danger to our society from undocumented workers -- employers can treat them like dirt with no repercussions. And once they start treating some employees like dirt, it spills over to treating all employees that way and next thing you know we're all in a breakneck race to indentured servitude.
This is not the kind of Labor Day story you're likely to find in the Alabama newspapers, where just yesterday the Birmingham News characterized the Pullman Strike as a "tiff," but it's just the kind of thought provoking discussion we should to be having here. Heaven knows, Alabama has our share of undocumented workers, and employers are taking unfair advantage of many if not most of them. Nevertheless, stories like this one seldom make the papers in Dixie. I wonder why.
Throughout the Southern system's history, the region's media have almost invariably been part of what Atkins labels the "solid phalanx" of powerful interests: a unified business community, elected officials, the clergy and other opinion shapers. Southern newspapers and radio stations joined the forces relentlessly battling unions, the New Deal and advancements in civil rights for African-Americans.
Southern media acted as uncritical stenographers transmitting and amplifying the crudely racist views of segregationist politicians ...
As Atkins' book vividly shows, another crucial component of genuine democracy has been grievously lacking in the South: independent mass media willing to challenge and investigate corporate power and to serve as the voice of those shut up by bosses, shut out of power and shut down by multinational corporations seeking ever cheaper labor.
Toadying to the rich and powerful in order to maintain "influence." Yeah, that sounds familiar and all too common in Southern media circles. What is it about the South that makes it so hard for the media to be the champion of the underdogs?
This Labor Day, Wake Up Walmart, along with a large coalition of labor, environmental and community groups, are challenging Walmart to live up to their PR promises and join us in supporting the American Values Agenda for Change at Walmart.
To help with the effort, Wake Up Wal-Mart is airing two TV ads in major cities. Check out the first here and the second below the fold:
The question is why? Why are they pandering to the party that is WRONG about everything, and has been wrong about everything from the Civil Rights Acts and Medicare to the Iraq War and the Economy?
Seriously, what has the present day gop ever been right (pun intended) about? Why are they constantly being rewarded for bad behavior? Why do democratic candidates pander to the wrong at the expense of what's right, and against Progressives/ liberals/democrats who btw are right (pun intended) on the issues?
Why are we treated like the no family values, culture of cronyism and corruption?
Why is Alabama a "majority republican state"?
Why do Alabama voters consistantly vote against their self interest?
There has been a lot of talk this week about the surprising move by Walmart to publically support President Obama’s health care reform plan, supposedly positioning themselves as a
leader in the fight to bring health care to all Americans. As we mentioned in a post on our blog
yesterday, this might be easier to swallow if Walmart had any history of leading by example. Instead, they usually do just the opposite.
Given
Walmart’s long record of trying to build a positive
reputation on ineffective work-arounds to health care coverage
for employee, the recent revelations about sacrificing quality for cheap perescription drugs, and their deceptive PR campaign that severely overstated their workers’ health
care coverage, it’s not hard to understand our skepticism. [get the details in the extended entry]
1. The LA Times came to Birmingham and the only people interesting enough to quote are a tourist from Pittsburg and a homeless man. Way to earn those big newspaper journalist bucks.
2.Spencer Bachus wants hearings on how Bernie Madoff made off with $50 billion of somebody else's money. That's fine and good, but isn't this a bit like closing the barn door after the whole herd escapes? Was Bachus proposing more oversight and regulation 5 or 10 or even 15 years ago when it might have prevented this sort of grandmonumentalginormous theft from investors?
3. God, or at least the Christian Broadcasting Network, is not on the side of labor unions. I read the article twice and found no mention of the roughly half a billion dollars Alabama taxpayers have given these foreign-owned companies to entice them to build plants in our state, but the author was honest enough to mention that "GM has 360,000 retirees. In America, Hyundai has zero." True. Do they mean to imply that GM would be immediately more competitive if God struck down those 360,000 GM retirees and got them off the books tomorrow? Or that Hyundai will never keep employees long enough for them to get pensions? Neither option is particularly Christian...
4. Foreign auto companies who came to Alabama for the tax breaks and cheap labor are doing great in the marketplace, right? Not so much, notwithstanding what our Senators tell us. Sales of Alabama made vehicles were down 53% in December. How does that compare to Big Three sales? Well, Chrysler sales were also down 53%, Ford's were down 32% and GM's dropped by 31%, same as Nissan. To reiterate, sales of made in Alabama vehicles are down exactly as much as sales of Chrysler vehicles, as of last month.
