Who Made That Butterball For You?

Butterball Turkeys get killed, cleaned and wrapped in plastic for you in a small town near the Arkansas River, not far from Fort Smith. Women in their 60s, who have worked all their lives there, get paid $11.40 per hour. That's about $24,000 per year.

It is not easy work. Turkeys need to be stunned and dispatched and gutted. Someone has to cut the oil gland out of the tail. Necks and gizzards and livers have to be cleaned and stuffed into a cavity. During a six-week period that begins in October, the line runs seven days a week to process fresh turkey. It is a period people in town simply refer to as “fresh,” and it is grueling.

“It’s a long battle when we’re working fresh, but I at least got some bills paid and Christmas money,” Mrs. Farmer said. “I just sit there and hum and sing and talk to my friend Willie. We get through it together.”

...snip...

Joshua Freeman, 34, recently lost a race for mayor. He is in the bar business, in part because turkey farming did not pay enough. His father got out of the business after 15 years, he said, because Butterball kept requiring improvements just as the family got close to paying everything off and realizing profits.

“It was like working for the company store,” Mr. Freeman said. “You could never get ahead.”

via New York Times

if the NYT blocks your view, just go into the URL box, and delete everything after the ".html" and hit enter.

hat tip to Arkansas Blog

Environmental Causes to Lower Crime Rates

One of the recession's biggest surprises is the continued drop in violent crime. Via Drum, it seems likely that one major reason is that children no longer suffer from lead poisoning:

....There may also be a medical reason for the decline in crime. For decades, doctors have known that children with lots of lead in their blood are much more likely to be aggressive, violent and delinquent. In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency required oil companies to stop putting lead in gasoline....A 2007 study by the economist Jessica Wolpaw Reyes contended that the reduction in gasoline lead produced more than half of the decline in violent crime during the 1990s in the U.S. and might bring about greater declines in the future.

While not the only reason suggested, it is quite telling. The larger lesson is that environmental regulations that supposedly cause business money almost always pay for themselves in the long run. And as Republicans want to tear down each and every one of these regulations to return to the Gilded Age, I for one expect this period of time to be a sort of high point in protecting our children from environmental hazards. Future generations of Americans may suffer from the hellish hazards of lead poisoning as workers do in China today (global capitalism--it's all benefits!!!) and as Chris Sellers has explored in his superb work on the rise of environmental health science and the suffering of white lead victims in the Progressive Era, Hazards of the Job.

Why Guestworker Programs Don't Work

A commonly stated solution for the problem of undocumented immigration is to implement a guestworker problem. Immigrant rights activists routinely note the fundamental problem with this--workers have no rights. The bracero program of the mid-twentieth century saw migrant workers suffer all sorts of abuse. Guestworker advocates say that such abuses couldn't take place today. That's just flat out not true. Mike Elk:

Last year, the leaders of the U.S.-based foreign labor and supply company Global Horizons were indicted in what the Department of Justice considered the biggest human trafficking case ever brought by the federal government. They were charged with holding 400 Thai guest farm workers in the United States against their will in conditions that essentially amounted to slavery.

The workers were given guest visas to work in the United States under the H-2A visa program. They were kept under brutal conditions under armed guard in Hawaii and forced to live in substandard conditions in hot shipping containers "with no carpet, beds, furniture, indoor plumbing, kitchen or air conditioning," according to federal investigators. They were under constant threat of violence from gun-toting guards, and on one occasion a guard told the workers they would be shot if they tried to escape.

Several company officials have already pleaded guilty in plea bargain deals and several others are expected to stand trial. In 2006, when the workers' maltreatment was discovered, the Department of Labor also debarred Global Horizons from participating in the H-2A agricultural guest worker program for the mandatory three years; it issued an additional three year debarment in 2009. Last week, a judge upheld the three year debarment after Global Horizons appealed it.

