Midnight strike looms for Con Edison workers, keep up to date with the newsfeed

Updated again->:Con Edison, Union Continue Early A.M. Negotiations

"As someone who has dealt with incompetence and lies of the top management at Con Ed, I can only imagine what these hard working people who do the real work on the streets are going through," "A strike could lead to a potentially dangerous situation. It took nine days to restore power even with these trained professionals working around the clock. We might still be in the dark if they weren't there."- Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr.

Following up on Sunday's story:"Con-Ed to workers: Take your 0.5%, give us a 2-tier and shut up"

From NY1 (7/1/08):

	Midnight Strike Deadline Looms For Con Ed
July 01, 2008

Consolidated Edison and the union representing 9,000 of its workers headed back to the bargaining table today with a midnight strike deadline looming ahead.

The utility and Local 1-2 have been in a "cooling off" period for the last 72-hours, after round-the-clock negotiations this weekend yielded little progress.

Workers say they are prepared to walk off the job at midnight if a new agreement cannot be reached. A spokesperson says wages, health care costs, and pensions remain the sticking points.

Con Ed said supervisors are ready to step in to keep the system running without any disruptions in service. The utility says half of its management rose through the ranks and is familiar with the system.

Yet, Queens Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. said he is worried that a strike could have a large impact.

"As someone who has dealt with incompetence and lies of the top management at Con Ed, I can only imagine what these hard working people who do the real work on the streets are going through," Vallone said in a statement. "A strike could lead to a potentially dangerous situation. It took nine days to restore power even with these trained professionals working around the clock. We might still be in the dark if they weren't there."

A strike would involve electric, gas and steam workers in every borough but Staten Island.

Just for shits and giggles, lets take a looksie

How bout Con Ed's CEO? In 2007 the CEO of Consolidated Edison,Kevin Burke, 57, made a total of $5.5 Million, 24% more than he made in 2006, that would only stand to increase if he brings wages down on this contract, take a look at American Axle CEO’s reward for slashing wages—$8.5 million bonus

Keep up to date with the NewsFeed below

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Con-Ed to workers: Take your 0.5%, give us a 2-tier and shut up

UPDATED (7/1/08)->: Midnight strike looms for Con Edison workers, keep up to date with the newsfeed

On June 13th. 9000 members of The Utility Workers local 1-2 (UWUA1-2), when faced with the idea of no raise in their upcoming contract(note: the last expired this morning), voted overwhelmingly to strike if their memberships needs were not addressed by the "Privately owned" Consolidated Edison.

In talks with a high ranking official of Local 1-2, the latest offer by Con Ed included a two-tier system where new workers would see a serious lack of benefits, almost no raise and as expected in todays day and age, raises in co-payments of health care. While the Governor has negotiated a 72 hour "cooling off period" whereby negotiations will continue Tuesday at 9AM, and the workers will remain on the job at least until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday night, there is the great possibility of a strike as of Wednesday.

According to Stephen Greenhouse and Ken Belson's article in Fridays NY Times, "Union Says It and Con Edison Are Far Apart on Contract", (6/27/08):

The union is opposed to company proposals to phase out a defined-benefit pension plan and to deduct workers’ compensation awards from employee pensions.

“If they continue to press the issue, we will walk,” promised Joe Flaherty, a spokesman for the union, which represents Con Edison workers everywhere but on Staten Island. “It seems to us that they want to force us out.”

Mr. Flaherty said his union was asking for wage increases because of rising prices for fuel, food and other basics. He noted that many cable splicers, meter readers, engineers and others must drive to work because they often travel among several locations.

Mr. Flaherty said that unlike previous negotiations, when only a handful of details remained unresolved so close to the contract’s expiration, this time the two sides had yet to agree on a host of significant issues.

“I’ve never seen it at this stage, when there’s absolutely nothing resolved,” he said. “I would say their position is stonewalling.”

A spokesman for Con Edison, Michael S. Clendenin, declined to respond to the union’s claims, saying: “We don’t negotiate in the press.”

