Outsourcing America Exposed - Lisa Graves Discusses

Outsourcing America Exposed

Exposed - Outsourcing America

IBEW, Manufacturer Partnership Brings Jobs Back from China

Sent to me by friend of blog Tom: The Caterpillar Strike as Metaphor

If Labor Unions Can’t Put the Brakes on This Thing, Who Can?

The Caterpillar Strike as Metaphor

by DAVID MACARAY

Not that anyone—least of all American factory workers over the last three decades—needs to be reminded that corporations have very little respect for working people, the International Association of Machinists (IAM) strike against the Caterpillar plant in Joliet, Illinois, removed any lingering doubts.

Judging by their actions, Caterpillar saw this negotiation as a unique opportunity to stick it to their workers. Indeed, its truculent, take-it-or-leave-it posture is emblematic of every offensive aspect of post-Reagan corporate arrogance. Labor relations have gone from hard-nosed collective bargaining to gladiatorial blood sport, with labor now shedding most of the blood. What used to be viewed as an undignified and unnecessary show of muscle by management, is now regarded as standard procedure.

What Caterpillar has said to the IAM is this: No matter how healthy we are as a company, no matter how profitable we become, and no matter how much cold, hard cash we manage to rake in, we will never, ever, under any conditions, share one more nickel with the hourly workforce than is absolutely, positively necessary. Which raises the question: Why is this company taking such a hard line with their long-time, loyal workers? Simple answer: Because they can.

While it was announced Wednesday that IAM district leadership (as opposed to local leadership, directly answerable to the rank-and-file) had reached a tentative agreement with Caterpillar management to end the 15-week strike (approximately 780 workers went out on May 1), there’s a good chance the local will reject the offer when they vote on Friday. No one can predict how these votes will go, especially after a lengthy strike, but given how disillusioned and resentful the membership it, a rejection is definitely a possibility.

According to reports, the company’s LBF (last, best and final offer) was very close to the concession-laden LBF that precipitated the strike in the first place and resulted in the membership spending 15 long, agonizing weeks on the bricks, drawing a paltry $150 a week in strike benefits. It’s going to be interesting to see how successful IAM’s apparatchiks are in persuading the membership to accept what is, by all accounts, a profoundly inferior contract.

Among other things, it calls for a staggering 6-year freeze on wages and benefits. A company making billions of dollars in profits off the backs of its workers insists on a 6-year wage freeze? How cold is that? And not only is this freeze being offered with a straight face, it’s being presented as one of those “If you don’t like it, pal, you can rot in Hell” propositions. It’s true. The company has indicated that if the union remains coy, they’re prepared to fire everybody and take their chances with a brand new workforce.

Last winter, Caterpillar showed how aggressive they were willing to be. Appealing to that wildly misleading wage statistic known as “fair market,” Caterpillar insisted that the 450 workers at its London, Ontario, plant take a whopping 55-percent wage cut. When the workers balked (and who wouldn’t?), the company locked them out. And when it became clear that the union viewed these tactics as a form of economic extortion and were unwilling to roll over, Caterpillar shut down the entire factory and moved away. Period. No more jobs.

As far as pure commerce goes, Caterpillar is doing spectacularly well. Profits are at a record high and forecasts for the future are even rosier. Moreover, management is so confident and comfortable being in the driver’s seat, they’re not even trying to cosmetically cook the books for negotiating purposes. Caterpillar executives are more than willing to admit that business is booming. In fact, they’re bragging about it.
Last year the company earned a record $4.9 billion in profits, and expects to come in even higher this year. But, alas, they’ve also vowed that none of that increase—none of that marvelous windfall—is going to end up in the pockets of the people who actually do the work. Why would they give these people raises when, technically, they’re not obliged to? Only a fool would pay more than necessary.

To make matters worse, Caterpillar executives are playing dumb. Management is clinging to the fiction that it has no choice but to freeze wages because their pay scale is already higher than the “fair market.” Of course, the insanely bitter irony here is that today’s “fair market” wage is a grossly misleading statistic, the tragic result of a concerted, two-decades long assault on American earnings.

Which is why the middle-class is shrinking so alarmingly. It’s not unemployment that is killing the middle-class; it’s the depletion of decent-wage jobs. While bottom-line fundamentalists like Caterpillar proudly see themselves as benefactors to their stockholders, what they are, in fact, is destroyers of the middle-class and subverters of the American Dream. And if labor unions can’t put the brakes on this thing, who can?

DAVID MACARAY, an LA playwright and author (“It’s Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor”), was a former union rep. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net

Original Post here:  http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/17/the-caterpillar-strike-as-metaphor/

Scott Brown's true record from Mass Uniting

At a noon press conference in Randolph today, US Senator Scott Brown is set to deliver what his office is calling a “major policy speech” ontaxes. While his Massachusetts constituents can certainly expect Senator Brown to echo the stereotypical ‘gut-and-cut’ tax rhetoric of his Republican colleagues in Washington, here are five truths we won’t hear Brown mention about his voting record on taxes:

1. “I voted to give tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas.”