5. Newly elected Congressman Bobby Bright (being sworn in today) want's to eliminate cost of living raises for members of Congress and opposes any bailout for any organization or special interest out there. As long as he's taking a hard line, maybe he'd like to draw a really bright line and give up the taxpayer provided health insurance and pension benefits members of Congress receive, too. That's how the rest of us have to live, after all.
6. Speaking of how regular folks live, 65,000 more Alabamians needed food stamps to get by in 2008 than in 2007. That is 1 in 7 of us and the economic downturn, recession, depression or whatever they like to call it, is just getting cranked up.
8.Alabama farmers need broadband internet service. So do the rest of Alabama's rural residents. This is infrastructure development that will pay huge dividends in the future, especially in the least developed parts of Alabama. Bob Riley just selected a contractor to make broadband internet service available throughout the state. The $1.7 million cost will mostly be paid through federal grants. Your tax dollars at work, in a good way.
With virtually no exceptions, Republican members will continue insisting that the policies of shitting on the little guy are the only ones that they'll support, and Democratic members will continue to give these idiots serious thought and consideration in the futile hope that we can all just get along.
... You failed us and failed us and failed us. Collectively you're a bunch of irresponsible opportunistic whiny ether-sniffing assface sissypants bedwetters until such time that you prove through your deeds that you're not.
Dear members of the 111th Congress, please surprise me -- and finding your backbone only long enough to oppose President Obama's agenda is not the surprise I'm looking for.
President Stewart Burkhalter says the group is still discussing an endorsement in the 2nd Congressional District. Might this be evidence that the "he's a liberal" charges against 2nd district candidate Bobby Bright are a bunch of hooey? Which they are, of course.
If you have been following the news in Huntsville the last two weeks, you know how the local media was awaiting the Volkswagen announcement. There were stories about VW's new North American strategy and about the potential impact to Greenbrier - the town, not the barbecue restaurant!
In short, the picture was of the entire state, from the leadership to the humblest citizen, holding its breath in anticipation of another Alabama industrial recruiting victory. So the sting of loss was all the sharper for the hoping.
Gov. Bob Riley, leading Alabama's courtship, declined to comment on Volkswagen, citing his administration's policy of not discussing ongoing economic development projects. But state officials involved in the recruitment said they were unsettled by persistent rumors that Volkswagen may have struck an agreement with the United Auto Workers.
Now, of course, the state director for industrial development immediately pledged fealty to the new VW plant (sorry, I won't link to an AP story). But it's no secret that conservatives hate unions, and have no use for working people (except as cannon fodder). And given the conservative complexion of the state powers-that-be, the following comment from a forum site sounds plausible:
05 July 2008 06:31 PM 05 July 2008 06:31 PM
Hide Post
Word has it that the State is not pursuing this one hard as is Tennessee. Alabama has some other plants that are fighting to keep it out due to the fact that VW is already in talks with the UAW for representation in this plant. Alabama is a afraid that a pro-union plant would upset the delicate balance in their "right to work" environment.
Whew, that was a close one, wasn't it, Bob? Sorry, Neal, sometimes the project lead is the last to know...
The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about a fight brewing between ILWU and management. Long story short: There's a dispute about the procedure the ILWU is using for the shutdown and whether the rules apply. (via)
The union doesn't seem to be backing down, and the S.F. labor council is supporting them.
After Downing Street has a copy of the Vermont AFL-CIO resolution supporting the ILWU.
Here are couple of posts that I found interesting:
Police fired rubber bullets and other nasty ammo at war protesters in April of 2003 and hit several longshoremen. ILWU responded by walking off the job. There are lots of ambiguities with this incident.
This week, on May 1, members of the Longshoreman's union, the ILWU, are also taking action. They are calling for a shut down of all ports on the West Coast – and they are calling for us to support and join them:
At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, many working people were opposed to the invasion. Now the overwhelming majority want to end the war and withdraw troops. Yet, both major political parties continue to fund the war.
Marches and demonstrations have not been able to stop the war. The Longshore Union (ILWU) will stop work for 8 hours in every port on the West Coast on May 1st. This action shows that working people have the power to stop the war.
Don't work on May 1st — MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!
*Stop the war! *Withdraw the troops now! *No scapegoating immigrant workers for the economic crisis! *Health care for all! *Funding for schools and housing! *Defend civil liberties and workers' rights!
MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!
If you’re not in a position to refuse to work without getting fired, and you can’t call in sick, here is something simple you can do: Don’t spend any money on May 1 and encourage everyone you know to do the same.
