Bottom-Up Change: Apple Eco-Friendly Cleaning Cooperative

Mexican women who used to stand on the street hoping to be picked up for a day of underpaid day-labor cleaning homes and offices using deleterious chemicals, have organized an LLC, "cook up" their own nontoxic cleaning products, and are looking for more clients for steadier employment.

GA may use prisoners to bust unions

(image by ilyse kazar, CC NonCommercial)

Camden County, Georgia is considering replacing union firefighters with unpaid convicts. That's right, this brilliant plan contemplates placing two loosely monitored prisoners in each firehouse, who will respond to all emergencies including residential fires. And it seems that this would be forced, not optional, labor.

Let's say that nonviolent, nonlarcenous prisoners are selected. Let's say that even though the prisoners did not _choose_ to fight fires, they nonetheless put their all into protecting life and property, rather than doing the bare minimum. What do they get in exchange for running into burning buildings? _Maybe_ some time off. And the right to work as a firefighter 5 years after release, instead of the usual 10.

Oh, yes, and let's say the unionized firefighters are down with this. AS IF.

This is the worst. Cost-saving idea. Ever.

Same goods, for less

“Our quality numbers have been very good,” Mr. Walsh said. “And our data doesn’t show any differences per shift or per workstation.”

That's the sound of Detroit bragging about its two-tier wage system, in which new workers do the same work, at the same productivity rate, as longer-term workers earning double their salaries.

Awesome Woman: Flor Molina

Flor Molina is a survivor of forced labor in the garment industry in Los Angeles, California. She was forced to work 14 or more hours per day, was told she owed her trafficker thousands of dollars, and was even required to live within the garment factory and was not allowed to go out without escort. Sadly, this is all typical in the world of human trafficking. What is unusual about Molina is that within 40 days of her arrival at the Los Angeles factory in 2001 she found a way to escape, immediately placed a phone call to a (non-enslaved) co-worker, and blew the whistle in spite of threats that her three children and mother back home would be harmed. Her phone call initiated a process that ended with the conviction of the human trafficker who had brought her to the United States and kept her enslaved.

Molina's coworker picked her up, took her to a restaurant, and contacted the FBI who were already investigating the trafficker. The FBI connected her to the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), who helped her find shelter and get back on her feet. She then became a member of the CAST Survivor Advisory Caucus, one of the groups that worked hard to pass a bill in California (that will go into effect in 2012) that requires manufacturers and retailers in the state to disclose their efforts at making sure their supply chains are free of slavery.

Molina offered the final testimony in the California legislature while Governor Schwarzenegger's pen was poised over the bill:

I and other members of the caucus speak up against slavery not because we are not afraid but because we want to make sure that what happened to us doesn't happen to anyone else.

The CAST Survivor Advisory Caucus fought hard for this bill to pass. We testified at hearings, we wrote letters and got signatures for our petition. Our voices were heard and action was taken, action that will, hopefully, protect others from falling prey to traffickers like we once did. I am proud to stand here, not as a victim of slavery but as a powerful agent of change.

Please, Governor Schwarzenegger, will you please sign the legislation?

There was applause, and the Governor signed.

http://www.szone.us/f76/governor-highlights-legislation-combat-human-trafficking-51387/

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/05/i-was-enslaved-for-40-days/

My Awesome Woman posts were first written for and published to a closed Facebook group, and are republished here.

of the corporations, by the corporations ...

Maine's Republican governor Paul LePage ordered a large mural depicting the illustrious history of unions in this country to be removed from the state's Department of Labor's premises.

"The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue," said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett in a prepared statement. "We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."

... Administration officials said the change was needed to reflect a new image for the department, one not tilted toward organized labor. They said visitors to the lobby had complained that the mural is anti-business.

OK, then, so the new image for Maine's Department of Labor has been laid on the table in plain view: It is NOT there to encourage fair wages and safe working conditions. Seems like Maine is laying the groundwork to become the next state to attack public worker unions.

Some panels in the mural that LePage wants removed.

The Commissioner of Labor has also announced a contest to rename conference rooms that are currently dedicated to Labor heros such as Cesar Chavez and Frances Perkins. Hmmm. I can just see conference rooms in the Department of Labor named for Sam Walton and David Koch.

Comment of the Day: The Poor Koch Brothers

All the people in this "ad" are socialists, communists, nazis, subversives, and "tera-ists".The real PATRIOTS are the persons who stand up for the Koch brothers. Last time I heard, the poor bros were down to their last 18 billion. This is not acceptable. These greedy teachers should give it up now, for the good of the Koch bros.

-- YouTube comment on this well-done ad by Bold Progressives and Democracy for America by "Gallagherfreak100"
 

Bottom-Up Change: Garbage sorter fights wage theft » Workhorse Politics

Bottom-Up Change: Garbage sorter fights wage theft » Workhorse Politics

Quote of the Day: AFL-CIO champions equality for gays

Commenting on today's One Nation rally, Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, said: "It's about jobs and the fact that we need jobs now. At the same time, we do not ever back away from being a part of a broader coalition that supports the rights of all people, no matter their race or sex or gender or sexual orientation, to be treated fairly."