Proposal for action

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press released a study this week that might not seem to be of immediate interest to the labor movement. However, reading not so far between the lines of the results of their 2008 News Consumption and Believability Study reveals some good and bad news for unions working on improving their presence on the internet. And could signal an great opportunity for labor to create more online news outlets.

American Rights at Work, a "nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively with employers," has called a blogswarm for this Labor Day. They're calling it "Take Back Labor Day," and simply ask that pro-labor folks agree to use their blogs or websites to write about what Labor Day really means on Sept. 1, 2008.

Got this from Eric Lee. This is something CorD folks should respond to, and ask others to as well.

-Matt

In a moment I'm going to ask you to support the most unusual campaign we have ever launched -- but first, some background.

Blackadder: Banned from Facebook

Facebook, the social networking website, is getting a lot of attention these days. In the trade union movement, there are differences of opinion about how useful Facebook actually is. Some of us are making a real effort to find out by using Facebook as an organizing tool.

One of them is senior LabourStart correspondent Derek Blackadder, from Canada. Derek's day job is as a staffer for the country's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He's one of the people who thinks Facebook is potentially quite useful for trade unionists.

Well, maybe not so much anymore.

You see, a few days ago, Derek was banned from Facebook.

I'll let John Wood from the U.K. tell the story in his own words:

Derek got a note from the good book, telling him he was trying to add too many friends, and should calm down a bit, or else. Now as a union organiser, he’s quite likely to want to add lots of friends - it’s kind of what he does. So he waits a bit and tries again, and is told he can’t add any more at the moment and to wait and try later. Fair enough. He waits a bit more and tries again, same message. By now, he’s probably frothing at the mouth and muttering "must organise, must organise", so he has another go to see if the coast is clear, and promptly gets himself a ban. That being a ban from Facebook itself - no more profile, no access to the stuff he’s built up, no appeal.

John has launched a Facebook group to sign people up to protest the ban on Derek. I am writing to ask each and every one of you to take a moment and sign up to join the group. If you are not yet signed up on Facebook, join the 60,000,000 others who have done so and sign up.

We know that this isn't nearly as important as most of the other campaigns we do on LabourStart -- and if you read all of John's article you'll detect a somewhat light-hearted tone.

Still, as social networks become more and more important, our access to them as trade unionists must be protected. These are early days yet -- I know that most of you are not yet signed up to Facebook. This is good time to see whether we can mobilize the kind of support -- the thousands of names -- that will force the owners of Facebook to reverse course and allow Derek to do what he does so well: organize.

Thanks for your help on this. And spread the word!

Eric Lee

As many people here probably already know, the Teamsters along with a number of other organizations, are furious over the recent decision by the Department of Transportation to blatantly break the law around the Mexican Trucking Pilot Program.

Seems to be some interest percolating out there in having a Labor and Technology conference in Boston sometime over the next year - and the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston has indicated that they'd be interested in hosting such an event.

I'd be interested in hearing the ideas of folks in the CoD community about possible workshop topics. What do folks think of the agenda of the San Francisco conference?

There's also a list of workshops in formation for for the next Organizers' Collaborative on June 17th. Which of them might be of interest to a labor audience?

To My Brothers and Sisters,
One of the MOST PRESSING issues of the day involves illegal immigrants and their massive, virtually unrestricted influx into this country.Their motive ostensibly is to improve their standard of living.I don't believe any of us faults a man or woman who is trying to better their lives and the lives of their families (especially their children). According to the reports I have read about and the scenes I have seen on television these people are 'needed' to fill job 'opportunities' that American Workers....will not do!

There can be NO DOUBT that these 'illegals' are open to a whole array of 'exploitative' policies, whether wages, benefits or workers rights....just to name a few. In essence, these people come into this country in search of a better life and end up being told...."shut up...sit down....do as you're told....OH! and if you don't come in Sunday....don't bother coming in Monday". NOW....either WE are in this together....whereby "An injury to one IS an injury to all"....OR....we are not! These people (oh! haven't you heard?....they ARE people) have the SAME aspirations as you and I, to better the lives of themselves AND their childrens lives.

All this brings me to my PROPOSAL FOR ACTION: Tell the AFL-CIO, The Teamsters and their Campaign For Change....to get in there and ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED. This will not only ADD to the membership of Unions (sometheng definitely NEEDED), but it will also GUARANTEE a decent level of wages, benefits and workers rights.

Well.....what are you waiting for....?

The ITF is urging transport workers across the world to support an international day of action demanding the release of over 1000 trade unionists imprisoned in Iran.

The action day, set for 15 February and called by Global Unions, will see unions rally against the continuing attacks against workers involved in the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed, the Syndicate of the Tehran Bus Company.

A series of arrests was made following protests and strikes sparked by the detention of the union’s leader Mansour Osanloo on 22 December last year, reportedly charged with “illegal trade union activity” and “turbulence”. He remains in an infamous torture centre for political prisoners in Tehran.

More than 1000 trade unionists are also still in custody, among them, a number of those arrested on 28 January during a day of strike action. The strikers were met with violence as security forces used tear gas and batons against them and threatened to shoot them. Police also raided syndicate members’ homes.

Read more.

An idea has been stewing in me for quite a while is to create an open letter to International Union Presidents urging them to make better use of the Internet. The letter would be created and signed by the participants of the Communicate of Die community who helped craft the letter.