INK: June 16, 2011

With stores in 14 countries and U.S. sales flat, Walmart is depending more and more on overseas operations for growth.  And the company has successfully negotiated labor agreements for decades in cultures where unions are still widely supported and relevant.  But even the world’s largest retailer wasn’t prepared when South African labor leaders demanded Walmart stop opposing unionism back in the U.S. as a prerequisite to the purchase of a major South African retail chain.  (The government did approve the purchase but only after protracted debate and without the full-throated endorsement of the nation’s powerful union leaders.)  “You can’t say you violate the right to freedom of association because the culture in that country supports it,” said Mduduzi Mbongwe, who represents the South Africa Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union. “We don’t accept such an argument.” What Walmart is experiencing are the first fruits of years of patient planning and global coalition building by American labor bosses who still have the cash, savvy and star power to dominate the global labor stage.  And American unions are now poised to hit any corporation hard in markets where unions remain credible and still wield genuine social clout. To coincide with the South African rebuff, UNI Europa Commerce, a division of a global labor consortium of over 900 member unions, sent a letter to Walmart demanding a “common framework” for Walmart labor relations around the world.  Included in that frame would be “the right to organise without opposition and full collective bargaining rights for all Walmart workers” presumably including Walmart employees in the U.S.  These demands were delivered with the threat to “engage with governments and civil society around the world” to make regulatory and consumer decisions in light of the company’s global “track record”. Walmart has also long been the target of the International Labor Rights Forum, a union front organization whose investigations of hot button global issues like child labor and sweatshops most frequently lead back to American companies targeted for unionization or embroiled in labor disputes.  The Board of the ILRF is almost entirely made up of American labor officials and their toadies in academia. ********** Lessons in the Exploitation of Children Meanwhile, the ILRF has also launched a highly sophisticated coordinated corporate campaign, Raise the Bar, Hershey,  that brings together international labor activists, environmental groups, teachers unions, Kennedys and chocolate loving school kids to demand the candy manufacturer sign on to third party oversight of its cocoa supply chain in West Africa.  The company already requires all its suppliers meet strict international labor standards. Why target Hershey? Well, according to the ILRF’s website, because Hershey is big, Hershey sources from regions with a history of labor violations (as must all other major cocoa buyers) and Hershey won’t buy in to dubious third party “Fair Trade” certification.  We will add theBakery & Confectionery Union made deep concessions last fall to keep the new Hershey plant in Hershey and the company’s other U.S. plants remain (so far) union free. So to either push the “Fair Trade” logo or give the AFL-CIO more leverage over Hershey, dozens of rosy cheeked New York City elementary school students were marched by their unionized teachers to Hershey’s Time Square store last weekfor a first hand lesson in exploiting children for political and economic gain.   Holding their cute crayon drawings of child servitude and herded into great photo-ops by a bullhorn wielding organizer, the children listened as Kerry Kennedy and other union-addled grownups schooled them in the importance of speaking the (partial, hysterical, trumped up and imagined) truth to the corporate evil doers. As coached,several children then took the  podium to decry the devil in their S’mores this summer. ********** SEIU Watch: Privatization is a Beast Sometimes democracy gets messy and when it does, controlling only one state party can leave too much to chance.  So SEIU is hoping to solidify its control over California state government by gaming the state’s new “top two” primary system with the hope of owning both sides of the aisle in Sacramento. As we reported in the May 20 issue of INK, David Keiffer, the new diabolic ideas man for SEIU in California, has been threatening to apply purple heat to California Republicans who dare to follow the will of their constituents and not SEIU.  Keiffer has now cooked up a stunning subversion of the political process based on the state’s new “top two” primary system that allows two GOP candidates to run head to head in the general election.  SEIU has formed a “political action committee” to “discourage” Democrats from seeking office in key Republican districts while it “encourages” Dem voters to change parties just long enough to put (SEIU beholdin’) RINOs in office.  SEIU has declined to put a dollar amount on the effort, saying only “we are going to spend as much money as we have to spend to be effective.” Also in Cali, SEIU is pushing AB 438, a bill that would effectively outlaw the privatization of library services in any way that might actually save local taxpayers money.  The few California communities that have tried library outsourcing have seen only positive results, not only in cost savings, but also in expanded library hours, programs, and services.  Privatization has resulted in new library construction, cutting edge automation, cost saving on-line services and millions in private donations raised for new library programs. And yet according to the SEIU websitePrivatization is a Beast a town’s library going private is akin to it being attacked by Godzilla, or a Godzilla-esque toothsome corndog-like cardboard-eating puppet.  SEIU warns that privatization only serves to allow the taint of devil money and the stench of capitalism to “leech” into sacred greed-free public library spaces where ideas and books and union librarians now frolic together without fear of commoditization. Of course, going private could cost SEIU a big fat bundle of forced librarian dues dollars needed presumably, in no small part, to fund the creation of future Corndog Beasts. ********** SCORE BOARD Who are the winners (and losers) of the labor movement? Don’t guess, just check the LRI Scoreboard! Or download a PDF of this month’s scoreboard: ********** NY Carpenters Union Still In With the Mob Joseph Olivieri, former trustee of the Carpenters Union Benefit Fund, was sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to eighteen months in prison for lying under oath about his ties to the Genovese Organized Crime Family.  