LOCAL UNION 1899 - GRANITE CITY, IL
Rapid Response/PAC
Rapid Response Coordinator Dennis Barker
| Stimulating Hypocrisy: 111 Lawmakers Block Recovery While Taking Credit For Its Success |
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The list (which is constantly being updated but will stay at the same URL so bookmark it for easy reference) includes: Over half of all Republicans in Congress: The list includes 110 GOP lawmakers, with 219 total Republicans in Congress. |
Yes - Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) Is One of the Hypocrits!
Signed A Letter Requesting Stimulus Funds For Illinois Community Colleges
According to a release from the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, every member of the Illinois congressional delegation signed a letter urging Gov. Pat Quinn to provide “Recovery Act (ARRA) funding to expand the Illinois Community College Sustainability Network.” [ICCSN, 4/14/09]
TRADE Act Reaches Majority Milestone; posted Feb.11
The TRADE Act - the comprehensive reform bill that turns around our failed trade policy - has reached a key milestone. The bill has won support from over half the Democrats in the House of Representatives. We have a new trade reform majority! The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act officially became the majority position of House Democrats when longtime trade champion Rep. George Miller - the senior California Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Education and Labor - joined California's newly elected Rep. John Garamendi at a Bay Area press conference to announce their cosponsorship. The legislation now has 137 cosponsors, but to actually implement President Obama's campaign commitments to trade reform - to replace NAFTA and make sure future agreements work for most people - the TRADE Act must have even more sponsors. Take action now to be sure your representatives and senators support the TRADE Act - the growing consensus on trade reform! As you can imagine, the pro-offshoring forces pushing more-of-the-same U.S.-job-killing trade deals are not pleased by this great development on the TRADE Act and are redoubling their efforts to thwart change.
Please click link to sign the petition supporting TRADE Act
Member of the Quarter From the USW Website | January 05, 2010
Local Union 1899's Dennis Barker is PAC member of the quarter
Posted by R. Virgin
USW Local 1899 member Dennis Barker is the Political Action Committee member of the quarter for the first quarter of 2010.
Local 1899 is an amalgamated local representing members at the U.S. Steel Corp. plant in Granite City, Ill., as well as members at four other units in the Granite City area. In 2003, Local 1899 was formed from the merger of Locals 16, 30, and 67 - all locals with proud histories of political action.
With the able leadership of Barker and the support of the Officers and members of Local 1899, this tradition has continued. In addition to his duties as an Officer of Local 1899 and as a full-time in-plant Safety representative for the USW, Barker chairs the local’s PAC.
Committee members can frequently be seen at the plant gates with petitions in hand or flyers to distribute urging USW members to act in support of issues important to working people.
In addition, for many years, Barker has tirelessly worked to raise voluntary membership contributions to the USW Political Action Fund. Last year, these efforts resulted in more than $23,000 being raised from membership contributions.
“Membership check-off is the key to a successful local union fund-raising program," Barker explains. “We have approached our members for many years about the importance of check-off and our members have always enthusiastically responded. We work hard to keep this tradition going by always talking to newly-hired members during their orientation session at USS and signing up people (for voluntary check-off).”
Barker also can be found at Local 1899 meetings with 50-50 raffle tickets to raise additional voluntary contributions. A political action report is on the agenda of every Local 1899 meeting and articles about political activities of importance to the membership can be found in every issue of the “Mettle Post,” the award-winning Local 1899 newsletter.
Barker is the first person to point out that it is not his efforts alone that result in the successful political action fund-raising efforts of his local union.
“I am just one person in a committee of members that works hard to continue a long-standing, strong tradition of political action in our plant that we are very proud of. We want to keep that going,” he said.
The bottom line for the local’s success, Barker explains, is the support of the membership.
“It is our members who deserve all the credit for what we are able to do raising voluntary contributions
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US senators urge renegotiation of US trade deals
Bill bars new trade deals unless past pacts renegotiated * USTR Kirk, in Geneva, says US ready for WTO "endgame" * Senators urge Obama not send S. Korea deal to Congress By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators urged President Barack Obama on Monday to back legislation requiring the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and a long list of other trade pacts they blame for millions of lost U.S. manufacturing jobs. "We want trade and plenty of it, but we want trade under new rules. The TRADE Act will help Congress and the White House craft a trade policy that makes sense and learns from our many mistakes over the past couple of decades," Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, told reporters in a conference call. The bill, which has seven co-sponsors in the Senate, shows the strong opposition Obama could face from many members of his own Democratic Party if he pushes for new trade agreements without addressing concerns about past trade pacts. Six Democrats are among the co-sponsors, as well as independent Bernie Sanders. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech on Monday at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva that the United States was "ready to move into the endgame" of the eight-year-old world trade talks if other countries made meaningful market-opening commitments.
Link to more info TRADE ACTU.S. Taxpayers to Give Over $425 Million to Create Over 2,000 Jobs in China - WHAT!?
Stop Stimulus Money From Going to ChinaToby Keller USW Local 50 (Iron and Coke Making) and LU 1899 Rapid Response Coordinator Dennis Barker presenting the Labor Day health care petitions to Congressman Shimkus' Collinsville office.
On Labor Day we gathered 217 signatures on a petition calling for a strong public option in any health care reform bill being debated in the House of Representatives. The petition was directed to our two area Congressmen Jerry Costello (D-12th Illinois District) and John Shimkus (R-19th Illinois District). The meeting at Shimkus' office did not go so well. We were told that John will not vote or support any Bill that contains a public option. We asked the assistant what John's solution for healthcare. Picture below speaks a thousand words about how concerned he is for his constituents. He now has the has the dubious distinction of being the only Congressman in a generation to show such disregard for our government institutions, that he walked out during President Obama's Joint Session of Congress last month. This is a guy who represents over 500 Local 1899 and 50 members in the 19th District of Illinois. What an embarassment! What a dufuss!