That sounds a lot like the 2-tier system that I warned you about, and has made the auto-industry in the United States a working poor job.

If I worked for Con Ed, i would gladly go on strike, but I await the Main Stream Media's response that will ignore the facts and make it a "Unions fuck the people of New York" front page story like the NY Post editorial which attacked the striking Broadway Stagehands back in November 2007. (see "NY Post spin-doctoring and the IATSE Stagehands" (11/20/07) and "Remember if there is a strike, BLAME AMTRAK, not the union workers!" (1/17/08) )

Be prepared reader, Crain's and some other publications are already trying to make it a construction worker Vs. utility worker fight, meanwhile my source has assured me that they have gotten countless calls of support from other union officials, including many in the Building and Construction trades. They see the writing on the wall, and know that the greater fight is for a better future for New York's workers against this private utility monster.

Privatization Vs. American Workers, what GHI and HIP workers should expect
"One can only hope that the Utility Workers Union is serious about its strike threat. Pulling the workforce off the job for a protracted amount of time may help New Yorkers see that vital city functions such as the operation of utilities cannot be run privately." -Counterhegemonic at Independent Media Center

Talk about avoidance of a real news story, I have been following the misdeeds of HIP for quite some time, since I learned how the company fleeced our tax money to build downtown after 9/11 and promised to keep good paying jobs in the city and then moved those jobs out of the area, in fact 1 1/2 hours away by train to Long Island, in the article "HIP replaces 186 Downtown, NY jobs, breaking a massive promise", and how the privatization of both HIP and GHI will devastate New Yorker's who rely on their medical coverage in the article by "Building Bridges"

Heres a great article I found at NYC Independent Media Center entitled "Con Edison Workers and the Real Face of Privatization" (6/28/08):

Administrative workers at the currently non-profit health insurance companies GHI & HIP face the very real prospect of having their employer become a for-profit company. The exact meaning of this may seem murky. Nearly every study of privatization, particularly privatization in the healthcare industry, has demonstrated that spending on administration increases. Bad news for subscribers who need healthcare but seemingly great news for workers in search of fat paychecks, right?

Well, the more than 9,000 workers currently employed by Con Edison would beg to differ. Contract talks between their now privately held employer and the Utility Workers Union of America Local 1-2 have reached an impasse. The utility's stingy management has offered a 0.5% per -year wage increase and the union has threatened to walk off the job. As usual, the employer has appealed for mediation and "productive discussion" despite the fact that their wage offer is nearly 3% below the annual rate of inflation.

Con Ed supplies and maintains most of New York City's electric, gas and steam service. Since the company was de-regulated in 1998 there have been a series of high profile disasters. In 2005, stray voltage killed a woman who was walking her dog after she stepped on an electrified plate. 2007's disaster was even larger as an 83 year-old steam pipe burst in Midtown resulting in the death of one person and 40 injuries. Finally, the company is largely blamed for a massive blackout in Queens in 2006 for which they offered "inconvenienced" customers a $100 rebate check and a "brief apology."

Con Ed is the largest for-profit utility company in the country. Most urban utilities are either run by state-owned companies or tightly regulated non-profits. Con Ed has also spun out an energy subsidiary called Con Ed Energy which nationally markets electricity produced in NYC plants. This practice is held to be a root cause of a persistent wave of blackouts nation-wide.

So, in NYC a massive for-profit company is charged with servicing an infrastructure which is essentially crumbling under the weight of its own age. There has been no substantial effort post-1970s fiscal crisis to upgrade the urban infrastructure. This is perfectly fine with Con Ed executives as it ensures a steady line of funding for patchwork projects.

Now, however, even this is not enough. Now the company intends to squeeze every last penny out of both NYC citizens and its own workers paychecks. One can only hope that the Utility Workers Union is serious about its strike threat. Pulling the workforce off the job for a protracted amount of time may help New Yorkers see that vital city functions such as the operation of utilities cannot be run privately. The only motivation is profit - whether it come from soaring customer bills, work contracts from our city budget or from the wallets of workers.