Sometimes silence is more powerful than words. If I were an influential full-time blogger, instead of a little-known part-time blogger, I would be suggesting that people post this graphic late Wednesday night and forgo blogging on Thursday. If you think this is a good idea, maybe you should consider making the suggestion to some of the many progressive blogs that are scattered throughout our 50 states, to the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus, to organizations in your area that might be interested, or to some really big bloggers.
If we want stronger unions, we have to support them. And if we want to end this war, we have to show the people in charge that there are going to be consequences for them if they continue to ignore us as they have for the past five years. So please spread the word about what the ILWU is doing and try to do some outside-the-box thinking between now and Thursday about how we can show solidarity with them.
Don Siegelman's prosecution isn't the only thing the Feds are investigating in Alabama these days. Fair housing investigators from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are looking into housing conditions for "seasonal" employees of Cinram in Huntsville. That company brought in over 1100 workers on H2-B visas from Nepal, Ukraine, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic to package and label DVDs. The H-2B jobs are unskilled, nonagricultural, seasonal and those at Cinram are said to pay about $8 per hour.
Cinram does not directly provide housing or transportation for the workers, but Huntsville Times reporter Challen Stephens interviewed a number of the foreign workers last fall and found that, after housing, food and transportation costs, they had very little left from their Cinram paychecks. In simple terms, these people are lured here with the promise of steady pay, they can only work for Cinram while here, and they are steered to housing and transportation providers who charge them exorbitant rates. So instead of working hard and saving money to send back home or give them a nest egg when they return home, they work hard and have almost nothing left after expenses.
The workers are employed by Ambassador staffing agency. Ambassador distributed workers, upon arrival, among 20 local landlords. Circumstances varied greatly, but some workers reported paying as much as $300 per person per month to share a small, furnished apartment with three or more roommates.
In one case in November, The Times found four Jamaican women who paid a combined $1,200 a month for an apartment with busted plumbing and no heat that had rented for $450.
In February, the Fair Housing Center of Northern Alabama, a nonprofit agency based in Birmingham, and the NAACP began questioning housing for foreign workers in Huntsville.
Landlords "were charging some of the people $300 per bed," in "roach-infested" apartments, Jerry Burnet, chair of the state housing committee for the NAACP, told The Times last month. "They've got a little small bed, like you have in a barracks, and they were putting three in each room."
Wormsby said HUD opened the formal investigation after receiving the complaints gathered by the NAACP and the Fair Housing Center.
(So true! Without American products, where are the American jobs? - promoted by mooncat)
Buried in the comments at Think Progress, I found this little gem:
Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) , a light jacket (MADE IN VIET NAM) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with GAS from Saudi Arabia and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his Computer (Made In Malaysia), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in AMERICA……
Hurt where it counts for business -- in the pocketbook. The University of Wisconsin - Madison terminated it's contract with New Era Cap effective immediately because of non-compliance with worker's rights inspectors.
The termination, which is effective immediately, cuts off New Era as a licensee and forbids the company from manufacturing its signature baseball caps and sportswear with the official University of Wisconsin logo.
“We’re terminating the contract based on New Era’s actions not really being the type of company this university wants to be associated with,” Dawn Crim, special assistant to the chancellor, said at a Labor Licensing Policy Committee meeting Friday.
Worker’s Rights Consortium, a labor rights monitoring organization hired by UW-Madison, was denied access to the New Era plant in Mobile, Alabama.
All is not well at the New Era Cap plant in Mobile, Alabama. One warning sign is that rank and file workers are predominantly (80%) minority and supervisory/management employees are predominantly (>90%) white. It was bad enough that workers began talking about organizing earlier this year and voted to be represented by the Teamsters in July. That just doesn't happen in a happy workplace.
There have been firings and layoffs of union supporters at the Mobile plant since talks began -- the latest round was just before Thanksgiving.
Now members of the Teamsters Human Rights Commission and Students Against Sweatshops are taking the fight for fair treatment to New Era Cap's customers. Yesterday they leafleted a Foot Locker store in Buffalo, New York to kick off an international campaign for solidarity demanding that New Era Cap end discrimination and worker intimidation at the Mobile plant. Leafleting of Foot Locker stores will continue across the country this weekend.
New Era, headquartered in Buffalo, NY is the exclusive supplier of official caps to Major League Baseball and supplies official caps to some NBA, NHL and college teams. In addition to sports caps, they make popular hip-hop fashion caps and are a key Foot Locker supplier.
