By Meteor Blades
Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t have to make enemies of everybody in a labor union in the state of California, but it seems that he has, and they’re hoping for some payback in November. Alternet has the story, Labor Plays Hardball:
The executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. County Fed is engaged in an animated discussion with a colleague. He reaches for a cell phone, then shakes a visitor's hand and points the way to his office. On his desk there, amid neatly stacked piles of paper, sits a replica of a baseball with a base inscribed with the words: Sometimes You Have to Play Hardball.
For Ludlow, that time is now. In the coming months, he must balance two Herculean tasks. California unions are in the fight of their lives against three November 8 special election ballot initiatives backed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The central battle will be over Proposition 75, designed to hamstring labor fundraising for political organizing and campaigns. But labor also opposes Proposition 74, which would subject teachers to a five-year probation period and short-circuit a right to a hearing before being fired; and Proposition 76, which would change the state constitution to give the governor unprecedented power over the budget and change funding levels for education.Jeanne d’Arc over at Body and Soul has some appropriately tough words for the relief and rebuilding efforts that are drawing some other critics, according to this story and this one in the Los Angeles Times detailing, the slow response by the Red Cross and its exclusion of black volunteer organizations and the puny pay workers are getting.Voter-rich L.A. will be critical to defeating the initiatives, and Ludlow is charged with rallying troops. Meanwhile, he's got to keep his eye on another front. As the county's top labor leader, and a national figure, Ludlow is pivotal in the historic fight to prevent the national union movement from imploding.
Repeating that is as much a part of the relief effort as putting up buildings, and I think Mr. Lucy made the point especially well. If all you care about is putting up structures, cheap is good. If you're trying to rebuild a community, the most important thing is giving people something to come back to. Four dollars isn't it. If anybody cared about the community, they'd be paying way more than prevailing wages, and giving evacuees priority on getting the jobs.David Glazier, a research fellow at the Center for National Security Law, and Paul Schott Stevens, president of the Investment Company Institute who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to President Reagan, are engaged in an interesting discussion of the Posse Comitatus Act over at Legal Affairs.
Meanwhile, the Delphi bankruptcy could be a really momentous event for labor--and workers in general in this country. They're talking astronomical cuts in pay--basically what the airlines have done, but all at once. No one will be able to afford it. Which will basically give them an excuse to offshore their production, which will devastate MI, the auto industry, and labor.
Posted by: emptywheel | October 11, 2005 at 20:40