Mark this as a little lesson for GHI & HIP workers and other folks facing possible privatization. The promised returns to you are just thinly veiled mirages. Lurking behind the seduction is a grim future where management is preparing to grind every last penny out of your pocket. The less protection you have the easier this will be.

By Counterhegemonic http://counterhegemonic.blogspot.com/

This is the third and last in my tirade against the Main Stream, you can view some of my favorites below:

• Now Big Media can hurt workers better - Freepress (12/19/07)
• I'm As Mad As Hell #1 - "The Part That Big Media Left Out !!! - Union Review (10/27/07)
• Video: Bill Moyers addresses conference for media reform: labor, health care, middle-class, tying it all together - (6/7/08)
• Iraq Veterans Against War, one Long Island mans account, and the bigger issue of propaganda and censorship in the war - (5/7/08)
• Stop union buster Rupert Murdoch from owning more NY media! - (4/24/08)
• Carpenters video release: Globalization, who's next? A must see for all US construction workers (4/7/08)
• KS: State passes bill that will encourage more illegal immigration and punishes unions who try to help the workers (4/2/08)
  
• Slavery: Alive and well in USA Pt.2, Indian pipefitters abused in H2B Visa scam, main stream media picks up story full year after facts are released (3/13/08)
• Anti-Union blogging, adding more misinformation for the masses (1/26/08)
• Center For Union Facts ? Anti-Union Lobby At It's Worst - Union Review (9/17/07)
• Offshoring and H1B Visa abuse, the 1-2 punch to knockout US tech workers (2/26/08)
• The state of the media in the USA today - via Broadcast Union News reposting an article from IBEW Local 1212 website (2/25/08)

The Employee Free Choice Act

Oh, just so I don't forget, those powers that control the media also don't want you to sign the petition that will be delivered to the next president of the United States with 1,000,000 American signatures on it, since I got your attention, give a minute of you time and sign the petition for the Employee free Choice Act. It's getting blatantly obvious that the corporations and the law firms that profit on our misery are terrified of the labor movement and will do everything in their power to curb this legislation. I recently wrote about how with guns and threats towards their employees, and the corporate controlled NLRB, who's last chairman, Robert Battista has joined up with America's largest union-avoidance law firm, how the current system does not work.

Click the image on the left to sign your name to the petition, do it for the 58 million American's who desperately want to be union, but are terrified of the bosses reprisals in the wait between signing the cards and the election.

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Video: Bill Moyers addresses conference for media reform: labor, health care, middle-class, tying it all together

"...and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope." -Bill Moyers

From YouTube:

Legendary journalist Bill Moyers address the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, June 7, 2008. Presented by FreePress.net. For more speakers, press coverage, and info, visit: http://www.freepress.net/conference

Watch Video

At around 30+ minutes in, he clearly ties everything together.

Heres the part I felt like typing:

What do we need to know? We need to know that we are in trouble.

Napoleon told his secretary in the thick of battle that if the news on the front is good, don't wake me, if it's bad wake me immediately.

My friends, you don't need to be a reporter with your eyes open to see the news from the front is bad, but I as a reporter see it all the time.

I report the assault on nature, evidence in coal mining that tears the tops off mountains and dumps them into rivers. Sacrificing the health and lives of those in the valleys, for short term profit.

..and I see a link between that process and the stock market frenzy which scorns long-term investments, genuine savings, in favor of quick turnovers and speculative bubbles, whose inevitable bursting leaves insiders with stuffed pockets and millions of small shareholders, stock holders, employees and home owners, out of luck, out of work, and out of hope.

...and then I see a connection between those disasters and the repeal of regulations designed to prevent that type of human and economic damage.

Who pushed for the removal of that fire wall? The political marionettes in Washington, who danced to the speculators tune and were rewarded with campaign contributions and lucrative lobbying jobs when they have delivered the goods. Even honorable opponents of the practice get trapped in the web of a system that can effectively limit politics to those who can afford to spend millions of dollars in their race for office, and know that their careers depend on pleasing their donors, while deserting their voters.

