THE HISTORY CORNER...

Forward by Charles Breiterman from the Iowa Postal Worker Tabloid April-May 2012 Issue:

Below is an article by Frederick Douglass from the August 17, 1871 issue of his newspaper, 'The New National Era. “America had its cheap labor lobby back in 1871, and it has one today in the form of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Immigration Works and Bill Gates himself testifying before Congress for more H-IB visas. Frederick Douglass attacked the cheap-labor lobby's "fair-seeming phrases" immediately in the first sentence. We all know that today’s cheap labor lobby has similar "fair-seeming phrases" that I will not repeat here since they are all over the mainstream media. The issues that deeply concerned Frederick Douglass in 1871 are very relevant today.

"Cheap Labor" by Frederick Douglass

How vast and bottomless is the abyss of meanness, cruelty, and crime sometimes concealed under fair-seeming phrases. Take the one we have made the caption of this article as an illustration. Ostensibly the demand for cheap labor is made in the interest of improvement and general civilization. It tells of increased wealth and of marvelous transformations of the old and the worthless into the new and valuable. It speaks of increased traveling facilities and larger commercial relations; of long lines of railway graded, and meandering canals constructed; of splendid cities built, and flourishing towns multiplied; of rich mines developed, and useful metals made abundant; of capacious shops on every sea abroad, and of amply cultivated fields at home; in a word, it speaks of national prosperity, greatness and happiness. Alas! However, this is but the outside of the cup and the platter-the beautiful marble without its dead men's bones within.

Cheap Labor, is a phrase that has no cheering music for the masses. Those who demand it, and seek to acquire it, have but little sympathy with common humanity. It is the cry of the few against the many. When we inquire who are the men that are continually vociferating for cheap labor, we find not the poor, the simple, and the lowly; not the class who dig and toil for their daily bread; not the landless, feeble and defenseless portion of society, but the rich and powerful, the crafty and scheming, those who live by the sweat of other men's faces, and who have no intention of cheapening labor by adding themselves to the laboring forces of society. It is the deceitful cry of the fortunate against the unfortunate, of the idle against the industrious, of the taper-fingered dandy against the hard-handed working man. Labor is a noble word, and expresses a noble idea. Cheap labor, too. seems harmless enough, sounds well to hear, and looks well upon paper. But what does it mean?? Who does it bless or benefit? The answer is already more than indicated. A moment's thought will show that cheap labor in the mouths of those who seek it means not cheap labor, but the opposite. It means not cheap labor, but dear labor. Not abundant labor, but scarce labor; not more work, but more workmen. It means that condition of things in which the laborers shall be so largely in excess of the work needed to be done, that the capitalist shall be able to command all the laborers he wants, at prices only enough to keep the laborer above the point of starvation. It means ease and luxury to the rich, wretchedness and misery to the poor.

The former slave owners of the South want cheap labor; they want it from Germany and from Ireland; they want it from China and Japan; they want it from anywhere in the world, but from Africa. They want to be independent of their former slaves, and bring their noses to the grindstone. They are not alone in this want, nor is their want a new one. The African slave trade with all its train of horrors was instituted and carried on to supply the opulent landholding inhabitants of this country with cheap labor, and the same lust for gain, the same love of ease, and loathing of labor, which originated that infernal traffic, discloses itself in the modem cry for cheap labor and the fair-seeming schemes for supplying the demand. So rapidly does one evil succeed another, and so closely does the succeeding evil resemble the one destroyed, that only a very comprehensive view can afford a basis of faith in the possibility of reform, and recognition of the fact of human progress.

The trade of the slave-trader across the sea was a track of blood. Her wake drew into it a procession of hungry sharks to feast upon human flesh, diseased, dead, and dying. The slaves were literally stowed between decks, without regard to health, comfort, or decency. The great thought of captains, owners, consignees, and others, was to make the most money they could in the shortest possible time. Human nature is the same now as then. The Coolie Trade is giving us examples of this unchanged character. The rights of a Coolie in California, in Peru, in Jamaica, in Trinidad, and on board the vessels beating them to these countries, are scarcely more guarded than were those of the Negro slaves brought to our shores a century ago. The sufferings of these people while in transit are almost as heart-rending as any that attended the African slave trade. ". (Originally published in 1871)

Source: As printed in Salt City Post (PPA)

APWU Supports Bargaining Rights of Wisconsin Workers

By: John E. Durben

The Headline above that the APWU supports  the rights of Wisconsin Workers is  only because the current turmoil between Republicans and Tea baggers vs. the “Middle Class” began here in Wisconsin because of our puppet Governor and the rest of his party. In reality, we support the rights of all workers across this great Country. Wisconsin just happens to be the first victim that fell between the crosshairs of Corporate America. Like a powerful predator, they have decided that they will crush their prey… the middle class (the Unions) and brainwash the poverty stricken working class. The ones who are working two or three jobs to survive.

