Amazon.com Widgets

As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Organizers Getting Organized

The split between the AFL-CIO and the Change To Win federation represented a difference in philosophy, between growing membership of unions and maintaining the best contracts and deals for those dwindling numbers already inside the union structure. It made sense at the time, and has led to membership drives and faster union growth. But eventually, it hit a wall because the institutional barriers to union organizing require a federal response. In that spirit, organized labor is reforming a coalition called the National Labor Coordinating Committee.

Today, the American labor movement proclaimed its intention to come back together -- helped, of course, by the fact that Democrats now control both Congress and the White House and are bent on enacting universal health insurance and, perhaps, some legislation that would make it easier for workers to join unions. After meetings in Maryland this week, the presidents of the two federations and of the nation's 12 largest unions -- including the National Education Association, which heretofore has not belonged to any labor federation -- announced the formation of the National Labor Coordinating Committee, an interim body that could pave the way for labor's reunification by forming a new federation with roughly 16 million members.

The committee will be headed by David Bonior, the former Michigan congressman and House Democratic whip who was the foremost congressional opponent of both the Reagan administration's support for Nicaraguan contras and the Clinton administration's support for free-trade legislation with China and other repressive regimes. Bonior, who headed former senator John Edwards's 2008 presidential campaign, might possibly emerge as the head of the new federation. He is currently president of American Rights at Work, a pro-union advocacy group that has been coordinating the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act, and he would be an articulate spokesman for a movement that could surely use one.

The union presidents have largely agreed to focus the federation (its name is still up in the air) on the political and lobbying operations at which the AFL-CIO has excelled. They will continue meeting over the next several months to hammer out details -- a timetable that could produce a plan to be ratified at the AFL-CIO's convention in September.


Smart move by the Change to Win leadership, who saw their visions meet with the realities of the workplace and a political structure tilted in the favor of management. The Employee Free Choice Act may be on life support in this Congressional session, thanks to Arlen Specter and Blanche Lincoln, but the labor movement can still make tangible gains through policy, particularly with respect to health care, and having a unified organization will be a big help.

Chris Good has more.

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

Crime And Punishment

A lot of the crisis in the banking sector is attributable to legal practices, like changes in the law that allowed 30-1 leveraging and the rise of the shadow banking system. The biggest problem is that we allowed the financial sector to become far too large a part of the economy, when it should only exist to allow the efficient flow of capital and facilitate small business and manufacturing. It's not just that the banks are too big to fail; it's that they're too big. We have to rebalance our economy.

But a fair bit of it was just outright fraud. I'm not just talking about Ponzi schemers like Bernie Madoff, who is set to plead guilty (and his wife should not be allowed to keep $67 million dollars in the exchange, by the way), but the fraudulent tactics of bankers in several areas. A lot of members of Congress, in particular Alan Grayson, have been talking about that, and now Barney Frank is going public with his desire to seek justice.

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is pressing state and federal authorities to seek criminal and civil penalties on financial actors that helped cause the current crisis.

"Rules don't work if people have no fear of them," Frank said at a press conference Thursday.

He announced a hearing March 20 with Attorney General Eric Holder, bank regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission as witnesses to discover what their plans are to prosecute irresponsible and in some cases criminal behaviors.


I think the biggest thing troubling the public with respect to the financial meltdown is the lack of accountability. They see activities that they would surely be arrested for if they tried them, and yet nobody is being held responsible. Of course, the financial sector has gotten so big, and accrued a certain power along with their wealth, that they have a status somewhere above the law, despite statements like this from members of Congress. So we have to see the follow through.

One great initiative is what Change to Win is doing with Bank of America. As a fairly large shareholder in the bank through their pension funds, they are making known their dissatisfaction with the CEO, and preparing for a fight.

Now CtW has upped the ante on Bank of America, amid reports that B of A is seeking to quash a subpoena of records that show senior Merrill Lynch execs earned more money when B of A took over their struggling company than before.

The CtW Investment Group, in a letter to B of A's lead director, conveyed a simple message: Fire Ken Lewis, the bank's CEO, or CtW will encourage shareholders to vote him and other independent bank directors out of office during the company's next annual meeting.


Shareholders do have some power to force decisions on the corporate structure. But ultimately, if we're talking about criminality, this is a matter for the Justice Department.

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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Who Will Be The Next Senator From Illinois?

Things are moving rapidly in the Rod Blagojevich case. Within hours of recognizing that Blago still has the ability to make an appointment to the US Senate, despite being arrested for trying to sell the seat, Dick Durbin called for a special election to fill the seat:



Then the Illinois legislature decided to move into a special session (called by Emil Jones, the state Senator thought to be a possible pick for the seat), with the goal of having legislation moved within a few days. Of course, that legislation would have to be SIGNED by the Governor, which seems unlikely since Blagojevich thinks it's a "fucking valuable seat" and wouldn't want to give up the power to appoint it. So who knows at this point. Harry Reid said that the process for selecting a new Senator shouldn't involve Blago, so there's at least a chance that whoever would be submitted by him would be rejected by the Senate, too.

The larger deal here is that both progressive organizations and the Obama transition are threatened by being tried in the media over their ties to Blagojevich. Change to Win says there was no position promised to the Governor on their staff in exchange for any appointment, and the President-elect briefly addressed the controversy today as well.

"Like the rest of the people of Illinois I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S.. Attorneys office today. But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I donʼt think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time [...] I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening," Mr. Obama said. "And as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don't think it's appropriate to comment."


The buzzards are nonetheless circling. I don't think Obama has much to do with Blagojevich, who wasn't even invited to the Democratic convention, and whose machine-backed candidates he beat in a primary to get to the US Senate. Obama wouldn't play ball with Blago on the Senate appointment in question, either. But the unequivocal statement Obama made ("I had no contact with the governor or his office") is probably not true, and categoricals like that are a mistake.