Then I draw a line to the statistics that show real wages lagging behind prices, the compensation of corporate barons soaring to heights unequaled anywhere among other industrialized democracies. The greatest income inequality since the roaring 20's. The relentless cheese pairing of Federal funds devoted to Public Schools to retraining workers whose jobs have exported and to programs of health care, all of which natch away the ladder, which American's of scant means, but willing hands and hearts, could work and save their way up to some middle-class security.

...and I connect those numbers to campaigns to campaigns by our triumphant reactionaries against labor unions and higher minimum wage and to their success in reframing the tax codes so as to strip them of their progressive character, laying the burdens of the social contract on the shrinking middle-class, awash in credit card debt as workers struggle with the rising cost of health care, affordable housing, and college tuitions for their children.

While huge inheritances go untouched, tax shelters abroad are legalized and the rich get richer, and with each increase in their wealth, are able to buy themselves more influence over those who make and execute the laws.

Edward R Murrow told his generation of journalists, no one can eliminate their prejudices, just recognize them.

Here is my bias, extremes of wealth and poverty cannot be reconciled with a truly just society, capitalism breeds great inequality that is destructive, unless tempered by an intuition for equality, which is the heart of democracy.

When the state becomes the guardian of power and privilege to the neglect of justice to the people have neither power nor privilege, you can no longer claim to have a representative government.

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Consumer's Union and Free Press need donations, send em' some help

From the E-Mailbox

Consumers Union

Will you help us raise $15,000 by May 30th to make toys and products safer? Donate Today! Dear Joseph, The clock is ticking! Congress must quickly finish its work before lawmakers turn their attention to the elections--and that means they must finalize a strong product safety reform bill. But President Bush just announced his opposition to many of the best provisions. With only a short time left to craft a final bill, he wants to make sure it does as little as possible. That's why we are asking you to pitch in now with a contribution to the Action Fund. The recalls continue unabated--nearly 10 million products all told in the first four months of this year, and 1.3 million toys due to lead. Bush opposes a requirement that all manufacturers test children's products before they reach our shelves. He also opposes a public web site that would give you more timely information about unsafe products. Consumers Union and the CU Action Fund are pulling out all the stops. In the past few days: Consumers Union released a new report on the nearly 10 million dangerous products recalled since the holidays; you sent thousands of messages to members of the key committee that must finalize this bill; and some of you attended a rally at the Capitol in Washington. You may not live in D.C., where we held the rally, or in the district of a conference committee member, but you can still help us get a strong bill passed with a donation right now! Click here to help us reach our $15,000 goal by Friday, May 30th with a secure online gift. Your contribution to the CU Action Fund will help us use every tool we have to battle industry opponents and the President and help lawmakers give you the strongest product safety bill. Will you please help ensure that we have the resources we need to do this crucial work? With your support, we can continue to ramp up activity on Not In My Cart and other critical campaigns, and give you the power to choose safe products all year long. Thank you so much for your generous contribution. Sincerely, Kathy Mitchell Consumers Union Action Fund 506 W. 14th Street Austin, Texas 78701 P.S. Your donation to the Consumers Union Action Fund is not tax-deductible because it will enable us to do the lobbying work needed to win.

FreePress

Dear Joseph, Expose the Pentagon Pundits -- Help Place This Ad Now! The media still refuse to cover the outrageous Pentagon propaganda scandal. We need your help to place this ad in Washington news outlets by Friday so we can force all 535 members of Congress, their staff and other D.C. influentials to hear this message: We won't let the Pentagon -- and its Big Media enablers -- get away with manipulating and deceiving the public. Help Stop Propaganda: Place the Ad Congress and the media must know we're not backing down. The shocking -- and very likely illegal -- campaign that turned "independent" military analysts into on-air Pentagon propagandists and Iraq war apologists must be investigated. And Big Media's shameful failure to cover the story -- and hold itself accountable for its own complicity -- must end. Your contribution today will help the Free Press Action Fund achieve both goals. We need to raise $10,000 in the next 24 hours to run this ad and publicly turn up the heat on Congress to act. Put This Ad on Congress' Doorstep You and other Free Press supporters have already helped mobilize hundreds of thousands of Americans to express their outrage over this propaganda scandal and media cover-up. Your contribution today will help us put even more pressure where it counts most: on Congress and Big Media. Expose the Pentagon, Call Out Big Media, and End Fake News Support Free Press Action Fund's "Propaganda Pundit" ad-buy right now. Gratefully, Timothy Karr Campaign Director Free Press Action Fund www.freepress.net P.S. Thanks to you, Free Press is leading the charge to hold the Pentagon and Big Media accountable for the "Propaganda Pundit" scandal. Our next step is to run a powerful ad to put Congress and the media on notice. Contribute now and send the message: We're not backing down