Why don’t they strive to raise the wages of these poverty workers up to at least middle class and eliminate the lower class… instead of trying to divide us? It’s because of Corporate Greed and the legislators they have bought and put in their back pockets. Legislators who have become traitors to their constituents just to receive future funding to protect “their jobs”!

I took the photos below on March 2, when APWU organized the rally there.  We had about 300 APWU members from Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin show up. In addition we had several National Representatives in attendance like Vice-President Greg Bell, Director of Organization Martha Shunn-King and NBA Marty Mater (Past Madison Local President). If I forgot someone, I apologize.

  

  

  

There are over 500 photos from February 26 and March 2 on our Facebook page if you want to check them out. Look for the Facebook icon on this page.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Wisconsin Labor Jams Capitol To Resist Governor’s Attacks

Howard Ryan |  February 16, 2011

Wisconsin’s new Republican governor inadvertently issued a wake-up call to the state’s labor movement by announcing legislation February 11 that would crush public employee unions.

Scott Walker made the proposals just two days after similar measures were unveiled in Ohio.

Wisconsin’s labor movement and allies mobilized three days of emergency rallies in Madison, the state capital, ahead of an expected vote in the legislature February 17. Thirty thousand drumming, chanting protesters descended on the Capitol February 16. Some made plans to camp out there that night.

Building trades members planned to set up a grilling operation to feed bratwurst to workers and students there.

Madison schools had closed that day when about half the teachers called in sick. About 800 Madison high school students walked out of class and marched to join protests. University of Wisconsin students, who had planned an action around university funding, turned instead to workers’ rights and brought an estimated 1,000 protesters to the Capitol.

A thousand teachers and supporters stopped traffic as they walked from Wisconsin AFL-CIO headquarters to Walker’s house near Milwaukee. Two hundred protesters turned out when the governor spoke in Eau Claire.

A massive phonebanking and door-knocking campaign urged voters to contact the more moderate Republicans in the state senate. In the face of such massive resistance, Republican legislators signaled a willingness to back off late Wednesday.

A PART OF HISTORY

Jim Cavanaugh, president of Madison’s 90,000-member South Central Federation of Labor, described an outpouring of solidarity. An AFL-CIO news conference brought private sector union leaders to declare their support for embattled public employee unions.

In an email, Dave Poklinkoski, president of a utility workers local, said, “The breadth and depth of the solidarity at these rallies is beyond anything witnessed in Madison in living memory.” He invited friends to come “be a part of history.”

Walker would eliminate collective bargaining for public employees on all matters except wages. Any wage increase surpassing the consumer price index would have to be approved by voters. His plan calls for state employees to contribute much more to their pensions and health insurance costs—the equivalent of an 8 percent pay cut.

For good measure, Walker added that he had briefed the National Guard, so it would be ready to address any potential disruption of services caused by union protests. A veterans group slammed the governor, asking if he understood the military is not a “personal intimidation force to be mobilized to quash political dissent.” A spokesman later said soldiers would only replace prison guards.

Police and firefighter unions would be exempt from the new law. Both of Milwaukee’s uniformed unions endorsed Walker’s gubernatorial bid last year, leaving other unionists in the state muttering about backroom deals. But firefighters, to great applause, joined the throngs descending on the Capitol.

‘BUDGET REPAIR’

Walker is selling his anti-bargaining proposal as part of a “Budget Repair Bill” aimed at addressing the state’s immediate $136 million deficit as well as a larger deficit of $3.6 billion projected for the next two-year budget cycle. He says his proposals on health and pension contributions would save $30 million and help avert wide layoffs of state employees.

But AFSCME Council 24 points out that state employees have already sacrificed for years, taking unpaid furlough days and heavier workloads. Late last year, they offered a contract containing $100 million in concessions—an offer legislators rejected and the governor ignores.

