Striking Greek Teachers’ Union to attend London Conference
Against Bankster's Austerity1
OLME – the Greek federation of secondary education state school teachers – is to attend the ’Europe Against Austerity Conference hosted by the Coalition of Resistance (CoR) in London this weekend, on Saturday October 1.
OLME is one of the leading Greek unions in dispute with the Government over draconian cuts to public sector pay, higher taxes and lower pension entitlements. Greek unions social and youth organisations have organised a series of protests, mobilizations and strikes against the imposition of cuts in public spending.
The cuts have been imposed by the Greek government in line with the impositions of the ’'Troika’ of the EU/IMF/ECB. These ’austerity’ measures are part of the failed attempt to get Working people to pay for the bail-out of Greece’s bankers and creditors.
Themis Kotsifakis, General Secretary of OLME will be speaking at the conference. He said,“The Greek Government and the Troika (EU-IMF-ECB) have imposed severe austerity measures, slashing our salaries and pensions, destroying public goods (education-health-public transport etc), privatizing public companies and organisations, and selling off the wealth of the country to the Banks and Capital. Greece is the point of departure as similar policies are being implemented or are under implementation across Europe – especially in the countries of the European South. Therefore, we believe that there should be a coordinated reaction of all Workers, youth and social movements across Europe. Together for another Europe without neoliberalism. People first, not profit.”
Andrew Burgin, one of the London organizers of the conference said,“We are extremely pleased to welcome representatives of the Greek workers who have struggled so determinedly against ferocious cuts. They will be joining representatives from political parties, Unions and social organisations across Europe who are uniting in the battle against cuts”
Contact: 07939 242229
Notes to Editors 1. The Coalition of Resistance is a broad national campaign uniting against cuts and privatisation in workplaces, community and welfare services, based on general agreement with the Founding Statement issued by Tony Benn in August 2010.
2. The Founding Statement can be found here
3. The CoR conference takes place on Saturday 1 October, 10am-5pm Camden Centre, London WC1H 9AU
4. OLME is the Federation of state secondary school teachers. It has been involved in a series of strikes this year and last against the cuts, as well as a series of mobilisations, demonstrations and other actions.
5. Other attendees and speakers include elected representatives from the following parties, Trade Unions and social organisations:
The Labour Party (Britain), the European Left Party, Die Linke (Germany), Left Bloc (Portugal), NPA (France), Sinn Fein (Ireland), and others UNITE (Britain), USTEC-STES (Catalonia), CWU (Britain), CADTM (Greece), OLME (Greece), NUJ (Britain), Soldaires (France), COBAS (Italy), (LAB, Basque country), RMT (Britain), CADTM (Belgium), NUS (Britain), August 80 Free trade union (Poland), nUT (Britain) CoR (Britain), Attac (Germany), BARAC(Britain), Transform! Europe, Transform (France), Stop the War Coalition (Britain), Afri – Ireland, Jubilee (Britain), London Living Wage campaign, No-one is illegal (France), CADTM (Poland), Movement for Social Justice (Poland), CND, Disabled People against Cuts (Britain), TUC Disabled members’ council (Britain), War on Want (Britain), G20 Mobilising Committee (France)
As well as a large number of representatives from specific strike actions across Europe.
Our mailing address is:
Coalition of Resistance
Coalition of Resistance c/o Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road
London, London N1 9DX
Our telephone:
07939 242229
Thursday, September 29, 2011
CWA Phone Workers Stand with Postal Workers
in Fight for Survival of Job and Service
In Nashville, Tenn., CWA Local 3808 members joined the postal workers' march. Local Secretary-Treasurer Bob Cooper and President Rick Feinstein are pictured at left. Below: Local 4108 members support postal workers in Saginaw, Mich. Locals 4008 and 4622 also were among Michigan CWA locals that rallied and marched to save the postal service.
CWA members were among thousands of union activists joining rallies for embattled postal workers at nearly 500 locations Tuesday that covered every U.S. congressional district in every state.