I don't know if you believe in the power of the modern government to regulate farms so that worker abuse doesn't happen. With our severely hampered and underfunded government, I absolutely do not. After all, what regulations in this country are properly followed? Food safety? Labor? Environmental? None of the above. Even under Democratic administrations, employers and polluters are in control of the regulatory process.

Moreover, our farms are in out of the way places. How many readers  have visited farms with migrant workers? Even among progressive groups, how many are active on these issues. There are some, such as the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in North Carolina and the PCUN in Oregon (sadly, the UFW is basically defunct). But even these worker rights groups and unions are heavily underfunded, under reported in the press, and have virtually no power to stop farm employer abuses. 

Guestworker programs will lead to more abuses like this one in Hawaii. These must be opposed as part of any immigration legislation.

Why Labor Needs To Push the Democratic Party Harder

Again, What Digby Said.

It is a great post on what the Centrists are doing to fracture the Democratic Party.

And here is the post that sparked Digby's post...

Robert Cruickshank's post on coalitions.

Labor: The Lackey of the Democratic Party

Mike Elk has a fantastic piece criticizing AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for being the latest in a long line of labor leaders who talk a big game about challenging the Democratic Party but end up doing whatever it asks, even though labor receives almost nothing in return.

...the truth is that Trumka’s talk of political independence is shallow and weak. Most labor leaders make the same speech about political independence every two years in the off-year before a congressional election. Then, when the election comes around, labor leaders often twist arms to get mortgages signed on their headquarters so they can give even more money to the Democratic Party in the final days before the vote.

You can find nearly identical quotes from AFL-CIO President George Meany in the 1960s during Johnson’s Democratic administration, from President Lane Kirkland in the late 1970s under Jimmy Carter, and from President John Sweeney in the 1990s under Bill Clinton. In fact, you can even go back two years before the last election to see Trumka saying labor might sit out the election. He ended up urging all union members to go out and vote for Democrats.

Every single labor leader in the history of the labor movement has beat his chest about organized labor declaring its political independence the way Trumka is now, but never delivered on the declaration of political independence.

It's not of course that labor should eschew the Democratic Party. Rather, it should push its own agenda and support openly pro-labor candidates rather than going all-out for Democrats who will vote against labor when they are elected. 

In the progressive blogosphere, the rare times when labor is mentioned, it is almost always in terms of how it relates to Democratic policy politics--will labor be able to get out the vote? Labor is hardly ever discussed as an movement independent of a political party with its own goals, agenda, and priorities. And if it does have those things, it is perceived that it can only achieve those ends through the Democratic Party.

In no small part, this is the fault of labor leaders themselves. They see themselves as operating within respectable channels of the Democratic Party. They froze up during the Wisconsin protests because they were by and large far less comfortable with strikes and mass movements than with playing the political game. And thus they demobilized the street protests that so powerfully riveted the nation this winter. 

Again, this isn't to denigrate party politics. Obviously that's very important. But people rightfully don't think of the anti-abortion movement firmly within Republican Party politics. Or if they do, they should understand that this movement existed well outside the party until it could slowly take it over from the inside. And while Republicans absolutely have treated the anti-abortion movement as a get-out-the-vote mechanism over the years, the anti-abortionists have also increasingly demanded and received their payment in return. And today they own the party in a way labor can only dream of.

Labor shouldn't try to start a 3rd party movement or anything like that. But it should also not do Democrats' bidding. While Republicans are worse for labor than Democrats, the current crop of Democrats are not supporting labor's interests anyway. Is a slow death worse than a sudden death? I'd say it probably doesn't make much difference, especially now that Republicans like Scott Walker are looking to take labor off life support.

And in any case, as Elk points out, there is absolutely no reason to believe that Trumka is serious about promoting an independent course for labor until he actually does so.

Good Policy & Good Politics

The National Journal headline:

Wisconsin GOP Gloats Over Massachusetts Collective Bargaining Bill

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

And, for all those who want to consider themselves as centrist, or serving the interests of moderation... remember that the master of centrism, Bill Clinton, repeats over and over that what a President decides to do must be both good policy and good politics. The Wisconsin GOP has suffered some disastrous public relations... and the Mass Speaker just made them look a little better.