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Iraq Veterans Against War, one Long Island mans account, and the bigger issue of propaganda and censorship in the war

A censored war, censored veterans, media black out of Pentagon propaganda "experts" on their payroll and the upcoming war with Iran. What is the facts? will we ever know?

We start our story with Joe Everybody, Kristofer Goldsmith,who starts his on Sept. 11 2001, with rage in his heart, he signed up to protect America

Goldsmith saw the World Trade Center towers collapse on September 11, 2001. He enlisted in the Army and went to Iraq in 2005. In Sadr City, he witnessed abuse of Iraqi civilians. He was assigned to take pictures of Iraqis found in a shallow grave, ostensibly for intelligence purposes, but they were only used as trophies by those who received them. After repeated commendations, he was expecting to return to civilian life and college when President Bush announced the “surge,” and the military adopted its stop-loss policy, essentially making Goldsmith a prisoner of war. He tried to kill himself rather than return to Iraq, but survived. He was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but then was discharged for misconduct as a malingerer. He now delivers pizzas and struggles to overcome his persisting symptoms with treatment through the VA.

This video was played at the "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan conference (3/13/08-3/16/08)", where dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland and offered harrowing testimony about atrocities they had witnessed or participated in directly.

The BBC predicted that the event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War, "could be dominating the headlines around the world this week(*March---Joe)", and while it was truly broadcast internationally, here in the States it was almost completely blacked out.

Even with the bullshit media blitzing of supporting our troops, when it came down to actually listening to the over 1000 member group of veterans and getting their message out, The New York Times claimed that they had "not been aware of the group or its meeting,"

According to FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (4/8/08) :

The Times’ D.C. bureau editor’s claim to have not heard of the hearings is remarkable, given that the AP newswire carried a story on the hearings, and IVAW has confirmed to FAIR that the D.C. bureau had been sent three separate rounds of different IVAW press releases. In addition, at least 150 Times staffers were sent press releases about Winter Soldier by the Institute for Public Accuracy, a group that encourages inclusion of overlooked facts and progressive perspectives in media coverage. Given that media organizations operating on a small fraction of the Times' budget were aware of and able to find the resources to cover these hearings, the Times’ D.C. bureau’s plea to ignorance about the hearings is all the more disappointing.

Blackouts are only the beginning, and the New York Times actually came forward to explain that the Pentagon had strategically placed "war experts into the media" to say all is going well in Iraq. They seem to have been placed there in an effort to sell the American public the Iraq war. From Source Watch:

"Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as 'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates' who could be counted on to deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans 'in the form of their own opinions.' ... Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war." Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger, eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns. The Pentagon held weekly meetings with the military analysts, which continued as of April 2008, when David Barstow reported on the program in the New York Times.

So, if you don't read the Times, you know nothing of what I'm speaking about, do you? It has also been blacked out by the national media outlets, an illegal media propaganda campaign completely blacked out. Isn't this the type of thing we fought Hitler for?

From PR Watch.org (5/6/08) :

Here is the official Pentagon website with the 8,000 pages of documents, the most interesting and revealing of them previously secret and only available to the Pentagon and the New York Times:

http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/milanalysts/

More than two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it. Recently Media Matters of America (MMA) reported that, according to a search of the Nexis database, "the three major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have still not mentioned the report at all."

The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that " there was virtually no mainstream media follow up to The Times’ expose" with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD's John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour.

