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Saturday, March 22, 2008

Security officer campaign escalates; 17 arrested in act of civil disobedience

From Workday Minnesota (3/21/08)

demonstrators occupy lobby
Inside the lobby of U.S. Bancorp Center (above), a group of 17 linked arms and sat down in an act of non-violent civil disobedience. Javier Morillo-Alicea addressed the crowd outside the IDS Center: "We are here to protect and defend community standards..."

Minneapolis - Security officers and community allies filled the lobby of U.S. Bancorp Center in downtown Minneapolis late Thursday afternoon to support a fair contract and 17 were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. U.S. Bancorp was targeted by Service Employees International Union Local 26, which is seeking a new contract for 800 private security officers who work for five security contractors. Members voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to reject a contract offer because it failed to include affordable health insurance.

women being arrested in security officer demonstration
Katherine Blauvelt, Workers Interfaith Network (left) and Lisa Amman, ISAIAH, continued chanting after being handcuffed.

The employers' contract offer would have made health insurance even more expensive than the current contract.

"We are here today to protect and defend community standards and say people who protect multi-million dollar real estate ought to be able to provide for their families," said Javier Morillo-Alicea, addressing a crowd of about 100 union members and supporters outside the IDS Center at about 4:30 p.m.

The group marched across the street and rushed into the lobby of U.S. Bancorp Center, chanting, "What do we want? Health care. When do we want it? Now!"

A group of 17 sat down and linked arms. The crowd continued chanting. Police arrived within minutes. When the seated protestors refused to leave at the request of police, they were arrested. All arrested cooperated with police by presenting their wrists for handcuffing and by walking out of the building.

Outside, the crowd continued chanting while those arrested sat on the edge of a planter, awaiting police vehicles that soon would take them away.

"U.S. Bank, do the right thing!" the crowd chanted. Members of the group arrested also continued chanting.

The security officers' contract expired Jan. 1.

SEIU Local 26 staged a one-day strike Feb. 25 to put pressure on the employers to settle the contract.

"On that one-day strike, we said if it has to get bigger, it has to get bigger," Local 26 president Morillo-Alicea told the crowd Thursday.

The employers group termed the contract that was rejected as their "last, best final best offer."

"They're not prepared to move forward but we're prepared to do more," said Greg Nammacher, SEIU Local 26 program director, speaking to the crowd after police took the 17 people arrested away.

The 17 arrested included SEIU members and staff as well as community supporters from ISAIAH, Workers Interfaith Network, and TakeAction Minnesota.

Steve Share edits the Labor Review, the official publication of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council.
Photo by Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review

For more information
See the Workday special section on the Stand for Security campaign

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Why anti-union.blogspot.com ?

This site is dedicated to Lawyer/PR man, Rick Berman, who works as a lobbyist for the corporate war against unions and the working class. His MO is to start websites who falsely claim to be factual and through truth, half truth and out right lies, misinform the public, unions are not his first campaign and I'm sure it will not be his last.

Heres an interview from 60 Minutes and a Full Story I wrote.

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In the United States today, a worker is fired or discriminated against for trying to form a union every 23 minutes. This is a major reason that every worker should support the Employee Free Choice Act.

According to a survey from Peter D. Hart Research Associates 57 million people say they would join a union if they had a chance. But in todays America, employers routinely fire, harass, intimidate and coerce workers who try to exercise their right to form a union at work.


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I"m As Mad As Hell #1 - "The Part That Big Media Left Out !!!"

10/27/07

Why is it that when someone who becomes a hero, the fact that he is a proud union member is not mentioned in the mainstream media? Could it be that the media on a whole is quite a bit anti-union?