The Economic Policy Institute think-tank said Wisconsin public employees actually earn 5 percent less in wages and benefits than private-sector counterparts, when workers with similar experience and education levels are compared.

Much of the governor’s proposal does not concern the state budget at all, but serves to cripple public employee unions. It would prohibit collecting member dues through payroll deductions and end any requirement that employees pay union dues at all. It would require union bargaining units to hold an annual certification vote in order to maintain representation.

Cavanaugh believes Walker may have overreached politically and that, assuming the immediate threat can be turned back, the labor movement can reap benefits.

“We’re getting a lot of people off their butts, seeing what these right-wing fanatics are capable of,” he said. “We’re achieving more union solidarity than we’ve seen in a long time.”

SOURCE: LABORnotes

Message from Labor Cartoonist Mike Konopacki

"For the last week, working people in Wisconsin have staged a rebellion against a brutal attack on the rights of workers by a governor and legislature dominated by sociopathic Republicans. These plutocrats want to destroy collective bargaining for all public employees and turn Wisconsin into a right to work state for private employees.

Gary Huck and I both grew up in Wisconsin. Gary was raised in Racine and I grew up in Manitowoc. Both towns are on the shores of Lake Michigan and both towns were manufacturing centers. Racine and Manitowoc were devastated by the Reagan recession of the 1980s and are still part of the Rust Belt. 

I've lived in Madison since 1971 when I came here to finish college. Wisconsin was the birthplace of Fightin’ Bob LaFollette, the founder of the Wisconsin progressive movement. Progressivism merged into the New Deal and Wisconsin was influential in the creation of laws and culture that respected working people. This is from the Wisconsin Historical Society : “Wisconsin's workers and reformers made significant contributions to the history of labor in the United States, helping to enact legislation such as workers' compensation and unemployment insurance that served as models for similar laws in other states. The study of labor history itself also began in Wisconsin when University of Wisconsin economist John R. Commons set out to document the history of work and labor in America at the turn of the twentieth century. Commons and his associates also joined labor leaders, the business community, and politicians to bring about some of Wisconsin's groundbreaking social policies.”

Wisconsin was also the birthplace of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, formed in 1932. They created what would later become Wisconsin State Employees Union/Council 24. We are proud to say that Council 24 is one of our subscribers. The progressive pro-labor culture dominated the state until the dismal 1950s when Joe McCarthy was elected and launched the McCarthy era of brutal repression of working people.

We are now experiencing another period of repression. The workers of Wisconsin know their history and know what is at stake. Again, robber barons are trying to destroy our traditions and the history that our forbearers fought and died for. We are determined to preserve our proud history and fight against the forces of decay.

In the election of 2008 we thought that change was coming. But change never comes from the top down. It comes from the bottom up. Allow me to use a football metaphor. The Green Bay Packers won this year’s Super Bowl. The Packers, the smallest market city in the NFL, are named after a meat packing plant in Green Bay. They are not owned by a plutocrat, they are a non-profit owned by the community. To Wisconsin, Packer football is as much a part of our tradition as the labor movement.

In the Super Bowl the team, devastated by injuries all season, lost two of their top players to injury in the first half. The game went back and forth, and in the fourth quarter the Packers found themselves in trouble. Kevin Greene, outside linebackers coach, pulled linebacker Clay Matthews aside and told him that the time had come to take control of the game. “It is time!” He said. Matthews helped cause a fumble that lead to victory.

For those of us who believe in dignity of workers, and believe in fighting for the least among us, IT IS TIME. Wisconsin workers are up to the challenge."

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 17)

Click on cartoon to enlarge

APWU Offers Pins to Commemorate Postal Strike

APWU Web News Article 040-2010, May 7, 2010

40th Anniversary Pin

To honor more than 200,000 postal workers who participated in the Great Postal Strike of 1970, the APWU invites union members to purchase lapel pins that commemorate the 40th anniversary of the illegal work stoppage. Proceeds from sales of the pins will benefit the union’s Committee On Political Action (COPA).

Members can order the pins online at http://www.apwustore.org/ for $15 apiece. They also will be available at the 20th Biennial National Convention, which will take place on Aug. 23-27 in Detroit. The circular pins are gold and embellished with shiny stones.

In March 1970, postal workers across the country began an eight-day unauthorized strike, risking their jobs, their pensions, and their freedom. Their actions halted mail service and sparked significant changes in the lives of postal workers, politics, and the nation’s postal service. Less than a year later, five unions merged to form the APWU.