Seven-year-old Ryan Richards, son of Local 4252 Vice President Angel Minnick, marches Tuesday in Joliet, Ill., with CWA members and other unions supporting U.S. postal workers. Behind Ryan is Local 4252 President LaNell Piercy.
Once again using a budget crisis to attack union workers, some members of Congress want to slash 120,000 postal service jobs and close thousands of post offices, among other severe service cuts.
The national "Save America's Post Office" day of action urged lawmakers to save the USPS (US Postal Service) by supporting H.R. 1351. Introduced by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass), the bill would help stabilize the postal service financially by reducing overpayments it is required by law to make to its pension fund.
While conventional wisdom and virtually all media coverage suggest that email and Internet services are mainly to blame for USPS financial woes, postal unions say it has more to do with over-funded pension and retiree health care plans. In 2006, the Republican-led Congress passed a bill giving the post office just 10 years to pre-fund retiree health care for the next 75 years.
No other government agency or private company is required to make such extreme overpayments, which cost USPS $5.5 billion annually. Without the forced payments, USPS could be running a $1.5 billion surplus.
Neither the pension nor health care funds were addressed by the bill Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) pushed through a House subcommittee last week, with all eight Republicans voting for the devastating postal service cuts and all five Democrats voting against them.
"This is a brazen attempt to dismantle the United States Postal Service and render it ripe for privatization," APWU (American Postal Workers Union) President Cliff Guffey said.
Friday, September 23, 2011
POSTAL WORKERS PROTEST
On Tuesday, September 27, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (local time), members of the four employee Unions of the
United States Postal Service—
• American Postal Workers Union
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union
• National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
—will join forces with members of our communities to send a message to the nation and its Congress.
We are proud to announce the participation of the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS) in the effort to Save America's Postal Service. Click here to read their entire statement.
During these informational rallies, we will visit the home office of each member of the House of Representatives.
We will thank those members who have signed on as 200 co-sponsors of H.R. 1351, a bill that addresses the financial crisis facing the Postal Service.
And we will encourage those who have not signed as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351 to do so.
Join us!
United States Postal Service—
• American Postal Workers Union
• National Association of Letter Carriers
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union
• National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
—will join forces with members of our communities to send a message to the nation and its Congress.
We are proud to announce the participation of the National Association of Postal Supervisors (NAPS) in the effort to Save America's Postal Service. Click here to read their entire statement.
During these informational rallies, we will visit the home office of each member of the House of Representatives.
We will thank those members who have signed on as 200 co-sponsors of H.R. 1351, a bill that addresses the financial crisis facing the Postal Service.
And we will encourage those who have not signed as co-sponsors of H.R. 1351 to do so.
Join us!
NURSES STRIKE for SAFETY
Watch our rallies on Live stream http://www.ustream.tv/channel/national-nurses-united
For Immediate Release
23,000 California RNs on One-Day Strike Today
Nearly 23,000 registered nurses are a one-day today at 34 Northern and Central California hospitals saying they will not accept attacks on RN rights to speak out for patients or cuts in healthcare or retiree coverage for nurses or other hospital workers.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke earlier at a rally with striking nurses – it can be viewed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/national-nurses-united.
The walkout affects two of the biggest and wealthiest hospital chains in California, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente, as well as Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The RNs are members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. The strike ends at 7 a.m.
Friday though Sutter and Children’s have announced plans for a punitive lockout of nurses to extend the dispute. RNs on the picket line at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit hospital in Oakland Sutter nurses will be protesting up to 200 sweeping demands for concessions that they say would, among other concerns, restrict their ability to effectively advocate for patients against the budget focused priorities of Sutter managers and effectively force nurses to work when sick, dangerously exposing extremely ill patients to infection.