Witnesses repeatedly described Olivieri as the mob’s go-to guy in city construction unions who carried orders from Genovese capo Louis Moscatiello to union officials on the take. The other nine defendants in the case pled guilty, including the former executive secretary treasurer of the District Council, a business rep, several shop stewards and the former president of local 608.  Charges include racketeering, aiding and abetting embezzlement, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, unlawful acceptance of payments by a labor representative and perjury.  The U.S. District Attorney said at the time of indictment that the case showed “continuing corrupt[ion] at the highest ranks of the union’s leadership.” *********** Labor Activists Explore New Ways to Show They Are Always Right Its been said that a sure sign of insanity is to do the same thing in the same way over and over again, assuming that this time the end result will be different.  Two hundred delusional labor activists and academics gathered at Georgetown University last week to brainstorm new innovative ways for unions to regain lost political and economic power.  And they based their exploration on the same old whiney “poor us” polemic that has dragged down organized labor for decades.  We know the drill – the Republicans and corporations are solely responsible for declining union membership.  Got it.  And Labor has no intrinsic weaknesses beyond its struggles to convince us all that they will always know what’s best for us. According to Jefferson Cowie, history professor at Cornell University, it’s not what unions do, it’s how unions communicate what they do that’s the only problem.  Unions only need to refine and repackage their core (socialist) message so we simple common folk can get it. Cowie added that conservatives are better at framing their ideas in terms that appeal to peoples’ values and emotions.  (I know I’m just a slow libertarian, but it seems to me the one thing you can’t criticize unions for is their ability to appeal to values and emotions… but logic is a different story). By week’s end the gathering’s participants had accomplished nothing beyond wasting the dues dollars that sent them there on but another mission to collectively bury their grotesquely over-inflated heads in the sand and feel uniquely enlightened while doing so.  And that might be the best place to start the next discussion on the decline of organized labor. ********** Welcome to Union-Lite For the past year the UFCW has been secretively signing up Walmart employees to something new — Organization United for Respect at Walmart, or OUR Walmart for short.  It isn’t a union, per se, as it isn’t about getting formal recognition or a union contract…just yet.  According to its website, OUR Walmart is only about one thing – you guessed it, “respect” – and without all those nasty negative connotations we share for the “U” word (dues, corruption, Mob ties, socialism, rigged elections, strikes, protecting bad employees, fat cat union bosses, being stuck forever with a do-nothing union, etc.)  And those who sign up now get respect at a discount as they are asked to pay only $5 a month to OUR Walmart, a fraction of the average UFCW union dues. Organizers claim they have signed up fifty OUR Walmart members in some stores.  And while the effort is organized entirely by UFCW paid staff, and the UFCW paid a high priced consulting firm to develop the concept, and UFCW activist members are paid to knock doors for OUR Walmart, everyone involved is calling the effort “truly grassroots” (on what grounds we can’t say). And while the UFCW tries to stay under deep cover on the group’s website and in its literature, union officials are quite open in their desire to see OUR Walmart pave the way to union recognition. (surprised?) Walmart officials call the new movement a “stalking horse” for unionization and an attempt to gain new media attention to an anti-Walmart corporate campaign that has lost its fizz. We’d go one further – OUR Walmart is a bald-faced, cynical, exploitive attempt to deceive Walmart workers, most of whom would otherwise want nothing to do with a union, into turning over their contact information and information on their coworkers to union organizers they unwittingly invite into their homes who are there to troll for potential activists, map the worksite and mine for “organizing issues”.  The move also shuts down discussion on the many inconvenient truths about unions by removing “unions” from the organizing equation. Expect to see more union-lites like OUR Walmart and Alliance at I.B.M spring up if these efforts are successful. ********** Social Media Spotlight: Netroot Nation Netroot Nation will conduct its sixth annual convention this weekend in Minneapolis, and discussions of how the “Netroots” can promote Big Labor will dominate.  NN is a growing caucus of progressive bloggers and on-line activist organizations, such as MoveOn, the Daily Kos and Huffington Post, which meets annually to reframe and coordinate priorities.  The NN was central to the nomination of Obama in 2008 and plays a power role in progressive politics and activism, particularly among the young and tech savvy.  Put succinctly, Netroots is the epitome of progressive techie cool. Unions used to be the ugly step-uncle, with deep pockets, of the progressive Left but events in Wisconsin have changed all that.  This year’s NN convention promises to be wall-to-wall union propagandizing as resurrecting organized labor has been pushed to the forefront of the progressive agenda, even ahead of perennial list toppers like global warming, gay marriage and ending the wars. The event’s sponsor list includes all the usual suspects – SEIU, LIUNA, AFSCME, UFCW, AFT, IAM, Change to Win and of course the AFL-CIO.  Here’s a short list of some of our favorite workshop topics and other events – “Countering Hate Speak that Villainizes (sic) Workers and Unions” “Reclaiming Our Middle Class State By State” “The Attack on America’s Middle Class, and the Plan to Fight Back” “Fight Back for Good Jobs Rally” “Engaging Progressives in the Fight to Save Public Education” “Brothers On the Line: A film by Sasha Reuther” “Lessons from SEIU California: Micro-targeting to Win” “Bloggers Unite! How the Netroots Rallied in Wisconsin” “Labor Showcase” Opening Reception Sponsored by AFSCME Karaoke Party Sponsored by SEIU Bourbon and Bacon tasting happy hour, sponsored by UFCW Morning News Dump (we just like the sound of that) The Take Action, Taste a Union Beer Booth “The Future of the American Dream” ********** Sticky Fingers