Because sales of the pin will benefit COPA, payment cannot be made from the funds of local or state organizations. Only personal checks, personal credit cards, or money orders will be accepted.

Bay View Tragedy event set for Sunday, May 2, 2010

The 124th Annual Commemoration of the Bay View Tragedy is scheduled to be held at 3 p.m., Sunday, May 2, 2010 at the State Historical marker site at S. Superior St. and E. Russell Ave., on Milwaukee’s lakefront.

David Newby, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, will speak. Also on the program will be Larry Penn, folksinger and retired Teamster; Frank Mulvey, of the Bay View Historical Society, and others.

Since 1986, members of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, the Bay View Historical Society and others have been holding this commemoration to honor the seven persons killed by the State Militia that had fired upon a crowd of workers marching on behalf of the eight-hour day. The incident was Wisconsin’s most dramatic labor event, and was important in the struggle of workers and their unions to gain decent wages, hours and conditions.

29th Annual WLHS Conference to discuss Wisconsin’s new labor history in schools bill

Wisconsin’s historic law making the teaching of labor history part of the state’s educational standards forms the basis for the 29th Annual Wisconsin Labor History Society conference, scheduled to be held from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, April 17, 2010, at the IBEW Joint Apprenticeship Training Center in Wauwatosa.

The conference is entitled, “Linking Students to Labor’s History,” and is to address how to best encourage teachers and students to become engaged in learning about labor history. The discussion will center on exploring ways to effectively implement the nation’s first ‘Labor History in the Schools’ law passed in 2009. Unionists, educators, and others are welcome to attend this historic conference

Andrew Kersten, of the history department at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, will open the conference with a keynote address on the critical need to teach labor history.
A panel discussion will follow on the topic of “Linking Teachers and Students with Labor History,” including discussions by representatives of the state Department of Public Instruction and the Wisconsin Historical Society, as well as classroom teachers.

An afternoon discussion on the topic of “Making the Labor History in the Schools Law Work,” will place a focus on how labor history education can help build the labor movement. Among those participating in a panel discussion will be David Newby, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President; Hedy Eischeid, President, Fond du Lac Educ. Assn. and Director, National Education Assn.; Bryan Kennedy, President, AFT-Wisconsin and Jim Cavanaugh, President, South Central Federation of Labor.

The conference will include the annual awards ceremony, including awards to those high school students who won the annual essay contest, the Zeidler Awards for graduate and undergraduate college students for papers on Wisconsin labor history, and the Lifetime Achievement award.

Lunch will be provided. The conference fee is $25, which includes lunch, or $10 for students or unemployed persons.

Information and registration forms available at http://wisconsinlaborhistory.org. Further information may be had by contacting the society at 414-771-0700 x20.

President Newby will be on "Fox and Friends"

(check your local Fox TV station) at 6:50 a.m. Thursday (December 17) talking about our "Labor History in the Schools" bill which Governor Doyle signed last Thursday. Opposition: Michael Dean, attorney with the First Freedoms Foundation.

Labor history could soon be part of Wisconsin school curriculum

By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio

MADISON (WPR) Wisconsin schools would be encouraged to teach the history of organized labor and the collective bargaining process under a bill headed to the Governor's desk. [Full Story]

Source: Fox 21 Online

Learning from the Past to Conquer the Challenges of Today

As the Conference booklet would put it:

This workshop explored the relevance of labor history in today's labor movement. By examining how our predocessors built and maintained effective unions, we can learn what stategies and tactics might be currently usefull. As the labor movement increasingly becomes comprised of a new generation of members, it's important to pass on the lessons that the founders of our unions learned so well themselves.

This session will help comunicators educate their readers about the purpose of unions, inspire them to increase their involvement and encourage them to face up to the issues of today.

Peter Rachleff, Instructor

Peter is a labor historian based at Macalester Cellege in St. Paul, MN. and is no stranger to the American Postal Workers Union with connections back to 1980 in one form or another. He has published two major books, Black Labor In Richmond, Virginia, 1865-1890 (University of Illinois Press, 1989) and Hard Pressed In the Heartland: The Hormel Strike and the Future Of The Labor Movement (Sounth End Press, 1993).It is this writers opinion that this is one of the most interesting workshops at the Conference.