A recent presentation by Richard Wolff, professor emeritus of UMass, Amherst, and visiting professor at the New School University in New York.
I found this March 27, 2012 presentation by Richard Wolff in Chicago informative and enjoyable: in-depth analysis of the current crisis of civilization, incorporating important historical, economic, and social elements, and he manages to do it in a language that is understandable and in a narrative that is truly poignant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJlXhYigqAQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
SocialistWorker.org "Workers at Flex-N-Gate organize for justice"
Workers at Flex-N-Gate organize for justice
April 11, 2012
WORKERS AND their union and community allies in Urbana, Ill., are calling for the Flex-N-Gate company to provide better working conditions and stop union-busting efforts.
On March 10, workers and supporters held a rally at the plant to draw attention to the plight of the largely immigrant workforce.
Flex-N-Gate manufactures auto parts for major automakers including BMW, Ford, Nissan and Toyota. With 24 manufacturing facilities across the Midwest and in the South, as well as 25 in Canada, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, Flex-N-Gate reported $2.5 billion in annual revenue in 2011. That makes Flex-N-Gate one of the largest suppliers of the auto industry worldwide. Owner Shahid Khan is one of the top 200 billionaires in the U.S. and one of the 500 richest people on earth, according to Forbes.
In contrast to the exorbitant revenue and profits at the company, the sweatshop working conditions at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Urbana offer a clear vision of low-wage America.
According to the United Auto Workers union (UAW), which is sponsoring a nationwide organizing drive at Flex-N-Gate plants, management has not provided employees with the basic safety equipment to deal with adverse health effects from exposure to hexavalent chromium. The instructions provided on safe handling of this chemical are close to non-existent and far from adequate.
Workers start as temps earning $9 an hour. If they are not fired before their 90th day of work--stories of "temp abuse" are rampant at Flex-N-Gate, with many workers going through the temp period more than once--they are eligible to become permanent employees, making $11 an hour. Many workers are not provided with medical insurance, even after a year of working at the plant.
Workers have identified more than 30 violations of the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and have filed several complaints with the agency, but business keeps going unaltered. The Guardian West plant in Urbana is not even temperature regulated, so workers must endure excessive cold in winter and heat in summer. Many workers have reported fainting in the summer months.
A majority of the workplace safety violations regard exposure to the carcinogenic chemical agent hexavalent chromium, the same toxic chemical that the true-story film Erin Brokovich deals with.
Hexavalent chromium is used in the factory to achieve the glossy and plated look of bumpers. But the chemical is also responsible for serious adverse health effects if proper precautions aren't taken. According to OSHA, workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium is proven to cause lung cancer and irritation or damage to the nose, throat, eyes and skin.
Workers say that OSHA-mandated safety equipment has been replaced with cheap ineffective substitutes to reduce overhead costs. According to the UAW, the required $5 safety mask, provided to the employees to prevent the inhalation of carcinogenic fumes, has been replaced by $.50 cotton substitutes. At the same time, cheap latex gloves are substituted for the thicker and more costly industrial gloves ideal to handle corrosive chemicals and heavy metals.
In addition, while OSHA requires that employees who come in contact with hexavalent chromium be provided with proper cleaning facilities to rid their bodies and clothes of the chemical, management at Flex-N-Gate has failed to provide this--in effect, exposing the community and employee¹s families to the carcinogenic chemical.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN ORDER to demand their rights as workers and human beings, workers have made numerous attempts at unionizing with the assistance of the UAW. Their efforts have been thwarted by management's draconian opposition.
In a move to prevent unionization, the company reportedly makes a regular practice of hiring a workforce that is divided along language lines. One-third of the workers at the Urbana plant, for example, are French-speaking Congolese workers, one third are Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants, and another third are English-speaking African Americans and whites.
In addition to workers' inability to communicate with each other, workers claim that there are safety signs inside the factory written in English only, with no French or Spanish translations provided.
Furthermore, workers allege that the company has retaliated against some of those who have come out in support of forming a union. Some have been given sudden extra shifts to prevent them from attending UAW-sponsored events, while others have been deprived of the opportunity of taking extra shifts (which many need in order to earn enough to care for their families).