Isn't it odd that John "That's a Shame" Shimkus, who has had "government provided" insurance his entire adult life either through the U. S. Defense Dept., state of Illinois or the federal government, is so opposed to seeing that option offered to regular citizens? If he deplores goverment offered insurance (Public Option) so much, why doesn't he refuse his coverage that we tax payers provide and buy his own private insurance company plan? Hmmmm...
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Steelworkers Say Health Care Reform NOW!
Health insurance reform is one of the most important topics of our day - from our perspective, it's the civil rights issue of our time.
We all know that health care cost is the No. 1 issue at the bargaining table, one that takes energy and resources away from wages, pensions and other important issues. That's why reform will help those of us lucky enough to have insurance provided through our employers. It also will help us if we receive Medicare, Medicaid or Veteran's Administration benefits.
For information about how you can help in this critical effort go to USW.org. There, you can get the real facts concerning health care reform.
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On October 3, 2009 District 7, Sub District 2 held the annual Political Action Committee (PAC) award banquet recognizing the top Local Unions for raising volunteer dollars for the PAC funds. Under the federal election laws of the United States Local Unions may raise volunteer dollars for the purpose of contributing to the campaigns of Federal candidates for office. This is the only way we can help Federal candidates that support working family issues. Local 1899 was again the top PAC fund raising USW Local in Sub District 2. We raised $20, 532 dollars through our payroll check offs and from the 50-50 drawings held following the 1899 Union meetings. I would like to thank each and every 1899 member who has signed up for the $1.00 per week check off from his or her paychecks.
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During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama was sharply critical of Senator John McCain for wanting to tax health care benefits. Currently, administration officials have not ruled out such a tax which was floated by Democrats in the Senate. On June 24th, at an ABC News televised town hall meeting, President Obama refused to rule out the taxing of health benefits. A majority of international unions have signed on to a letter to all U.S. Senators opposing any health reform proposal that would tax health care benefits saying, “…(W)e wish to express our strong opposition to any proposal that would pay for this reform by altering the tax treatment of employer provided health care.” Vincent Panvini, Director of Government Relations for the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association, who was instrumental in organizing the letter, said that opposition to any bill that included taxing of health care benefits would be “tremendous.” “You haven’t seen nothing yet,” he added. ________________________________________________________________________
"Cooling the planet without chilling trade"-posted Nov. 15
These photos taken by ChinaHush can be seen on AAM's webiste; go to links page
Washington Post Op-Ed on Global TradeIn an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Global Trade Watch’s Lori Wallach and the Peterson Institute’s Fred Bergsten make the case for a “border adjustment” mechanism in any climate legislation. An unusual pairing of sometime political opposites on trade issues, Wallach and Bergsten are of like mind on the urgency of properly addressing climate issues. In their editorial they state: We agree that it is politically unrealistic — and unwise — to try to enact a cap-and-trade system that puts manufacturers in the United States at a competitive disadvantage with those operating overseas that do not produce under comparable requirements. It makes no sense to impose a cost on those producing steel, autos and other goods, only to have them shift jobs and pollution to China or India — which are wary of binding international obligations on emission reductions.
ManufactureThis.org
Guest Opinion on Outsourcing: Doug May, St. Louis, Missouri
Posted by S. Capozzola on November 16th, 2009;
Posted on Local1899.org by R. Virgin
Doug May, who writes for the United Steelworkers, and is based in St. Louis, offers the following opinion piece on the outsourcing of American jobs…
"Their lustful greed has become more apparent than ever!"
Doug May, who writes for the United Steelworkers, and is based in St. Louis, offers the following opinion piece on the outsourcing of American jobs…
Leaping across borders for 75 years, always searching for the next cheapest labor location for their manufacturing facilities, St. Louis, Mo.-based Emerson CEO David Farr last week announced, “I’m not going to hire anybody in the U.S. They are doing everything possible to destroy jobs.”
After acquiring 40 different manufacturing companies, making a range of products from power tools, appliances and cooling equipment, with a generational management plan that practiced aggressive schemes against labor, they have turned their back on America. Farr’s reasoning: “Cap and trade, labor rules and medical reform.”
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, one of Emerson’s biggest competitors, described Emerson’s former CEO Chuck Knight as “taking great pleasure in being voted the most feared man in St. Louis.’ These companies engaged in parallel business plans with the Welch belief that, “I wish we could build factories on barges so we could move them around the globe; always moving to the cheapest labor area available,” as Welch wrote in his book.
Emerson challenged the Wagner Act in 1935 as unconstitutional. They waged an aggressive campaign against organized labor in 1954 moving their motor plant from St. Louis to Arkansas, even after concessions were given only to move it again to Mexico a few years later. Before the WTO made exploitation of cheap labor very accommodating, Emerson was already entrenched into these downward spiral, low-wage schemes.
This callous decision to turn their backs on American manufacturing and American workers has been made after collecting millions in huge U.S. military contracts and benefiting from the largest consumer market in the world that provided them with 43 consecutive years of earnings increases, which then lead to a Wall Street “darling’ stock recommendation. Now that Emerson senses they can no longer wield their economic and political will as it has done over the past 75 years, their lustful greed has become more apparent than ever.
If this is the direction a U.S. corporation is going to steer itself, with an unforgiving abandonment of the society that helped build them into what they are, investors and consumers should start reciprocating and turn their backs. Americans need to speak with their wallets, and their political will and support business models that practice long-term management plans that reward societies as well as investors.
**ManufactureThis does not necessarily agree or disagree with the views of our guest columnists; we merely provide them to help foster a wider discussion.
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