Their strategy may not work, but it's fun to watch. The British Labour party is in massive trouble: it is on the verge of bankruptcy. Traditionally, it was, um, a "Labour" party--financed by and supposedly working for working people, as represented by the unions. Blair's project was to gradually cut this tie, repositioning "New Labour" as something more like the US Democratic Party, moderate and funded primarily by big business.
But now Labour's fair-weather friends in business are defecting to their true home, the Conservative Party. Labour is left at risk of literally having to sell off its HQ and let go staff, having lost hundreds of thousands of members since Blair's rise to power, the Iraq war, and many, many policy decisions that have hurt working people. They are very likely to lose the next  national election.
This has put the unions in an interesting position. More about what they want below the fold.

I’m A VERY Bad Girl!

No, seriously, I am

You see, last night, I forgot what it means to advocate without wanting to be the crap out of someone.  Wait, let me tell you what happened and I’ll get to the moment when I let myself be lead right over that cliff.  

Hmm, let’s do it after the bump...come on, follow me over the cliff.

Today's diary is part II in a series. "Part I", posted the other day, is here:

Bush Dynasty is the Visible Legacy of the "Merchants of Death" of Jupiter Island

The son of Remington Arms principle, Samuel F. Pryor, founder of the colony of elite living on Jupiter Island, Fl, business partner of both Bush grandfathers, founding director of Harriman/Bush's Hamburg-Amerika Shipping Line and of Thyssen's Union Bank (UBC), connected with the Du Pont sponsored fascist coup that Gen. Smedley Butler testified to the Dickstein McCormack committee about in 1934 (Pryor died in 1934), Sam F. Pryor Jr., was the 1940 Wendell Wilkie republican campaign official who facilitated the funding of that campaign by Hermann Goering's American representative, William Rhodes Davis.

One of the google.books links in this post documents British spymaster in America, Stephenson's admission that he "removed" Rhodes Davis, who died suddenly in Mexico in August, 1942.

The most startling things, besides the continuation of Nazi ties of Harriman/Bush/Pryor, to Pryor's son, in 1940, is that Wendell Wilkie apparantly knew that Nazi money was financing his campaign,

The people who cook lunches, clean classrooms, and provide medical care at the University of California live in poverty.  96% of the people who do these important, necessary jobs are eligible to receive public poverty assistance.  Many people working at the UC -- one of the world's most prestigious universities -- have to work two or even three jobs just to pay rent and put food on the table for their families.

I just got back from the picket line here at UC Santa Barbara, where I'm a teacher and graduate student.  The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 (AFSCME), which represents the 8,500 people who cook, clean, and work in health clinics across the University, today began a five-day strike after more than a full year of demanding a better contract with fair wages .  There are about 100 or so workers and supporters at the main entrance to UCSB right now, demonstrating for a fair contract.  Spirits are high, because everyone knows that the University simply cannot work without them -- so they're going to win a fair contract.  It's just a matter of time.

Today, I had a very odd search.  Now, you do know that site meter does tell me what you are searching for when you find my Uniongal blog site.

You see a company in New York search for

can I fire someone who threatens to kill himself

So, you must be wondering how in the hell anyone found uniongal from this search, well, it’s because I blogged about Wesley N. Higdon, 25.

Who’s Wesley N Higdon? He’s the reason there are 6 dead in Kentucky

Children pointed, tourists snapped photos, and Washington D.C. office workers on lunch break stopped to stare as the gargantuan “Toxic Trader” puppet lurched down Pennsylvania Avenue today past the White House on its way to the Bush administration-backed Import Safety Summit.

Remember way back when Bill Clinton said upper-income voters "don't really need a president?" I was damn near apoplectic at the time, --but after much of the debate on sites like Kos and DU lately, I'm beginning to wonder.

Not that I think Bill was right--but I'm starting to understand why he said it. After all, if some of you are willing to sacrifice to the slaughter the best candidate we've had in generations because of one issue, be it faith-based services or FISA, then not only were you drinking the Kool-Aid to begin with, thinking that Obama was a second Kucinich--but you sure are acting like you don't need a president.(And let me be clear here--I'm not talking about those whose enthusiasm has waned, who've expressed doubts, or who are withholding money. I'm talking about those of you who are making noise about not voting Democrat or not voting at all.)

I'm sure that some of you have convinced yourselves that your righteous stand is for the good of the Democratic Party, and that your online anger will singlehandedly move us to the left. Mmmm hmmm. But before you withhold your vote in magnificent protest, please consider the people that I work for.

I grew up in the union movement.  I’ve been lucky to have grown up in the US because being a unionist here doesn’t always mean death, jail time or torture, it has in our past as evidenced with the treatment of Mother Jones, Joe Hill and Wesley Everest, but it’s better today than it is in many countries around the world.  Countries, like Turkey.

In Turkey’s push to assist in the "war on terror" and to put aside their own internal struggles against terrorists, they have brilliantly decided that a woman in the labor movement is a terrorist.  

Have you ever heard about Kevser Mizrak?

Today, the Oklahoma State AFL-CIO held its COPE Convention. The main reason for this convention is to endorse candidates for office. Below the fold is the listing of candidates officially endorsed by the states AFL-CIO.