Additionally, Sutter RNs oppose Sutter management’s bid to reduce nurses’ healthcare coverage and retiree health benefits, and a broad array of other contract concessions. The Sutter RNs are also protesting years of widespread cuts in patient care services that they say have restricted access to needed medical care for thousands of Northern California communities and left a trail of broken promises by Sutter executives. NNU has long challenged this market-based program of cuts in patient services, one reason Sutter has singled out RNs for retaliation with the draconian demands it has made to nurses, charges CNA. “Nurses will never be silenced in standing up for our patients and our communities, or our members and our families,” says Children’s Oakland RN Martha Kuhl. RNs picketing at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Sacramento At Kaiser, the RNs are walking out in a sympathy strike to support Kaiser co-workers who are facing management demands for deep cuts in their health coverage and retirement plans. Children’s Oakland RNs will be on strike for the third time in a year over what they call punitive management efforts to cut their health coverage as well with demands they say would make it prohibitively expensive for nurses to bring their own children to get care at the hospital where they work.
Children’s has also refused to address the safe staffing issues of charge nurses not having a patient assignment and providing break relief at times when it does not interfere with patient care needs in the professional judgment of the nurse. Speaking for many striking RNs, Kuhl, notes, “They are taking advantage of the economic times and trying to roll back improvements we have won over many years through our CNA contract. Everyone deserves healthcare and if nurses can't afford healthcare, who will be able to? I am a caregiver and patient advocate and that extends into my community as well."
“Everyone deserves high quality health care, and retirement security, whether you are a registered nurse, another caregiver, or any other American, that should be the hallmark of a humane and caring society,” adds CNA Co-President Zenei Cortez, RN who heads the Kaiser CNA Joint Bargaining Council. “We staunchly refuse to be silenced on patient care protections,” said Sharon Tobin, a RN at Sutter Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame. “A common theme throughout management’s proposals is removing our presence on committees that address important patient care issues and nursing practices. As nurses, we speak up, and we insist on standards that safeguard our patients, but Sutter doesn’t want to hear about anything that might cut into their huge profits.” Like Sutter, Kaiser is extremely wealthy, and hardly needs to be exacting severe cuts from employees, reporting over $1.9 billion in profits last year alone.
“When we are all struggling to keep our head above water it is unconscionable for Kaiser Permanente to attempt to extract cuts from direct healthcare workers,” said Catherine Kennedy, who is a neonatal intensive care nursery RN at Kaiser Roseville. “If Kaiser wants to cut, it should be from the 14 Kaiser executives who are making over $1 million dollars a year, not the healthcare employees who have devoted themselves to the patients and the community.”
--
Dr. Bill Honigman
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
www.pdamerica.org
California State Coordinator
and Orange County Chapter Leader
PDA Healthcare For All Issue Organizing Team (IOT)
For Immediate Release
23,000 California RNs on One-Day Strike Today
Nearly 23,000 registered nurses are a one-day today at 34 Northern and Central California hospitals saying they will not accept attacks on RN rights to speak out for patients or cuts in healthcare or retiree coverage for nurses or other hospital workers.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka spoke earlier at a rally with striking nurses – it can be viewed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/national-nurses-united.
The walkout affects two of the biggest and wealthiest hospital chains in California, Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente, as well as Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The RNs are members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United. The strike ends at 7 a.m.
Friday though Sutter and Children’s have announced plans for a punitive lockout of nurses to extend the dispute. RNs on the picket line at Sutter’s Alta Bates Summit hospital in Oakland Sutter nurses will be protesting up to 200 sweeping demands for concessions that they say would, among other concerns, restrict their ability to effectively advocate for patients against the budget focused priorities of Sutter managers and effectively force nurses to work when sick, dangerously exposing extremely ill patients to infection.