The scale of the intimidation campaign reached a high point in mid-February, when 11 families of Congolese workers at the plant were notified by their landlord, Royse and Brinkmeyer Apartments, that their leases would not be renewed for the coming year because of "less than satisfactory" experiences with the tenants. An urgent alert was sent immediately through Champaign-Urbana activist networks, and after a storm of calls and e-mails, the landlord pulled back from this threat.
Meanwhile, Flex-N-Gate owner Shahid Khan recently bought the Jacksonville Jaguars football team for $760 million. Khan is also among the top five donors to the University of Illinois--just in 2011, he donated approximately $10 million to pay for an annex to the Applied Health Sciences building.
The fact that Khan can donate money for a state-of-the-art health building, but refuses to provide basic health and safety for his workers is outrageous. The university administration, as well as Champaign-Urbana politicians and business leaders, venerate Khan for his philanthropy, but ignore the manner in which this entrepreneur has acquired his fortune.
Activists in Urbana-Champaign are planning a number of actions in coming weeks to show solidarity with Flex-N-Gate workers, and to put pressure on the university administration--which has hired the same union-busting lawyer as Khan as it faces negotiations with the graduate employees union and the Service Workers International Union, to cut ties with this disgusting alumni.
By organizing inside the plants and in the communities, we can win justice for Flex-N-Gate workers.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
What you can do
For more information on Flex-N-Gate organizing campaign, visit the website justiceatflexngate.org [2].
Leighton Christiansen, Veer Kothari, Rebecca Marcotte, Jesse Phillipe and Damián Reyes contributed to this article.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Published by the International Socialist Organization.
Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [3] license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.
[1] http://socialistworker.org/department/Labor
[2] justiceatflexngate.org
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
April 11, 2012
WORKERS AND their union and community allies in Urbana, Ill., are calling for the Flex-N-Gate company to provide better working conditions and stop union-busting efforts.
On March 10, workers and supporters held a rally at the plant to draw attention to the plight of the largely immigrant workforce.
Flex-N-Gate manufactures auto parts for major automakers including BMW, Ford, Nissan and Toyota. With 24 manufacturing facilities across the Midwest and in the South, as well as 25 in Canada, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, Flex-N-Gate reported $2.5 billion in annual revenue in 2011. That makes Flex-N-Gate one of the largest suppliers of the auto industry worldwide. Owner Shahid Khan is one of the top 200 billionaires in the U.S. and one of the 500 richest people on earth, according to Forbes.
In contrast to the exorbitant revenue and profits at the company, the sweatshop working conditions at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Urbana offer a clear vision of low-wage America.
According to the United Auto Workers union (UAW), which is sponsoring a nationwide organizing drive at Flex-N-Gate plants, management has not provided employees with the basic safety equipment to deal with adverse health effects from exposure to hexavalent chromium. The instructions provided on safe handling of this chemical are close to non-existent and far from adequate.
Workers start as temps earning $9 an hour. If they are not fired before their 90th day of work--stories of "temp abuse" are rampant at Flex-N-Gate, with many workers going through the temp period more than once--they are eligible to become permanent employees, making $11 an hour. Many workers are not provided with medical insurance, even after a year of working at the plant.
Workers have identified more than 30 violations of the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and have filed several complaints with the agency, but business keeps going unaltered. The Guardian West plant in Urbana is not even temperature regulated, so workers must endure excessive cold in winter and heat in summer. Many workers have reported fainting in the summer months.
A majority of the workplace safety violations regard exposure to the carcinogenic chemical agent hexavalent chromium, the same toxic chemical that the true-story film Erin Brokovich deals with.
Hexavalent chromium is used in the factory to achieve the glossy and plated look of bumpers. But the chemical is also responsible for serious adverse health effects if proper precautions aren't taken. According to OSHA, workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium is proven to cause lung cancer and irritation or damage to the nose, throat, eyes and skin.