“There is a growing worldwide protest against New Era Cap’s racism towards workers and its violations of their human rights,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “New Era prides itself on producing American-made caps, but New Era’s dirty secret is that right here in America, its Mobile workers face poverty-level wages and ingrained discrimination. Sports fans and the hip-hop community don’t want their caps tainted with racism and worker abuse.”
This weekend’s worldwide leafleting reflects a growing chorus of protest against workplace conditions at New Era by students, unions, and civil rights, religious, and community groups.
The Teamsters say they are calling on New Era to end racist practices at the plant—where all but one manager is white—and stop its systematic intimidation of pro-union workers. More than 20 workers have been fired by the company since the union campaign began.
“Our members at New Era are touched by the support we’ve received from New Era customers and human rights groups worldwide,” said Felicia Walker, a former New Era employee and a union leader terminated during the New Era organizing drive. (Teamsters Local 991 represents workers at the Mobile facility.) “A lot of the workers are wondering how they’ll afford not just holiday extras but the basics for their families in the coming year, given the subsistence wages and job insecurity we face at New Era. It matters a great deal at the holidays to see that people of good will are joining with us to demand justice at New Era.”
If you shop at Foot Locker, or buy a cap anywhere this Shopping Season, check the label. If it's made by New Era, talk to the store manager about the workers at the company's Mobile plant -- it's a distribution center so virtually any New Era cap you find was handled by workers in Mobile. Speak up for their right to fair and equitable treatment in the workplace.
In my digging around on the story of alleged discrimination and union busting by New Era Cap in Mobile, I noticed that New Era is the exclusive supplier of caps for Major League Baseball and that they have 4 plants in China. The neat thing is that MLB still cares enough about American workers to require that the caps and uniforms actually worn by MLB players must be made in the USA.
So, why doesn't the organization that most represents "America's favorite pastime" go that extra mile and require products that bear their name and logos actually be made in America? Not possible, you say? Too expensive? Not enough manufacturing capacity left? Let's take a look.
Manufacturing capacity:
There are still cap and shirt manufacturers in the USA, though not many. Realistically, MLB wouldn't have to make the switch overnight and since they license a LOT of merchandise, the manufacturing capacity would follow the money. And some capacity is already here because every political campaign I have ever seen stipulates that caps, shirts, etc. be made in the USA.
Let's look at the cost differential:
This John Edwards union made, union embroidered cap (with leather strap) is priced at $17.95; this "union made in the USA" Obama hat is priced at $15; these Hillary hats (no info on origin) are priced at $20.08. Arizona Cap Co. sells union made in the USA caps, embroidered, in quantity for $17 each or less and this hat from Justice Clothing (no embroidery) is $12.50. Made in the USA shirt prices are very similar to the cap prices.
At the Major League Baseball webstore, this official, on-field style, made in the USA cap is $31.99; this 39THIRTY cap made in Bangladesh is $27.99; other caps priced at $17.99 to $27.99 are made in China or Bangladesh. MLB shirts in the $20 range are likely to be made in China or Honduras.
The price differential is not that much -- not as much as I expected -- and most people who would pay $18 for a fancy baseball cap would also pay $21 or $22 for a made in the USA one, and those who would pay $28 would pay $32 for one made here. I think it's worthwhile to email Major League Baseball and request they only sell made in the USA caps and clothing bearing their name and logos. Let them know we're paying attention.
There's an interesting situation developing in Huntsville, Alabama involving immigration and wages that illustrates just how complex and multifaceted the immigration issue is. Cinram is a Canadian company that makes DVDs and distributes them from a plant in Huntsville, Alabama. Due to an apparent shortage of local workers willing to work long hours for low wages, the company is importing 1350 workers from Jamaica, Nepal, Ukraine and Bolivia. The particular immigration facet involved is the H-2B guest worker program (for seasonal or temporary nonagricultural workers) which is perfectly legal, but still rubs many Huntsvillians the wrong way.
Hat tip to Fake Consultant for the title suggestion, which isn't really much of an exaggeration.
Hiring problems Cinram says they have advertised, but can't find enough willing local workers to fill those jobs. I was reminded of BobOak's How Not To Hire An American - MUST SEE VIDEO from a few months back which showed that sometimes companies seek to eliminate American job applicants so they can get permission to hire foreign workers. Be that as it may, it isn't hard to believe Cinram is having hiring problems. The work doesn't require any specialized skills, but the company operates an unusual rotation of 12 hour shifts with employees working in a standing position -- that's a long time to stand. A local TV crew interviewed some ex-Cinram employees who claimed there was an atmosphere of fear at Cinram, supervisor treatment of workers was "harsh" and that they had observed underage workers at the plant.