Shorter Massachusetts House Democrats: Scott Walker is Our Prophet

Are you fucking kidding me?

Union supporters had a rude awakening on Wednesday with news of the Massachusetts state House vote to slash collective bargaining rights for municipal workers. Democratic-controlled, and among the bluest of the blue, Massachusetts is not the place where most expected to see the next battle in the nationwide organized labor fight with state legislatures crop up.

The state House bill, which passed with overwhelming support in the Democratic-controlled state legislature, would "strip police officers, teachers, and other municipal employees of most of their rights to bargain over health care," as the Boston Globe reported Wednesday. The goal, according to proponents, is of course to "save millions of dollars for financially strapped cities and towns."

Why should labor even involve itself in the Democratic Party anymore?

Of course, Redbeard has more below. He's on the ground and this affects him personally. Still, I'm shocked they went through with this.

The Lockout

Yesterday court ruling lifting the NFL lockout might well be the end of the road for the NFL owners' attempt to screw over their players. Ed Valentine persuasively argues this and notes how utterly evil the owners are:

The NFL owners are still in denial, as evidenced by their stubborn refusal to get back to work and stop their appeal of Judge Nelson's decision. But the truth is, it's over. In fact, it's probably true that it was over from the moment when Smith rallied his players, won their confidence, and got them to go along with the gutsy move to decertify the union after months of non-negotiation.

From the beginning the sports media has been quick to note that neither side was willing to compromise, but what Smith did was make it clear to the players that they had no reason to compromise. They were, after all, being asked to give up revenue they had fought hard for as the starting point of any negotiations. The central facts leading to the lockout were not in dispute: the National Football League pulled in more than $9 billion last season, and the owners wanted the players to give back one billion of their share from the first snap. Not because the owners were suffering any economic hardship -- certainly none that they were ready to open up their books to reveal -- but because they wanted the players to pay for new stadiums.

In case you're wondering who has been footing most of the bill for these new stadiums over the years, the answer is: you, or rather, us. For the most part, the NFL, largely by threatening to move franchises to new cities, has always been able to snooker local politicians into forking over the taxpayers' money for new venues -- you know, the ones with the luxury boxes that you can't afford.

After years of preaching the virtues of the free market while profiting on municipal and state money, the public teat, it appears, has run dry. The owners' response was to turn to the NFLPA and say, in effect, we need some new suckers to foot our bills.

The players' reaction, expressed through DeMaurice Smith, was "Does Ford demand that autoworkers pay for the cost of new factories?"

Far less valuable, as per normal, is Gregg Easterbrook, who takes the classic "sure the owners are bad but the players are super greedy and although I claim to be a liberal I have no problem busting an athlete union" line. 

Wisconsin Labor Leaders Dropping the Ball

Sadly, but not all that surprisingly, Wisconsin labor leaders are really dropping the ball on the mass movement that developed to protest Scott Walker's union busting bill. Matthew Rothschild has a compelling and depressing piece on this:

But then, just as the crowds were swelling, all of a sudden the labor leadership seemed to lose interest in mass action.

It may be that the labor leadership in Wisconsin, which didn’t know quite what to do with all those people in the streets, has now missed its main chance.

“You’ve got to make hay when sun shines, and we soon will be paying the price for not making hay. We blinked,” says Bill Franks, a senior steward for AFT-Wisconsin. “It was a lost opportunity. We had to shut this motherfucker down.” (AFT-Wisconsin was formerly the American Federation of Teachers of Wisconsin, but it has broadened its membership to include other professionals).

Franks believes that when organized labor had 100,000 people marching in the streets, it should have called for some direct action and possibly a general strike. “You can’t put 100,000 people in jail,” he says. “When you have those numbers, the math is all of a sudden on your side.”

