ISO conference keys on global labor issues, U.S. elections

Officers from AFL-CIO and CLC headline speaker list

DELEGATES FROM ACROSS North America gathered in Las Vegas August 14-16 for the Industrial Sector Operations (ISO) conference, the Brotherhood’s largest educational event for members working in non-construction industries. It was the third such event and the second to be held at Caesars Palace.

Global labor issues and the U.S. national elections on November 6 were hot topics for many speakers during the plenary sessions.

Breakout meetings and caucuses gave members the opportunity to focus on industry-specific presentations led by International Reps and other staff, government officials, labor attorneys, benefit consultants, and labor officials from various organizations.

Delegates also took time to visit vendor booths offering goods and services for local lodges and their members.

Shuler cites AFL-CIO initiatives

WITH ORGANIZED LABOR facing multiple challenges, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler discussed several initiatives being put forth by the federation. She explained the Next Up program, which seeks to bring young people into the Labor Movement and to prepare them for leadership roles.

“These are values we stand for. We should own that.”
— Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO Sec.-Treas.

“We have an aging workforce, and it’s a problem,” she said. “Many young people today don’t think of the trades as a career alternative. These are good union jobs. We have a responsibility to reach out and show that.”

She said the federation is encouraging unions to develop young worker groups as part of the solution to getting other generations involved.

Another problem, Shuler noted, is the public’s perception of labor. She said the general population does not associate unions with hard work, fairness, the American dream, and other middle class values.

“These are values we stand for. We should own that. But after 30 years of negative attacks, [the public’s] ears are closed.”

Shuler previewed a television spot created by the AFL-CIO that seeks to connect these values with unions.

Yassuff describes Canadian labor struggles

AMERICA ISN’T ALONE when it comes to labor difficulties in North America, Hassan Yussuff said in his speech to the ISO conference. As Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, Yussuff promotes organized labor at both the provincial and federal government levels. He said tough financial times, job losses, and pressure from far-right politicians are hurting workers in Canada, too.

“In Canada, we’re seeing precarious jobs, just as in the United States — low paying, short-term, and casual jobs with no benefits and no union protection. In Ontario, the opposition conservative party under Tim Hudak has decided now we are the enemy of the province. If he’s elected [Ontario’s premier], he wants to bring in the same kind of right-to-work laws being seen in many parts of the United States.

“Over the years, American unions have often looked at Canada for stronger labor laws, social programs and a more union-friendly political climate,” Yussuff added. “But employers on the right-wing in Canada have looked to the United States” for strategies to weaken labor unions.

Yussuff roundly criticized multinational firms like Caterpillar that make huge profits but still demand take-backs from their union employees.

“We have to fight to get some democracy back in the trade regime, whether it’s the United States or Canada or around the world. Corporations have too much power in their hands and workers too little. We have to change this equation.”

IP Jones lashes out at “rabidly antiunion” GOP

INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT Newton B. Jones condemned the Republican Party’s shift to the far right and its “rabidly antiunion” positions. He noted that moderate Republicans, including those like Rep. Steve LaTourette (Ohio 4th), whom the Boilermakers have supported, are leaving Congress in disgust over the sharply partisan nature of the GOP.

He added, “This is a dangerous time for America. The far right is seeking to dismantle government, to undo the legal protections of labor unions, and to weaken Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. That is the price we will pay under a Romney-Ryan administration.”

Jones also addressed the negative effects of free trade, outsourcing, and multinational corporations on workers around the world.

“Globalization has not fulfilled its promise of opportunity for workers,” he said. “Instead, it has given corporations an easier path to exploit them, to ignore environmental concerns, and to neglect the health and safety of employees.” He stressed that strong global alliances are needed to combat exploitation.

Global union leaders cite advances

TWO LEADERS FROM global unions offered their perspectives on labor developments worldwide.

Manfred Warda, General Secretary of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions (ICEM), spoke about a new development that combines three global unions, including the ICEM, into one. The new IndustriAll global union boasts 50 million members in 140 countries.

Warda praised the Boilermakers union for its role in supporting the ICEM and for taking leadership positions in the new IndustriAll federation. IP Jones chairs the Materials Sector and serves on the executive council.

IndustriAll ushers in “a new era of global solidarity,” Warda said. “I think we can all feel better prepared than before to challenge the power of multinational companies and to confront the policies driven by national governments and global institutions.”

Phee Jung-sun, director of IndustriALL’s Electricity and Cement, Glass, and Ceramic Sector, spoke about the progress being made in establishing regional and global union networks. He also warned of worker exploitation in countries such as China and India, where employers are increasingly using contract workers to perform the same work as permanent employees but at a much lower pay scale and without any type of benefits.

Jung-sun said contract, or precarious, workers account for 50 percent of employees in many Asian industries today.

UK union leader blasts “socialism for the rich”

MANUEL CORTES, General Secretary for the TSSA, a United Kingdom-based trade union for the transport and travel industries in the UK and Ireland, told the conference that the rich come out ahead no matter what happens to the economy.

He said that when a factory is shut down, workers are told “you cannot buck the market . . . the jobs will inevitably go. But when it came to the financial sector, we bailed it out. It was our taxes that actually saved the financial industry. For the first time in history, we have socialism for the rich. For the first time in history, we foot the bill for the losses, but they continue to take the profits.”

Cortes said that because so much debt has been incurred bailing out the financial market, workers are being told there is not enough money for schools and infrastructure.

“The crisis that was made in Wall Street, in the city of London, and in financial markets across the globe, is a crisis that working people are now having to pay a very high price for,” he noted. “We are not strong enough as a movement [to resist the rich]. It has fallen on our shoulders to try and turn that around. It’s us. Nobody else is going to do it for us.”