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro and three dozen colleagues have sent a letter to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for an investigation of this "propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately misleading the American public."

Last month. one of the propaganda team came forward and saw a vision, in April one of the Pentagon’s propaganda team of military analysts exposed by David Barstow in the NYT, a Ret. Gen. Thomas McInerney, speaking on FOX News, openly called for the US to begin committing “tit-for-tat” terrorist attacks by proxy inside Iran.

Craziness you may say, apparently Iran seems to believe it to be a fact, according to the Tahran Times, Iran's leading international daily, in an article entitled "Iran busts CIA terror network" (5/18/08) :

n a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.

The terrorists had maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in various cities in their possession when they were arrested.

The Los Angeles Times says there is no proof to Iraq's claims in its article "IRAN: Tehran accuses West of waging war on its turf" (5/16/08), while Bush and Israel have agreed that there needs to be "tangible action in Iran." (Yahoo News 5/16)

What's really going on in Iraq, Iran and in the United Stated media? I don't know if this generation will ever know.



Censorship is the bane of our society, to get some Journalistic integrity and/or some type of opposing view, check the links below and familiarize yourself with the sites.

• U.S. Sergeant Refuses to Go to Iraq: "This Occupation is Unconstitutional and Illegal" - AlterNet (5/16/08)
• Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? - FAIR (3/19/08)
• Pentagon Propagandist General Calls for US to Sponsor Terrorism Against Iran - Crooks and Liars (5/15/08)
• The Common Man News
• Dahr Jamail's MidEast Dispatch
• Iraq Vets Will Detail U.S. Atrocities in Winter Soldier Hearings - AlterNet (3/11/08)
• Iraq Veterans Against War
• UTNE Reader
• Mother Jones

And if you really want to support our troops, check out

• IAVA - The Iraq an Afghanistan Veterans of America
• The Wounded Warriors Project
  

While we are on the political take, may I place this great cartoon for all of my readers to enjoy

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Stop Big Media: Huge Senate win!

second good news, E-Activism works, even if it takes a while, when the FCC on December 17th. 2007, went against 99% of American peoples wishes and overturned a rule that 1 company can not own more than one of either print, tv or radio in any one region, FreePress went to work, getting people like you and I involved in stressing to our Senators that we the people can not take this blatant disregard of our wishes. I wrote "Now Big Media can hurt workers better" at the FreePress Blog on Dec. 19th., the CWA and AFTRA joined in the fight

From the E-Mailbox

Dear Joseph, Just moments ago, by a near-unanimous vote, the Senate stood up to Big Media. They voted to throw out the FCC decision to let the largest media companies swallow up even more local media. This is simply an astounding victory, and it would not have happened without the massive grassroots effort by you and thousands of others who called their senators, sent more than a quarter million letters, posted thousands of pictures and stories on StopBigMedia.com, and testified at public hearings held by the FCC. It was your dedication that made today's Senate win possible. Today was a huge step forward, but there is still much to do. The fight against the FCC now moves to the House, where our elected representatives need to hear from us. President Bush has promised that he will try to veto this bill. But tonight the Senate and the American people have spoken with one voice. This historic vote sends a clear message that the only people who support more media consolidation are Big Media lobbyists and the White House. We are in this struggle to bring more minority ownership, diverse perspectives and independent voices to the media. We need to make media consolidation an election-year issue. And we need to start talking about how to break up the giant conglomerates. Corporate news today -- with its propaganda pundits, horse-race election coverage, and celebrity gossip -- undermines our democracy. We must continue to speak out and demand that the public airwaves be used to actually serve the public. In just three weeks, thousands of people will be gathering together in Minnesota to build the movement for better media. You can join them at the National Conference for Media Reform, just visit www.freepress.net/conference. For today, know that you played a key role in the fight for better media for all. Thank you, Josh Silver Executive Director Free Press Action Fund

StopBigMedia.com is a project of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund, on the Web at www.freepress.net.

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Stop union buster Rupert Murdoch from owning more NY media!