You might notice that Rep. Dan Boren is missing from those endorsements. The reason for this is that his voting record regarding labor was not up to par. District 4, home of Rep. Tom Cole also received a no endorsement

I want to share with you all our endorsement today of Sen. Barack Obama. Seth Michaels on our staff has the details below.

The AFL-CIO today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The AFL-CIO General Board, which voted to endorse Obama, includes presidents of all 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, as well as Executive Council members and representatives of state and local federations, trade departments and constituency groups. The General Board votes by per capita membership. In conjunction with the endorsement, the AFL-CIO launched a new website: Meet Barack Obama.

Its so rare for traditional media to analyze anything, so Kudos and Diggs to Raj Cohan of CBS Denver for challenging this anti-employee rights scare ad:

Ad: What if labor bosses controlled class elections. Thanks for your vote. I want to assure you that a vote for me is best for you. Ms. Hudgens has just agreed that there isn't gonna be any secret vote. Sign these cards showing us who you like the best, and my campaign committee will collect and count em.

Here's the spin. The ad attacks legislation in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If approved, it would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make it easier for unions to organize. How would it work? If a simple majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, EFCA would essentially require the National Labor Relations Board to certify the union, assuming there was no illegal coercion involved in gathering the signatures. Under these circumstances employers would be barred from demanding a secret vote.

http://cbs4denver.com/...

An international day of action against the union-busting Starbucks has been called for 5 July 2008.  Please support this action.

More scary PR from the Union Busting industry below on labor reform coming from Dems.  Although the PR doesn't say it, most Small Businesses are exempt from Federal Labor law, and ALL Small Businesses would be exempt if Congress adjusted the NLRB's 1959 interstate trade threshold of $500,000 to an inflation adjusted $3.1 Million.  

Mom and pop shops can't afford anti-union lawyers, and tend to play by the rules.  The union busters, chambers of commerce, and the GOP aren't trying to protect "small business."  Their neglect to adjust the $500K exemption proves it.  Big Business are the ones who want to keep $0 penalties for labor law violations, but they also want the support of small business owners by putting more of them under Federal jurisdiction.

The Employee Free Choice Act adds penalties for firing union supporters.  It also levels the playing field for small business as well as law-abiding big businesses against scofflaw corporations.

The unionbusters PR over the fold...

I don't know if this has been diaried yet, but I haven't seen it on the rec list, so here it is:

From the Detroit Free Press:

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union's International Executive Board voted unanimously to endorse Obama and noted "a historic primary campaign which activated and mobilized millions of voters."
"On every issue that counts, we can count on Barack Obama to stand with our members, our families and our communities," Gettelfinger said. "He has pledged to rebuild America's manufacturing base and to assist the auto industry as we retool toward a cleaner, more modern transportation system."
Gettelfinger also said in the union's endorsement that Obama supports workers' rights to organize, will push to make health care affordable and available to everyone and "understands the need to change our trade policies so that U.S. workers and U.S. companies can compete fairly in the global economy."

Here in Colorado there is a fight over unionizing going on. Conservatives are trying desperately to turn Colorado into a so called "Right to work" (for less) state by introducing a ballot initiative for same.

This battle has been rife with controversy and the initiative is currently being challenged by unions on the grounds that there has been massive fraud in the collection of signatures for this odeous initiative.

Here's a press release from some attorneys who are worried about the Employee Free Choice Act crippling their industry.  Union busting strategies are built around the premise of $0 penalties for labor violations and prolonging contract negotiations indefinately until employees give up and leave.  By adding fines for harrassing or firing union supporters, the EFCA would make it too expensive to violate the law, and it wouldn't be cost effective to hire expensive union busters.  

Sen. Obama vowed to stand by re-elected SEIU president Andy Stern and union members by ushering in a union- friendly administration. He also vowed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act if elected to presidential office.
...
Founded in 1958, Jackson Lewis LLP is dedicated to representing management exclusively in workplace law. With offices in 37 cities and 500 attorneys, Jackson Lewis has developed a specialized expertise in every aspect of employment, labor, benefits and immigration law. Additional information about Jackson Lewis LLP can be found at www.jacksonlewis.com .
http://newsblaze.com/...

For America's Lil' Three (now down to 3.1%of total U.S. GDP (personal consumption spending now accounts for 70%)), the answer is likely to be Mexico. The reason? Automotive unions in Mexico have agreed to cut wages to 'near China levels':

http://biz.yahoo.com/...

A couple of articles continue to perpetuate a GOP lie which might undo some Democrats.  

Maine has been targeted because of the expected Senate race between Representative Tom Allen (D-Maine) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine).  They are on opposite sides of "The Employee Free Choice Act."
http://www.wcsh6.com/...

This is in the boring details of labor law, but the truth usually is a sleeper compared to a good scary lie.  As Forbes says, "Who's afraid of a little organized labor? U.S. business, that's who."

The scary lie:  Democrats want to eliminate secret ballot elections for union elections.

The boring truth:  The Employee Free Choice Act does not change current labor law regarding secret ballots and majority card check.