Additionally, Sutter RNs oppose Sutter management’s bid to reduce nurses’ healthcare coverage and retiree health benefits, and a broad array of other contract concessions. The Sutter RNs are also protesting years of widespread cuts in patient care services that they say have restricted access to needed medical care for thousands of Northern California communities and left a trail of broken promises by Sutter executives. NNU has long challenged this market-based program of cuts in patient services, one reason Sutter has singled out RNs for retaliation with the draconian demands it has made to nurses, charges CNA. “Nurses will never be silenced in standing up for our patients and our communities, or our members and our families,” says Children’s Oakland RN Martha Kuhl. RNs picketing at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Sacramento At Kaiser, the RNs are walking out in a sympathy strike to support Kaiser co-workers who are facing management demands for deep cuts in their health coverage and retirement plans. Children’s Oakland RNs will be on strike for the third time in a year over what they call punitive management efforts to cut their health coverage as well with demands they say would make it prohibitively expensive for nurses to bring their own children to get care at the hospital where they work.
Children’s has also refused to address the safe staffing issues of charge nurses not having a patient assignment and providing break relief at times when it does not interfere with patient care needs in the professional judgment of the nurse. Speaking for many striking RNs, Kuhl, notes, “They are taking advantage of the economic times and trying to roll back improvements we have won over many years through our CNA contract. Everyone deserves healthcare and if nurses can't afford healthcare, who will be able to? I am a caregiver and patient advocate and that extends into my community as well."
“Everyone deserves high quality health care, and retirement security, whether you are a registered nurse, another caregiver, or any other American, that should be the hallmark of a humane and caring society,” adds CNA Co-President Zenei Cortez, RN who heads the Kaiser CNA Joint Bargaining Council. “We staunchly refuse to be silenced on patient care protections,” said Sharon Tobin, a RN at Sutter Mills-Peninsula in Burlingame. “A common theme throughout management’s proposals is removing our presence on committees that address important patient care issues and nursing practices. As nurses, we speak up, and we insist on standards that safeguard our patients, but Sutter doesn’t want to hear about anything that might cut into their huge profits.” Like Sutter, Kaiser is extremely wealthy, and hardly needs to be exacting severe cuts from employees, reporting over $1.9 billion in profits last year alone.
“When we are all struggling to keep our head above water it is unconscionable for Kaiser Permanente to attempt to extract cuts from direct healthcare workers,” said Catherine Kennedy, who is a neonatal intensive care nursery RN at Kaiser Roseville. “If Kaiser wants to cut, it should be from the 14 Kaiser executives who are making over $1 million dollars a year, not the healthcare employees who have devoted themselves to the patients and the community.”
--
Dr. Bill Honigman
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
www.pdamerica.org
California State Coordinator
and Orange County Chapter Leader
PDA Healthcare For All Issue Organizing Team (IOT)
Thursday, September 8, 2011
LIFEBOAT Option
F o r t H o p eby William Floyd, PDWAmerica
In the middle of the 1930s Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt took the United States off the Gold Standard. 10 million workers were unemployed for 4 or more years. Neither mom and pop businesses nor conglomerates had customers.
FDR started the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the National Recovery Administration (NRA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Federal government directly hired 11 million unemployed (and starving) Citizens.
To pay for this crisis emergency, Roosevelt doubled the currency of the United States.
After WWII, these US dollars were retired and the Gold Standard was re-adopted.
However, decades later, after killing over 1 million Vietnamese, 58,000 Americans dead, and years sinking trillions of dollars into the Vietnam quicksand, President Richard Nixon took the United States off the Gold Standard once and for all in 1973.
Today, our Gold sits in FORT KNOX performing no government function. Our Gross Domestic Product, central role in global trade less our Debt are the basis for the Dollar's fluctuation.
The British sold half of their “Strategic Gold Reserves” in 1999. At it's current stratospheric level, our Fort Knox Gold is worth about $6.5 trillion dollars. $6,500,000,000,000.
President Obama as Executive in Chief can sell a portion of this Fort Knox Gold. Our President could directly hire 20 million long term unemployed Americans for about $450 Billion per year. He can continue this growingly popular “Obama's Hire America First Program” for 2 to 3 years, if necessary, without raising Taxes. Excuse our repetition: “Without-raising-taxes,” or tea party cloned faxes.