Every time I see a union person with the NY Post under their arm I wish they had a fucking clue.

In December, the FCC, against 99% of the American publics wishes, overturned a longstanding rule of media, which stopped over-consolidation of media in any one area. That means, there was a rule which made sure that there was a reasonable chance that you might get more than one view on any given story.

Since then Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox Five, News corporation, MySpace (who banned the largest atheist group from its site), etc., the union-busting media tycoon has been on a buying spree, first came the Wall Street Journal and now NY Newsday is on the wish list. If you ever read the way the NY Post, another Murdoch holding, berates union workers you would understand why his ever increasing movement towards monopoly is a dangerous situation. Thats not the only thing, when he chaired News International, a UK organization which encompassed massive amounts of UK tabloids, he pitted unions against one another and forever changed the UK Labour Movement. From Wikipedia, on the 1986 Wapping dispute:

News internationals strategy in Wapping had strong government support, and enjoyed almost full production and distribution capabilities and a complement of leading journalists. The company was therefore content to allow the dispute to run its course. With thousands of workers having gone for over a year without jobs or pay, the strike eventually collapsed on 5 February 1987.

Heres my post in regard to the 12/18/07 FCC allowance of more media consolidation, Originally published on FreePress Action Network (12/19/07):

Now Big Media can hurt workers better

Submitted by Joe638NYC on December 19, 2007 - 11:41pm.

Hello, my name is Joe, I am a rank and file union member and on staff at the independent labor movement website UnionReview.

While we are primarily a labor news site, we also monitors news items that tie directly to the communication of the modern labor movement, such as Network Neutrality, the squelching of free speech and the spin doctoring of main stream media.

This ruling is a tremendous blow to the American working citizen. Information is power, the gathering of ideas based on different points of view is critical. When so very little can brainwash so many, what hope do we have.

Stand up people. Stand up for places such as Workers Independent News and Brain Labor Report, who continuously report on the airwaves about the struggles of the common working man and social injustices that never make it to the main stream.

Labor hardly got any attention in the main stream media before this was passed, and any if broadcast or published almost always portrays union workers as lazy, greedy and enemies of the public. A good case in point is an article I entitled NY Post spin-doctoring and the IATSE Stagehands, in which I retort the Rupert Murdoch News Corp.owned NY Post's so-called editorial about those greedy stagehands that closed down Broadway Thanksgiving week.

Does News Corp., Viacom, Disney, etc. have a stake in portraying unions as bad to the public? Absolutely, they have to negotiate with them at every step of their business, they are the employer, directly and indirectly of writers, screen writers, engineers, truckers, service employees, construction workers, screen actors, communication workers, stagehands, make-up artists and a host of other labor groups. It suits them well that there is a growing majority of ignorant people in this country that believe that unions are bad for them personally. They have the power to repeat in every media form their message and use the theory that if you continuously lie over and over the masses will believe it to be truth.

That suits Big Media and their corporations fine, by leveling the public against workers, by speaking generally without a fact basis, they perpetrate half-truths and outright lies that get embeded into the heart and mind of the public. By instilling hopelessness and fear they divide us into more and more fractions of smaller groups, pitting each against one another, dividing and conquering, making working people feel as if they are lucky to have a job, and that they must accept the final offer by employer.

This is not acceptable for my country, I thank the work of all those who contribute here, I regret that I have found this late, after seeing this at the AFL-CIO WebBlog, I couldn't help but get involved, firstly by writing a story on my new site Joe's Union Review the Anti-Union BlogSpot (theres reasons for the name), porting the story to UnionReview and MySpace, and by posting the links to our site and the AFL-CIO's story globally onto Labourstart, the global newfeed which reaches thousands of labor sites worldwide.

If we do not stop consolidation of the corporate main stream media and we give those same corporations complete control of the internet, our sources for free independent and diversified news and information will dry up.

Sites, such as freepress and UnionReview, that exercise our freedom of speech, that communicate important social matters and move people to take action may no longer be viewable or in the worst case scenario, have nothing to write about.

Thank you for putting this together, please contact me if anything I write at the site is erroneous, or if theres any other way I can help.