His statement that he didn't have contact with Blagojevich about the Senate seat seems to conflict with that of top adviser David Axelrod, who told Fox News Chicago on Nov. 23: "I know he's talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

Obama transition officials say Axelrod misspoke.


That's certainly possible, but I imagine Obama would want to share his views on the seat, even as a courtesy. That's not to say he did anything untoward here, however.

What a mess.

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Monday, November 05, 2007

I Support The Strike, Not The Strategy

The Writers Guild of America took to the streets today, beginning what promises to be a long strike. I couldn't be more in support of the people who are the lifeblood of Hollywood, the creative personnel that are the engine of the last vibrant manufacturing industry in America. Unfortunately, I'm getting the sense that their leadership is falling back on an old union strategy of securing benefits for their existing membership rather than allowing their membership to grow, and this will have disastrous consequences for the future of the labor movement.

Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post, It's the Unions, Stupid, which documented my experience at a Writers Guild meeting dedicated to organizing reality and nonfiction television storytellers.

Yes, a lot of reality television is slipshod, exploitative and dumbed-down. But people don't understand that the rank-and-file who work in it are often being as exploited as the contestants. Reality is big because of its low costs, mainly because, unlike scripted shows, it is not unionized. This has become a bargaining chip for the networks in their dealings with the Writer's Guild, Director's Guild, and others: take our crappy contract, or we'll just make more reality shows.

Reality show workers make less than their counterparts in scripted TV. They work largely on weekly salaries, usually for no overtime, yet during stressful parts of production 16-hour days and weekend work are all too typical. Their credits are so amorphous that they bear no relation to the actual job worked. If a reality show is sold to another network for use in reruns, none of the workers see any residual fees. They have no employer-paid health care or pensions, and as freelancers on short-term assignments, they have little or no job security. 1 out of every 3 TV and film industry professionals are out of work on any given day in Hollywood (just go to a coffee shop at 2:30 on a Wednesday for proof).

This probably sounds whiny to many, and actually, it should. Most of these people are well-paid for the work that they do. Of course, that's mainly because of the power of collective bargaining. The sundry labor unions have forced Hollywood to share its profits with its employees, with very few exceptions. But while reality television workers do benefit from that to a degree, they are the crack in the dike that allows the networks to cash in.


Along with hundreds of others, I signed a card at that time, in May 2005, allowing the WGA to negotiate on my behalf. These negotiations ran up against a brick wall. There were a couple high-profile meetings and protests. Nothing. There were lawsuits against production companies who were making their employees work 18-hour days, falsifying time cards, changing start dates and delaying productions that cost the employees thousands of dollars. They resulted in brief reconciliations that were eventually rolled back. There was a high-profile strike last year by the writer-producers of America's Next Top Model. The editors, who were unionized through IATSE, didn't honor the picket line, the season of shows were finished, and those writers were not brought back the following season. There was talk of a "wage-and-hour" campaign, to sue the production companies for overtime pay. It never materialized.

The light at the end of the tunnel was the coming negotiations on a new contract. Many thought that organizing reality and nonfiction storytellers would be a key bargaining chip. After all, in the event of a strike, the studios could simply ramp their nonunion shows into production and move forward with business as usual. So to avert the same thing happening far into the future, it made sense for the WGA to take a stand now, expand their membership, and leave the studios with less wiggle room to make a schedule during subsequent threats to walk out. Indeed, this is exactly what the studios are saying is their alternative now.

Prime-time schedules would appear relatively unchanged for a couple of months, since a handful of episodes have already been prepared. But if the strike drags on the 2008 schedule will be heavy on reality shows (not covered by the current contracts) and reruns [...]

Though CW Entertainment Chief Dawn Ostroff says they're prepared, with new reality series like Farmer Wants a Wife and Crowned waiting in the wings, she, too, sees no advantage to striking: "It's just better for everyone if habits aren't broken and if people that are getting into characters and shows are able to continue to do so."


I'm not at the bargaining table, so I can only go by the many reports I've seen, but it appears to me that the WGA is holding the line on DVD and Internet residuals. Now, those are important issues that must be part of an overall agreement. But the difference between those benefits discussions and expanding membership to other programming mirrors the central debate within the labor community; should they get as much for the dwindling numbers of union members they have, or should the focus be on expanding membership? This is the schism that caused the SEIU and other unions to leave the AFL-CIO and form the Change To Win coalition. Andy Stern and the other new-labor leaders firmly believe that the old paradigm is failing America, where union membership has declined to a great degree over the past 50 years. If you give management a lifeline, a way to get their work done without having to deal with a union, they're going to take it. There are significantly less situation comedies in production than there were ten years ago. There are less dramas, too, at least at the network level.

I hear the criticism that reality shows are cheap and tawdry and a major factor in the decline of Western civilization. To a large extent I agree with it. But if you hate reality shows, the number one thing you should hope for is that they become organized. Ratings are only a small part of the story of reality's success; with the exception of American Idol, that growth has leveled off. It's the enormous difference in production costs that has led to the burgeoning of the genre, and that's entirely attributable to the fact that they're nonunion. The chain of TV and entertainment can only be as strong as its weakest link. And I believe that, by foregrounding the monetary issues and not fighting to expand the membership, the WGA is undergoing the wrong strategy for the future, one that will ensure that their members have less opportunities to practice their craft.

United Hollywood is giving constant updates, as well as the LA Times' Hollywood Writers blog. I will support the strike in any way possible. But I wish that the leadership would understand the need for a new-labor strategy, to increase the fortunes of the middle class and ensure that nobody is left behind.

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