On the Line
On the Line Andy Stern Andy Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). , Labor journalist and photographer David Bacon and Philip Maldari of KPFA spoke to Stern on...
...And we don't have a clear and precise message coming from any party that speaks to those questions...
...What's going on is not good for workers...
...and Australia refused to sign on to the international agreement...
...Q: You've kicked off a process of reevaluating the direction of the U.S...
...Are you really calling for a change in the leadership of the federation...
...Gonzales Should Go Washington, D.C...
...How do we form global unions...
...Talking about unions means a chance of getting fired...
...The demonstrators were demanding that Chevron hire more local people and fulfill promises it made two and a half years ago...
...Q: Is SEIU seriously considering leaving the AFL-CIO...
...People are facing real-life problems...
...When we think about auto, steel, and rubber workers' jobs, before the 1930s and 1940s, they were not high skilled, high wage jobs...
...Stern: We're not going to stop globalization...
...Q: John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, came out of SEIU, and yet you seem to be his harshest critic...
...They're losing their jobs...
...We have to have global unions so that we can begin to raise the standard of living of other workers...
...consulates after the Kyoto Protocol went into effect on February 16, without the U.S...
...agreement limits greenhouse gas emissions...
...Workers are looking for leadership on the economic issues that confront them every day, and they don't see it in either the Democrats or the Republicans...
...We don't have a party that fights every day so that every man, woman, and child has health care...
...Andy Stern: The labor movement has really been the only effective, long term anti-poverty program, but when we represent just one in twelve workers in the private sector, our strength and ability to change workers' lives is diminished...
...The first question isn't who's captain of the ship, it's whether the ship's constructed to be able to represent workers in the twenty-first century economy...
...On the Line Shame on Chevron Warri, Nigeria On Friday, February 4, more than 200 people from the village of Ugborodo broke into ChevronTexaco's Escravos terminal in Nigeria...
...Even if it means that our union or other unions go out and try it alone, I think that's better than continuing to go in the same direction, which is to not make the progress that workers need...
...What happened was they got a union, and all of a sudden, a union job turned out to be a good job, where you could raise a family and enter the middle class and send your kid to college...
...The question is how do we regulate it...
...What we call for is a massive refocusing of unions on growth, reorganizing unions so that workers who have strength can share it with other workers who do the same type of work...
...We need to launch a major campaign against the Wal-Marting of our economy...
...The U.S...
...For more information, contact the DC Anti-War Network, P.O...
...They're losing their health care...
...People voice opposition to the nomination and confirmation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales...
...Stern: Workers don't have a party right now that speaks clearly and precisely to their economic interests...
...But unless we have organizations that are focused exclusively on trying to change workers' lives and unite their strength and do everything in their power to change what's happening every day to workers in America, we're in desperate trouble...
...That's what you've seen somewhat with our janitors and home-care workers...
...Stern: Who would want to be leader of an organization that really had no effective way to change workers' lives...
...Troops stationed at the facility reportedly opened fire on the protesters, killing four people and injuring twenty-five...
...Q: Last summer you called for a reassessment of the relationship between the labor movement and the Democratic Party...
...And we need to have powerful American unions that can make sure that the jobs that stay in our country are good jobs, and not just low wage jobs...
...We could change the AFL-CIO and also build something stronger...
...Stern: We need to either change the AFL-CIO or build something stronger...
...As former White House counsel, Gonzales played a key role in drawing up interrogation guidelines for prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and Guant?namo...
...Stern: People make a legitimate and honest judgment about the benefit of having a union where they work and the cost...
...Wal-Mart is the most obvious example of the search for low wages and low benefits-low costs on steroids...
...Even with two jobs it's hard to raise a family...
...Box 21827, Washington, DC 20009-1827...
...We've been too nice too long...
...The structure, the constitution, the history over the last fifty years has led to a very loose confederation...
...Anyone watching what's happening to people who go to work every day knows their health care is eroding and their pensions are less secure...
...labor movement...
...Integration is well on its way...
...They're worried about college costs...
...In 2002, hundreds of women from Ugborodo occupied the Escravos terminal for several weeks in an attempt to force the oil company to employ local people and to supply new houses, water, and electricity for the local villages...
...We have to decide what are the rules of the global economy...
...Labor journalist and photographer David Bacon and Philip Maldari of KPFA spoke to Stern on January 19...
...Bush Trashes the Globe Activists around the world protest outside U.S...
...At For more information, contact the Campaign Against Climate Change at www.globefox.com/cacc...
...The U.N...
...It's not necessarily an either/or...
...Q: What has to change in the way people think in order for union membership to grow...
...Our experience says that when you unite the strength of workers who do the same type of work-all the health care workers in one union, all the airline workers in one union-you have a much better chance at success...
...They're ready to take the risk because they see it has paid off for other workers and changed their lives...
...We need to understand that we live in a competitive world, and when the competitors of companies with union jobs are paying less, and the union doesn't organize those workers and bring their wages up, then the nonunion wages are going to bring everyone down...
...How do we maximize the number of jobs that stay in our country...
...on board...
...And employers have raised the cost so high, and the risk has become so great, that unless workers can see other workers succeeding at it, I think it's hard to expect they'll take that risk...
...We need either to build an alternative to the existing parties, or to run candidates in existing parties, or to take out people in existing parties who are against our interests...
...Q: How do you address outsourcing...
...They can't raise their families the way they want to...
...They have to see other unions with winning strategies that can make a difference...
...The laws are ridiculous...
...Workers in this country need a fighting chance to change their lives...
...That's what the fight about NAFTA and the WTO are about...
...And we have to change the laws...
Vol. 69 • April 2005 • No. 4