Scott Brown voted to filibuster the Creating American Jobs & Ending Offshoring Act, a bill would have ended tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs or build plants and offices offshore to replace American facilities. The vote came as thousands of American workers face impending layoffs while training their replacements from China, India, and elsewhere. (US Senate roll call vote #242, 9/28/10)

2. “I gave $24 billion of your tax dollars to Big Oil.”

In the face of drastic budget cuts, Scott Brown voted three times to give more than $24 billion in taxpayer funds to the oil industry over the next decade. The top five Big Oil companies – BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell – are amongst the most profitable corporations in the world, posting $137 billion in profits in 2011 alone. (US Senate roll call votes #187 6/15/10; #72, 5/17/11; #63, 3/29/12)

3. “I voted to take more money out of your paycheck.”

Scott Brown voted to filibuster legislation to extend the payroll tax cut for working families – holding low and middle income workers hostage to shield the wealthiest Americans from a small surtax on income over $1 million. In effect, Brown cast a deciding vote to raise taxes on 113 million working families. In Massachusetts, the surtax would have affected just 0.6% of taxpayers with an average income of more than $2 million. (US Senate roll call vote #219, 12/1/11)

4. “I support tax breaks for millionaires…just not middle class or low-income families.”

Three times in 2010 and again in 2012, Scott Brown voted to kill measures that would extend tax cuts for the middle class. Like his vote for payroll tax hikes, Brown used the same rationale to justify his votes to raise taxes on middle and low-income families: those making $250,000 to $1 million or more each year shouldn’t have to pay their fair share like the rest of his Massachusetts constituents. (US Senate roll call votes #258 & #259, 12/4/10; #275, 12/15/10; #184, 7/25/12)

5. “I filibustered tax credits and loans that help small businesses grow and create jobs.”

Despite his claims of supporting job creators, Scott Brown repeatedly filibustered and opposed major legislation that helps small businesses grown and create jobs. Brown twice voted to filibuster the Small Business Jobs & Credit Act – a bill that connected growing small businesses to credit through community banks and offered significant tax credits to small firms that create American jobs. When his filibuster failed, Brown voted again to kill the legislation. The Massachusetts Bankers Association stated that failure to act on the bill “would be a missed opportunity that our struggling economy cannot afford.” (US Senate roll call votes #218 & #221, 7/29/10; #237, 9/14/10)

Scott Brown Features Foreign Businesses In 'Let America Be America Again' Ad

Scott Brown Features Foreign Businesses In 'Let America Be America Again' Ad:

'via Blog this'

LP - The Democratic Presidents at the beginning are a nice touch for the Wall Street. What will Wall Street money buy you click on it and enjoy it.

According to Daily Kos

US Senator Scott Brown, who played a critical role in the battle over the 2010 financial regulatory overhaul, has used a joint fund-raising committee to collect$2.9 million in political donations over the last year, nearly half of which came from the nation’s financial sector.

The mechanism is a joint committee, the Scott Brown Victory Committee, between Brown and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Campaign finance laws allow this kind of committee much higher donation limits than traditional campaign committees, $30,800 per donor per election cycle versus the $5,000 limit for regular committees.

So he has this Victory fund, along with his regular campaign committee, allowing for seven times the donation power for donors, an effective limit of $35,800. Among those donors, theGlobe reports, are "deep-pocketed venture capitalists, bankers, and leaders of some of the country’s largest investment firms."

Full Story here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/02/1088180/-Scott-Brown-double-dips-on-massive-Wall-Street-campaign-donations

WASHINGTON -- Letting "America Be America Again" may be a tall order, if the filming locations of some clips in Sen. Scott Brown's latest reelection ad are any indication.

The two-and-a-half-minute spot, which the Massachusetts Republican's reelection team has hailed as an "online sensation,"features three instances of stock footage filmed overseas, undercutting the ad's running theme of growing American business.

In one scene, a beaming chef is shown before he flips ingredients in a frying pan over an open flame, while President Gerald Ford praises American capitalism. According to Getty Images, the kitchen is located in Barcelona, Spain, a country currently stuck in its second recession in three years.

"Through our system of democracy and free enterprise, the United States has achieved remarkable, unbelievable progress," Ford booms as the chef flicks the frying pan.

In two other scenes, video portraits depict a butcher standing in the doorway of his shop and another worker posing in front of a delivery truck full of boxes. Both clips were filmed in Dublin, according to Getty Images.

Shortly before the camera hovers on the Irish butcher shop, President Ronald Reagan pays tribute to "the forgotten heroes of America, those who create most of our new jobs, like the owners of stores down the street."

The three clips are tagged with "Non US Location" on the Getty Images website, which also lists filming locations in each respective caption.

A Getty Images representative confirmed Monday that the cities and countries listed in the stock footage captions indicate filming locations.

A Brown spokeswoman did not respond to several requests for comment Monday.

In a statement, Massachusetts Democratic Party spokesman Matt House called Brown's rhetoric "as phony as his stock footage."

Full Story:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/scott-brown-ad_n_1720199.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Good image on US border

Excellent image explaining way of world to Mitt Romney