I leave you with this

"Such a small percentage try to make the world a better place, leaving the work to a scarce few. If those that did next to nothing did just a tiny bit, the world could be a better place for all." - me 7/7/07"

How dangerous can consolidation be, heres a snip from a report on Murdoch's adventures in China, which explains the European media holdings, From The Guardian.co.uk

But I am sure it is true that anticipatory compliance is Murdoch's most powerful weapon. I doubt he needed to tell all 247 of his editors to support the invasion of Iraq, but they did. He might not even have had to lean on Tony Blair to ensure - as Blair's former spin doctor Lance Price reveals - that no British minister said "anything positive about the euro". Power is sustained not by force but by fear, as everyone seeks to interpret the wishes of his master and to meet them even before he asks.

The Senate Commerce Committee has taken the first step in Vetoing the Dec.18th. FCC ruling. From the Freepress Action Network Blog post "Senate Commerce Committee Did the Right Thing" by jtorres (4/24/08)

The Senate Commerce Committee did the right thing today by unanimously voting out of committee a "resolution of disapproval" sponsored by Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D.N.D.) that would overturn the FCC’s Dec. 18 decision to relax the longstanding limits on how much media one company can own in your town.

It’s the first step toward an official Congressional “veto” of the FCC’s new rule, which permits one company to own both a major daily newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market.

Dorgan, as well as Democratic and Republican leaders, had warned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin last December not to lift the 30-year ban that forbids "newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership."

But the Murdoch empire still has NY Newsday (as well as Yahoo) on its to buy list, you can help fight the sale of Newsday by donating to FreePress, from the E-Mail:

Dear Joseph, Chip in to Stop Murdoch and Big Media Before Time Runs Out! This morning, the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved the "resolution of disapproval" we've been fighting for. It's the first step toward an official congressional "veto" of the Federal Communications Commission's new rules that gut media ownership limits. This vote couldn't have come at a more important moment. Just this week, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to buy his third New York newspaper — Newsday. (Murdoch already owns the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and two television stations in this one media market!) We can stop this runaway media consolidation by passing the resolution of disapproval in the full House and Senate. To do that, we need your help right now. Donate to Stop Rupert Murdoch and Big Media. Time is of the essence. Senate rules require a floor vote on the veto within the next few weeks. So your immediate contribution is critical. With your support today, the Free Press Action Fund will: Line up more senators to support the resolution. We’ve already secured 25 co-sponsors, and we need to exert serious pressure to get the rest. (Murdoch’s greedy grab for Newsday will help, but you can be sure he’ll be fighting us every step of the way.) Counteract Big Media’s misinformation campaign. Huge newspaper conglomerates like Murdoch’s News Corp. and Tribune Co. are spending heavily to convince Congress that the FCC rules don't go far enough. They want to swallow up even more local media. Setting the record straight. If we can raise enough funding today, part of your contribution will pay for ads to get the attention of Washington decision-makers. Reach out to our hundreds of thousands of media reform activists -- and allied groups throughout the country to make sure they flood the Senate with letters, phone calls and e-mails. Help get this job done -- donate now! Since the FCC plan was announced in December, more than 250,000 activists have called on Congress to block it. Today's vote is the result — proof that when we pull together behind a clear strategic goal, we get results, even though industry lobbyists outspend us in Washington more than 200-to-1. The time to stop Murdoch and Big Media is now. I urge you to make your contribution right away. Gratefully, Alexandra Russell Program Director Free Press Action Fund www.freepress.net P.S. The clock is ticking. We must win full Senate approval of the FCC veto within the next few weeks. That means we must start right now. Please chip in today to win this essential victory for media reform!

Big thanks to the fine people at laborcommunicators Google group for bringing a lot of this to my attention

Sphere: Related Content

Stop Big Media E-Action Alert: Tell the FCC you care about local media

How does this tie into labor? Check out my post on FreePress Action Network to see my point of view -> "Now Big Media can hurt workers better" (12/19/08) :

From the E-Mail box

Dear Joseph,