Franks says the labor leadership didn’t grasp the power that the outpouring represented. “At the moment when we had some general strike potential,” he says, “the bureaucrats of labor backed off and effectively got in lockstep with the Democratic Party.”

Recall efforts are fine and good, but massing 100,000 people in the streets really scares those in power and emboldens the citizenry.

Why didn’t the state AFL-CIO call for a mass protest the moment that Waukesha County clerk Kathy Nickolaus all of a sudden found 14,000 missing votes in the state supreme court race to throw it to David Prosser, whom she used to work for? Pro-labor and pro-Kloppenburg people were outraged and ready to express that outrage, but the leadership provided them with no outlet.

Why didn’t the state AFL-CIO call for a mass protest when Sarah Palin came to town?

And what plans does the state AFL-CIO have in store if the Republicans try to pull a fast one and intimidate those doing the recall efforts, or out-lawyer the Democratic challengers?

Or, God forbid, when Walker’s anti-union bill finally is allowed to be implemented either by the state supreme court or after a legislative do-over?

I’m afraid the labor leadership in Wisconsin is underestimating the power there is in numbers.

All very true. I remain upset that after the bill passed, the AFL-CIO did not call for a strike. Like Barack Obama after the 2008 election, you had a huge number of motivated and inspired people ready to take the next step and retake the government. And like Obama's response, you have the big liberal institutions, now uncomfortable with mass movements tearing it down in exchange for incremental change and legal challenges. Of course, legal challenges are hardly incongruous with mass protests.But once you blow that momentum, how do you get people back on the streets again? This is what Obama is about to find out in his re-election campaign and this is what the Wisconsin AFL-CIO faces.

What's particularly outrageous is that of all movements, labor should know the power of mass movements. After all, that's what built their movement. But this was so long ago now that it is beyond anyone's personal memory. Replacing mass-action protests is institutional conservatism. That this institutional conservatism has helped lead to labor's decline over the last 40 years has not woken up AFL-CIO leaders blows the mind.

I previously stated that the Wisconsin fight is one of the biggest fights in U.S. labor history since World War II. I absolutely continue to believe that. And by dismantling one of the biggest protest movements of the last two decades, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO is doing all the can to lose the long-term war, even if they win the short-term battle in the courts.

Historical Image of the Day

Cemetery for workers at the Asarco smelter (seen in background), El Paso, Texas, 1972

Change? Forget About It

A year ago yesterday, the Massey Energy owned Upper Big Branch coal mine caved in, killing 29 miners.

One might think this disaster would cause a change in how government agencies regulate coal mines, if not behavior by the evil coal companies.


Of course, you'd be wrong in thinking that.

In this climate, corporations are creating change, not responding to it. With regulatory agencies underfunded (and Obama has done little to alleviate this problem) and staffed by ex-industry people, regulation is as weak and demoralized as ever.

There could be another 29 dead miners tomorrow. It would get attention for a few weeks. And then things would go back to normal.

Rinse and repeat.

A New Low

Darrell Issa hit a new low when it comes to Republican union-busting efforts. For the first time in memory, a member of Congress has inserted himself into a labor agreement. Issa accuses the United States Postal Service of not cutting costs enough in their new agreement with the American Postal Workers Union, even though said agreement freezes wages for 2 1/2 years and forces employees into significant increases in their health care contributions.

But anything sort of destroying public sector  unions is too moderate for the Republican Party. We all know this, but we can expect more and more vociferous anti-union spewing to come out of Republican mouths. It's only a matter of time before we have supposedly responsible politicians calling for the outlaw of public sector unions. No doubt Very Serious People like David Brooks will approve.

Teamsters

Will the malignancy on the labor movement known as the Hoffa family ever end?

Why the NFL May Crush the Players in a Long Strike

While the NFLPA has good leadership, I worry that membership will cave, needing money to continue leading the overly-lavish lifestyles to which many have becoming accustomed. Take Dallas WR Dez Bryant:

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant is being sued for non-payment of $246,000 worth of jewelry by a New York-based company in a civil suit filed Friday in Dallas.

