I'll take: The Pen is Mightier for $500 Million

Today at 12:01 am the Writer's Guild went on strike for the first time in 20 years (Here and here.) The major issue is that since writer's often go for long periods without work, they depend on residuals from reruns and DVD sales etc (from which, people like Jerry Seinfeld makes millions for doing nothing at all). For each DVD the writers recieve only $.04. Now in the age of internet streaming, I Tunes downloads, etc, the writer's are getting even less, especially since their last contract was negotiated in 1988, years BEFORE DVD sales overtook VHS sales.

Already, the WGA has amassed a $12.5 million strike fund to help the picketing writers who have organized over 300 captains to lead the actions outside of studios around the country. Also, in a move that could be pivotal for the success of the strike, WGA leaders are reaching out to the Teamsters whose disruption would put the studios in a major crunch. This act of solidarity would be a huge step in building confidence in a labor movement reeling from major concessions from the UAW over recent months.

The last strike lasted over 5 months and cost the industry some $500 million.

A Bitter Nod to Predictability

I was right about that mine.

The Problem with Organized Labor

This news has been breaking recently, noting that this election the AFL-CIO will commit around $53 million to "electing a pro-worker president" and "six pro-worker seats in Congress."

That is to me, dear readers, disgusting. Using statistics from the AFL-CIO website, we can find the highest-ever recorded membership count for the "nation's Union Movement" as 14,070,000 members. This means that even if private sector unionization were at the 1974-5 rate (which I would bet it is not - most numbers put it at around a stunning 8% today), this would amount to $3.77 million per member spent on the Presidential Election. I can't make this up (nor would I, if I wanted to).

What's worse, the union is committing 200,000 "regional organizers" to the task, which no matter how you slice it, means 200,000 less people organizing for the rights of workers across the country. I'll remember that the next time the national union claims understaffing as a reason for not supporting a wildcat strike.

The workingpeople of this country deserve better than $53 million for the hope that a President might listen.

Stadium Workers Win!

The janitorial staff from Camden Yards who started a hunger strike last Monday demanding the city mandated living wage of $11.30 after three years of trying to get an increase won!.

The true priorities (if they were ever in doubt) of the owners, expressed by one of the 2 board members who voted against the increase, expressed his only concern about the potential rise Ravens ticket prices. Disgusting. Maybe it will kill you and bankrupt your crummy team if you have to sacrifice the profits made off of 5 $7 beers to guarantee that your workers can afford to live and eat. I doubt it.

On a brighter note, this most recent in a series of strike victories begs the unavoidable question: Is this the awakening of the labor movement?

'Modelo Chileno' Doesn't Make the C.U.T.

Today was a massive day of strikes and protests throughout the entire country of Chile. Called early this week by the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT), todays strikes and student protests were in opposition to what has been dubbed the 'Chilean Model.' Despite the booming price of copper, Chile's primary export, the country has an unemployment rate of 7% and has the 11th worst wealth distribution in the world. To put this in perspective, Chile, lauded as one of the strongest economies in Latin America, in this category ranks with Sub Saharan Africa. The minimum wage, less than $150,000 pesos a month (that's less than $285 a month), the completely inefficient Transantiago public transit system, poor school conditions, and a poor health care system were all causes for the protest. (The primary culprit for Chile's current problems dates back to the neoliberal shock treatment and constitutional rewriting that occurred during the 17 years of the military dictatorship headed by Agosto Pinochet. To get a better idea of what this looked like scope out Orlando Sepúlveda's article from last months ISR).

After a relatively quiet morning, several thousand workers and protesters in the capitol were attacked by police on horse with tear gas and by guanacos (tanks that have water canons attached to them named after the llama-relative of the same name that has a propensity to spit), and over 300 were detained after the marchers tried to march on the presidential palace, la Moneda, because they had not obtained a permit to occupy the building. Also, despite the Union's call for peaceful demonstrations, which was carried out by the CUT members in the streets, some students tossed rocks, further provoking a backlash. Nonetheless, police indiscriminately gassed, water cannoned, and arrested protesters and non participants, even managing to club a left-wing senator in the head (watching the excuses offered by the head of police for this attack on the news was quite an entertaining display of cover-your-ass acrobatics).

In the North and South, workers blockaded streets and held large marches. In the timber industry region, the lumber unions held a rally in the middle of a major transport route in memorial of a worker who was killed by company goons (i.e. the cops) during a labor dispute.

In many senses Chile is aflame. Students and workers are sick of nearly 20 years since the end of the dictatorship without any change to Pinochet's constitution or, more importantly, alterations of the brutal Neoliberal measures implemented with the aid of Milton Freidmen and his Chicago boys and the torture and state terror employed to crush dissent. While Chile's President, Michelle Bachellet is by no means a Hugo Chavez, it is clear that the fight against neoliberalism is alive in the Southern Cone. Whether South America's leaders are willing to acknowledge it or not, they have a problem on their hands.

Clinton Campaign aide a Union buster

In order to potentially secure labor's endorsement for her presidential bid, Hillary Clinton may be forced to give the boot to her campaign aide who works for a PR Firm that has a contract with the notoriously anti-union Cintas company , which boasts about its track record of blocking immigrant and undocumented workers from unionizing.

Though Clinton has refused to comment so far, her campaign has not said that they will fire this guy, who says that he has never been anti-union. Some might say, hey if you're running a campaign, clearly you're going to have members of your team with far-flung business contacts, cut her some slack. However, in his 2000 campaign Bush made top aide Karl Rove sell his shares for a company that he had founded so that his loyalties were not divided. Apparently this is too much to ask of the Democrats who continue to prove, with this act, how much they take labor for advantage and refuse to act in its interest be it on the minimum wage, health care, or the war.

Collapse traps 6 coal miners in Utah

"We're sparing no expense to bring every mining machine that we have in Utah in here that we can get access to quickly so that we can mine to these people," CEO of the mine's parent company said following the collapse early Monday morning.

Now, the company and officials are saying that no expense will be spared, 'no stone will be left unturned' until rescue workers reach the miners, but as the recent tragedies in Minneapolis and the the Sago mine collapse in West Virginia in January of 2006 that left 12 dead reveal: why aren't the companies, and government agencies for that matter, thinking of workers' lives BEFORE catastrophe strikes?

One of the reasons, cited by CNN.com as well as mine and government officials, for the collapse, was that local seismographs recorded a small 3.9 tremor. However, accodording to the BBC , "the collapse at the Genwal mine at about 0400 (0900 GMT) was so powerful it was mistaken for a small earthquake... Scientists later said a 4.0 magnitude seismic recording was actually caused by the disturbance at the mine, the Associated Press news agency said." Even the US Mine Health and Safety Administration (MHSA) web site has failed to update its homepage, stating that "[a] seismic or ground failure event was registered near the location of the mine this morning."

Though sufficient information is not available at the moment as to the exact cause of the collapse, it should not surprise anyone that substandard safety conditions in the mine and insufficient oversight by the MHSA (aka under funding and insignificant fines to punish violations) played a major role. Once again, a system that places profits above workers' lives rears its ugly head.

Victory for Chilean Miners

After a 37 day strike by 13,000 miners in Chile voted to take the company's revised and improved offer.

Since I'm currently living in Santiago and witnessed the workers slandered on the news by the Concertación (centrist ruling coalition currently in power) and from the Right and personally saw strikers picketting outside of some of Chile's major banks that have connections to the mine owners, I'm going to make a better effort to keep ya'll up to date on struggles from the bottom of the world from English and Spanish press. If you have any suggested sources, let me know!