Workers say that OSHA-mandated safety equipment has been replaced with cheap ineffective substitutes to reduce overhead costs. According to the UAW, the required $5 safety mask, provided to the employees to prevent the inhalation of carcinogenic fumes, has been replaced by $.50 cotton substitutes. At the same time, cheap latex gloves are substituted for the thicker and more costly industrial gloves ideal to handle corrosive chemicals and heavy metals.
In addition, while OSHA requires that employees who come in contact with hexavalent chromium be provided with proper cleaning facilities to rid their bodies and clothes of the chemical, management at Flex-N-Gate has failed to provide this--in effect, exposing the community and employee¹s families to the carcinogenic chemical.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN ORDER to demand their rights as workers and human beings, workers have made numerous attempts at unionizing with the assistance of the UAW. Their efforts have been thwarted by management's draconian opposition.
In a move to prevent unionization, the company reportedly makes a regular practice of hiring a workforce that is divided along language lines. One-third of the workers at the Urbana plant, for example, are French-speaking Congolese workers, one third are Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants, and another third are English-speaking African Americans and whites.
In addition to workers' inability to communicate with each other, workers claim that there are safety signs inside the factory written in English only, with no French or Spanish translations provided.
Furthermore, workers allege that the company has retaliated against some of those who have come out in support of forming a union. Some have been given sudden extra shifts to prevent them from attending UAW-sponsored events, while others have been deprived of the opportunity of taking extra shifts (which many need in order to earn enough to care for their families).
The scale of the intimidation campaign reached a high point in mid-February, when 11 families of Congolese workers at the plant were notified by their landlord, Royse and Brinkmeyer Apartments, that their leases would not be renewed for the coming year because of "less than satisfactory" experiences with the tenants. An urgent alert was sent immediately through Champaign-Urbana activist networks, and after a storm of calls and e-mails, the landlord pulled back from this threat.
Meanwhile, Flex-N-Gate owner Shahid Khan recently bought the Jacksonville Jaguars football team for $760 million. Khan is also among the top five donors to the University of Illinois--just in 2011, he donated approximately $10 million to pay for an annex to the Applied Health Sciences building.
The fact that Khan can donate money for a state-of-the-art health building, but refuses to provide basic health and safety for his workers is outrageous. The university administration, as well as Champaign-Urbana politicians and business leaders, venerate Khan for his philanthropy, but ignore the manner in which this entrepreneur has acquired his fortune.
Activists in Urbana-Champaign are planning a number of actions in coming weeks to show solidarity with Flex-N-Gate workers, and to put pressure on the university administration--which has hired the same union-busting lawyer as Khan as it faces negotiations with the graduate employees union and the Service Workers International Union, to cut ties with this disgusting alumni.
By organizing inside the plants and in the communities, we can win justice for Flex-N-Gate workers.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
What you can do
For more information on Flex-N-Gate organizing campaign, visit the website justiceatflexngate.org [2].
Leighton Christiansen, Veer Kothari, Rebecca Marcotte, Jesse Phillipe and Damián Reyes contributed to this article.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Published by the International Socialist Organization.
Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [3] license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.
[1] http://socialistworker.org/department/Labor
[2] justiceatflexngate.org
[3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0
Monday, April 9, 2012
The Economics of Happiness
Website: www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/theeconomicsofhappiness
Blog: www.theeconomicsofhappiness.wordpress.com
Film Synopsis -
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they're starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm -- an economics of localization.
We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Juliet Schor, Zac Goldsmith and Samdhong Rinpoche - the Prime Minister of Tibet's government in exile. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Naomi Wolf - The End of America - The Rise of Fascism
This excellent documentary is presented by author and lecturer Naomi Wolf. America has followed a 10 step path that has led us into a fascist dictatorship. Naomi Wolf takes us through these 10 steps and clearly demonstrates that this descent into fascism is in fact The End Of America.
Everyone should watch this. She wrote the book in 2008, and it was made into a documentary film in 2010. A lot has happened since she wrote it, which makes it even more chilling and disturbing. I am normally not wild about the F word, it seems to spark semantic arguments that miss the real point. I prefer to say "authoritarian" or as she sometimes says "a closed society." I think we can all agree on what that means.
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