Bryant purchased $267,000 worth of jewelry from A+A Diamonds LTD d/b/a Rafaello & Company, which makes high-end jewelry for celebrities and athletes.

This guy has a contract worth millions. He's dropping at least a quarter million with one jewelry company. How much money does he actually have in the bank? That's a real question.

This same analysis may go even more for the NBA, which does not have such strong leadership in their players' union and which is dependent upon a few superstars for everything.

Nelson Lichtenstein on Wisconsin

Ezra Klein interviews eminent labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein, author of such books as State of the Union: A Century of American Labor and Walther Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit, on the crisis in Wisconsin. When Lichtenstein speaks, it's worthwhile to pay attention.

2 Kinds of States

There are two kinds of states in this country--states where Republicans have proposed bills to strip rights from workers and states where Republicans are planning bills to strip rights from workers. See if your state has moved into the first category and what kind of horrors could be in store for you and your ability to feed your family.

Strike Now!!!!

I put together an article for Global Comment calling for Wisconsin workers to call a general strike, regardless of potential legal obstacles. In part:

So sympathy strikes might be illegal. But at this point, what do workers have to lose? The nation is rapidly heading toward the outlawing of labor unions. This is the last stand for American labor. Workers need to lay everything on the line here or their union is next. Plus, given Walker’s blatant illegality in passing this legislation, what good reasons do workers have to follow the law, so long they remain peaceful and respectful of law enforcement officers?

I also call for massive nonviolent resistance. Labor must deploy every move in their playbook. It is time to occupy Republican offices around the state and the nation. Sit-down strikes. Blocking streets. Business in Wisconsin must end until this law is repealed.

If this seems too radical, I ask, what would you suggest? Unions have lost almost every battle they’ve fought for over sixty years. Today, the rights of working and middle-class people have eroded to levels not seen since before World War II. The Republican Party seeks to return this nation to the hell of the late nineteenth century. If this is not the time for radical action, when would be more appropriate?

The NFL Owners--Pure Evil

Bill Simmons really savages the NFL owners and their upcoming attempt to crush the NFL Players Association. The day's must read.

Recall

I've heard a few progressives complain about the potential of recalling Wisconsin state legislators over Scott Walker's draconian union-busting legislation. They don't like the recall because it doesn't play by Washington rules I guess. And they remember the ousting of Gray Davis in California. While I'll admit the recall is a tricky thing and can be used nefariously, was there ever a better scenario to deploy it than in Wisconsin right now? And so I'm glad to see labor and its allies begin to threaten these jerks with their jobs. We'll see how many of them support union-busting if it is going to cost them their seat.

Even a Win is a Loss

Michael Cooper and Steven Greenhouse make an excellent point in their coverage of the union protests in Wisconsin and Ohio--that the radical language of the Tea Party has forced unions to give up on every economic demand in order to defend collective bargaining. Even if the unions win the struggle to keep that fundamental right, they have still lost big time in their members' pocketbooks.

At the best, the Koch Brothers and friends will have continued the slow and steady decline of unions into irrelevance. That is, unless the unions build upon this to retake America, convince people of the necessity of collective bargaining, a more fair system of taxation, and the rejection of extremist rhetoric. And that might happen--the longer these protests continue, the more people will use them as springboards for the long-term organizing infrastructure that the movement so desperately needs.

The other thing I hope the unions are ready to do is to take their protests to the next level if Walker and Kasich get their union-busting legislation passed: strike. If teachers aren't valued, they ought to walk on en masse. Let Walker fire them all. Where are they going to get new ones? If the public sectors unions strike, it will cripple the state. Whether the public support exists to support the strike is an open question, but there's no way these workers are replaceable and besides, if you are going to go down, it's better to go down swinging than slowly wither away.

But even if all this happens, it's almost impossible to see workers coming out of Wisconsin and Ohio with their paychecks intact. And that's still a victory for the conservatives.