To sum it up, these are not very desirable jobs, the pay is low, the work is uninteresting and the atmosphere is not great. Cinram needs more workers and they can't hire them locally at $8/hour, so they turn to the H-2B guest worker program that lets them bring in foreign workers for "seasonal work." You didn't know the DVD business was "seasonal?" Apparently it's holiday driven like so much of the retail industry.
Special tax treatment Cinram enjoys a tax break for locating their plant in Alabama. They pay about $500,000 annually in taxes but are exempt from another $330,000 or so. The Cinram distribution plant is on a recently widened road and enjoys an interstate spur about a mile from the plant making transportation convenient. The local infrastructure is generally very good, so moving the entire plant to Bolivia or Nepal probably isn't as attractive as you might think.
County Commissioner Mo Brooks introduced a resolution this week to revoke the tax breaks for companies who hire foreign workers. Brooks also wanted those companies to cover the health care costs of foreign employees and guarantee to fully compensate the victims of any traffic accidents of criminal activity of the workers. The traffic accident part of his resolution is obviously red meat for the knee jerk xenophobes because these workers aren't going to be able to afford cars.
At a County Commission meeting yesterday in the Madison County Courthouse, Mo Brooks couldn't get another commissioner to second his proposal to end tax breaks for employers who bring low wage foreign workers to the Huntsville area and make those companies accountable for the behavior of those employees. The spark for this debate was news that Cinram was importing 1350 workers from Jamaica, Ukraine, Nepal and Belize Bolivia to work 12 hour shifts for $8 per hour. They may or may not get the $8 per hour, according to Challen Stephens' excellent article in the Sunday Huntsville Times, but those who provide lodging and transportation are doing pretty well. I would link to the article, but it is still not online.
Huntsville's WAAY31 is also doing some nice reporting on the Cinram story. WAAY has online video, but I wasn't able to watch it -- maybe the rest of you will have better luck. They covered yesterday's council meeting, which had such a large crowd there was a delay while they found a bigger room:
"It was a smart political move on the part of those who want to profit from low-wage foreign workers to bring in a large crowd to intimidate our elected officials, and I think it had an effect on the vote today," Brooks said.
"I don't believe that we're driving down wages," said Cinram spokesperson Lynn Fisher. "I think we're actually doing what we can to fill those positions."
Fisher was one of several company officials who flew down from corporate headquarters in Canada to attend the meeting. Fisher said the company is trying to fill more than 1,300 seasonal positions, and had no choice but to go international for help.
"The fact of the matter is the workers aren't available locally at prevailing wage for the work that's being performed," Fisher said.
The argument that importation of workers willing to work for low wages doesn't drive down local wages for blue collar workers is patent nonesense. Go Blue paraphrased the discussion in a comment yesterday:
Mo gets up and says he is a capitalist and he believes in the freemarket and supply and demand. He says an artificial addition to the supply side of labor will rob blue collar workers the ability to get wage increases because of atighting labor market. Responding to a comment from cinram Ops Mgr about even if cinram paid $15 per hour there still would not be enough workers for huntsville market because the $15 jobs would just take workers from other Hsv Businesses, Mo says that is the way it is supposed to work that if you can't get workers at $ 8 per hour you tried $9.
I never thought I would see Mo Brooks making the argument that local government has to "stand up for the average Alabamian, the blue-collar worker whose wages are being supressed," but there he was. And yesterday, he was not joined by any of the other commissioners. You can contact your commissioner by clicking on his or her name at this page.
"At Cinram you don't go and make a big stink if you want to keep your job," said DeLaveleye. "I've seen 14-year-olds, i've asked them, they've said they're 14 years old. You have 14-year-old Hispanic people working here."
DeLaveleye and Glaze worked inside as packers, and said it wasn't uncommon to see several minors working 12-hour shifts at a time, with workers having to ask for permission to use the bathroom.
"There's definitely an atmosphere of fear," Glaze said. "The way that most supervisors treat their workers is harsh."
The former workers also allege dirty conditions inside the plant. Clearly, the county commissioners should be concerned about this. Instead, they are afraid of hurting industrial recruitment if they come down hard on Cinram.
Local government has to find some happy medium. Bringing industry in isn't supposed to just benefit the coffers of the city, county and state, it's supposed to benefit the community and the people who live here. Good jobs, fair wages, fair treatment and safe, clean working conditions are part of that. Maybe commissioners need to be reminded of that.
The Communication Workers of America, 
.
1. The 