I'm not just talking about the likes of Rupert Murdoch, I am talking about the main 6 companies that own almost everything you see and read, the six that have to bargain directly with unions and would like nothing more than for people to believe that the working mans plight is hopeless and we must bargain from the scraps left for us. And yes my friends, they want total control of the internet . Well I've gone a bit off point, the point is that when Wesley Autrey, a member and shop steward of LIUNA Local 79, became New Yorks subway hero on Jan. 3rd. 2007, by putting his life at risk to save another, there was absolutely no mention that he was a union member in any of the big media outlets. I only came to learn that through my diligence in serching out news on the internet. And that my friends is a total shame .
NYPost "Autrey, 50, a construction worker who achieved nationwide fame for his death-defying rescue of a Boston man who had fallen off the subway platform" NYTimes "Mr. Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker, said he knew something was different when he showed up for work later on Tuesday. His boss, he said, bought him lunch — a ham-and-cheese hero — and later told him to take yesterday off." USAToday "I just tried to do the right thing," said the 50-year-old Harlem construction worker." NBC "Wesley Autrey, a Navy veteran and construction worker, was standing nearby on the platform with his children when he saw Hollowpeter fall. Autrey jumped down to the track area and lay on top of Hollowpeter as a train passed about "2 inches" from his head."
What comes to mind that is if this was me, the first thing i would say if asked what my job was would be my union . Now this isn't the only instance whereby I have come to this conclusion , when speaking with an official with OPEIU on the crisis in downtown NYC regarding HIP's removing 186 union jobs from downtown , good paying jobs they were obligated to keep there when they used "Empire State Development Corp.'s WTC Job Creation and Retention Program", none of the big papers here in New York would carry the story , the Times (which has this so-called worker friendly stance said it was too small an issue) refused as did all the others , the only paper that would run the story was New York Newsday. I consider it very newsworthy, and refuse to buy any other paper. Not to mention the fact that Newsday is the only paper here in New York which reports on employee misclassification and tax evasion by nonunion contractors .

Media ownership

the tie to net neutrality
"A Federal Communications Commissioner said that the censoring of political speech during a recent Pearl Jam performance illustrates the need for network neutrality." Link
FROM : SaveTheInternet
What is Network Neutrality? Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet. Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web

content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Ok that means hypothetically, that without "Net Neutrality", if Disney, who is partnered with Verizon , has a "Union" issue and someone posts an article on UnionReview about it, Verizon is within their rights to throttle our sites basic internet bandwidth to the degree that it would be frustrating if not impossible to view it. Think this isn't a possibility, think again .

FROM: SFGate.com

"If you missed the incident, Verizon Wireless initially refused to transmit text messages over its cellular network from Naral Pro-Choice America, a pro-choice group, to its members. Naral uses text-messaging to update its supporters on pro-choice policy and the message would have only gone to people who had signed up to receive them. But several days later, Verizon did an about-face and agreed to send the messages. Nonetheless, according to news reports, Verizon did not retreat from its position that it is entitled to decide what messages to transmit. This is censorship of the first magnitude."

As a matter of fact , those that oppose Net Neutrality have garnered the talents of "spin-doctor' Rick Berman, former lobbyist for big tobacco and current creator of Center For Union Facts, whose main focus is to tarnish unions through truths, half-truths and out right propaganda.

Basically his site Hands Off The Internet is a giant scare tactic to those in the world that believe everything they read. Basically if you read through Berman's web sites you can easily understand this joke.

Q: How can you tell that Rick Berman is lying? A: He opens his mouth FROM : SaveTheInternet

What else are the phone and cable companies not telling the truth about?

AT&T and others have funded a massive misinformation campaign, filled with deceptive advertising and "Astroturf" groups like Hands Off the Internet and NetCompetition.org. Learn how to tell apart the myths from the realities in our report, Network Neutrality: Fact vs. Fiction.

Well this was installment #1 of my "Mad as Hell", stay tuned as I once again someday sift through all the misinformation and spin-doctoring and get another story here.

Heres the 2nd. installment from UnionReview.com: Mad As Hell#2 - Australia dumps corporate government in favor of labor and what's important here