It might be prudent to pay down the Cheney War deficits, and chronic damage from Bush's wealthy tax breaks with a 2nd small portion of our Fort Knox Gold.
This Fort Hope program is presented as the “Lifeboat Option” by Union leaders, shop stewards, and Democratic Party leaders of
Progressive Democratic Workers for America, 9/5/11.
http://PDWAmerica.blogspot.com
JUSTICE Option
Justice Option
by William Floyd, PDWA
Temporary Income Maximum Excise - T.I.M.E.
Whereas the majority of Republicans in the 212th Congress signed allegiance to the Club for Growth's rejection of all Revenue sources for Federal government expenses. This is a violation of their Oath of Office to Defend the Constitution (raise necessary funds for the U.S. Government).
Be it resolved, that for a temporary period of two (2) years, all personal income and capital gains in excess of $2,000,000. (2 million dollars) annually, shall enjoy an Income/Capital gains Tax rate of 100%.
Furthermore, all pay, salaries, or bonuses, stock option payouts, foreign delivery schemes, as well as any other future compensation, stock, pay or bonus, intended or unintended to circumvent this timely Law, shall be punishable as a 20 year felony under the United States Code.
This T.I.M.E. legislation is submitted to the Progressive Caucus 9-5-11 as the
'Justice Option'
by Union executives, shop stewards and Democratic Party leaders of the
Save the Post Office
Fixing the United States Postal Service
by William Floyd, NALC Shop Steward, ret.
The first Postal roads connected Boston to New York and then to on to Philadelphia, in the late 1600s. President George Washington established the first Postmaster General to oversee all the village Post Offices and Post Roads in 1789. Today, we can choose from Fed Ex or United Parcel, or dozens of other delivery options. However, for over 100 million Americans, the NALC Mail Carrier brings important personal family messages and cards. At the same time, the Union carrier often represents the only friendly contact people have with their Government. The secure careers in the Postal Service have been favored by War Veterans. Especially Veterans of color. The Post Office was a safe haven from discriminatory practices, and whites-only rules and Laws in too many small towns and private businesses.
Congress and US Postal Service claim USPS is in the red for $4+ Billion.
Liquidate ONE Hundred Billion Dollars of Fort Knox Gold 1
Absolutely NO Layoffs of NALC, APWU, nor any other Union workers
Raise Retirement/Health benefits 22% from last NALC/APWU contracts
Co-Sponsor House bill HR 1351 – Stephen Lynch, 193 Co-Sponsors
Hire Two million Youth under 25: New Postal Assistants (NPAs)
Longest unemployed Youth hired first, inner cities, barrios, suburbs
NPAs deliver Christmas packages, Special Delivery, Registered mail
NPAs Ride Bicycles (where, and when practical)
NPAs learn to fix, and later maintain their own, and Team Bikes
One third of NPA income can be diverted to Parents-in-poverty,
separated spouses with children, or disabled family members.
Saturday and Half-Sunday delivery, clerical duties by the new NPAs
*******************************************************
Initiate new Postal Service SAVINGS ACCOUNTS for the general public, and possible 'victims-of-banking-by-phony-mortgage-papers'.
Fund Postal Service MICRO-LOANS to Micro businesses, Women's and small businesses for the poor, Senior Art or Activity centers, and Centers for our maimed heroes from the Wars, and their children.
PAY – GO
PDWAmerica is committed to paying for each and every program. No risky private stock accounts for Social Security or Medicare crucial to blind, deaf, IED flamed Vets, and Iraq/Afghanistan para / quadriplegics.
Liquidate ONE Hundred Billion Dollars of Fort Knox Gold
1 - Please see “Lifeboat Option” by W. Floyd PDWA
Submitted by AFL-CIO unions, NALC shop stewards, and Veterans of Progressive Democratic Workers for America
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