AIFLD road show hits bump in San Francisco Bay Area
1986Jeff Mackler 1986-08Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 6 →
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May Day 1986 rally in San Salvador organized National Salvadoran Workers (UNTS). AIFLD road show is designed to attack • LTV bankruptcy 9 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1986 SAN FRANCISCO—The American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD) is the official foreign-policy arm of the AFL-CIO. According to a pub -lication of the Ecumenical Program for InterAmerican Communication and Action (EPICA), AIFLD receives about 90 percent of its funds from the U.S. government's Agency for International Development (AID).
It isn't surprising, therefore, that AIFLD functions as the mouthpiece for State Department policies in the labor move -ment.
After AIFLD representatives returned from one of the organization's many visits to Central America, AIFLD decided to take its "medicine show" on the road to drum up support for the Duarte regime in El Salvador and the contras in Nicaragua.
On July 15, AIFLD spokesman David Jessup and three leaders from AFL-CIOsupported unions in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua appeared at a meeting hosted by the San Francisco Central Labor Council.
Jessup began the meeting by blasting the Nicaraguan government. Without attempt -ing to offer the slightest evidence, he reeled off a long list of false charges. "Ration cards are only given to members of the Sandinista Defense Committees," he said. "The Marxist-Leninist ideas of the FLN seek to absorb every independent organiza -tion into Sandinista-controlled mass organizations."
Jessup ended by asserting, "While Russian vodka and Bulgarian brussel sprouts could be seen everywhere, the people were being denied their basic material needs." But when it came to opposing U.S. government support to the murderous contras, the AIPLD leader feigned neutrality.
"The AFL-CIO doesn't support or oppose contra aid," Jessup hedged. Jose Espinoza, the Confederation of Trade Union Unification (CUS) leader from Nicaragua traveling on behalf of AIFLD, also tried to sound ambiguous on this question. But he gave the game away when he admitted CUS supports "dialogue with the contras."
AIFLD supports ex-Somocistas Dialogue with-the contras is also the top demand of the policymakers in Wash -ington. Behind a democratic-sounding facade of "dialogue," AIFLD and CUS join in the campaign to legitimatize the CIAcontrolled ex-Somocista gang of murderers who comprise the contra forces.
The Nicaraguan government counters by saying they want dialogue with the real contra leader-the U.S. government.
If Jessup was antagonistic toward Nica -ragua, he certainly showed great restraint toward the regime in El Salvador. "We support Duarte," said Pedro Regalado, secretary general of the AFL-CIO-supported construction union in El Salvador.
Yet, Regalado had nothing but harsh words to say about the major unions in El Salvador, which he described as "Marxist, This pamphlet by Carl Finamore discusses the road to building a mass movement to stop the warmakers.
(24 pp., 75 cents; $1.10 + postage)
Order from: Socialist Action, 3435 Army St., Rm. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110 the legitimate trade unions in El Salvador.
communist, and guerrilla-led."
No mention was made of the massive bombing campaign against the civilian population. No mention was made of the fact that names of all workers who vote in favor of a union in an organizing drive must be submitted to the government.
And, no mention was made of the fact The following is a copy of a letter sent by trade unionists in the San Francisco Bay Area to the San Francisco Chronicle on July 22.
Dear editor, We would like to comment on the statements of Jose Espinoza, leader of the [Nicaraguan] Confederation of Trade Union Unification (CUS), printed [in the Chronicle] on July 16, 1986. As trade unionists actively opposed to U.S.
intervention in Central America, we attended a small meeting in San Francisco where Mr. Espinoza spoke.
His visit was sponsored by the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), an offical arm of the AFL-CIO which receives substantial funding from government sources.
to file Chapter 11 if the contract was rejected. While the ink was hardly dry on the contract, however, LTV announced the temporary idling of large portions of its Cleveland Works-resulting in over 1700 layoffs.
LTV steelworkers feel betrayed. On July 24, close to 300 angry retired members of United Steelworkers of America Local 1011 threw up a picket line around the LTV plant in East Chicago, Ind., closing the plant. The following day, Steelworkers President Lynn Williams granted strike authorization to Local 1011.
LTV Steel was formed two years ago from the merger of J & L Steel and Republic Steel. Since that time, many top-level corporate officials, including former Republic Chief Executive Officer E. Bradley Jones, have accepted large lumpsum retirement benefits. This is the traditional golden parachute for executives who plan to desert the sinking ship.
However, for most of the 80,000 LTV retirees, the outlook isn't as rosy. Their medical insurance has been taken away, and even their pensions may be "in jeopardy," according to a company spokesperson.
Unity of that AIPLD withdrew its financial support from another union, Popular Democratic Unity (UPD), after the union's general secretary criticized the Duarte government for failing to implement land redistribution and for "increasing the repression against legitimate trade unionists."
Finally, the barrage of unfounded Espinoza said CUS represents 25,000 workers. Yet in 1983 it only negotiated one of 227 labor contracts. Furthermore, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Labor lists its membership at 1700, the U.S. State Department puts its size at 3000, and the U.S. Embassy in Managua states CUS has 1532 members.
CUS is a small and unpopular union, not because of alleged union repression but because it does not join the majority of Nicaraguans in repudiating the mercenary CIA-directed contra forces.
The latest poll indicates Americans oppose contra aid by a two-to-one majority. Since 1983, the National Labor Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in El Salvador has organized 24 international unions who oppose U.S. intervention. Numerous anti-intervention WAGE CUTS IN STEEL:
Cuts Total USX* $3.07 $21.00-22.00 LTV • 3.60 22.80 2.35 22.49 NATIONAL 1.51 22.21 INLAND 0.40 21.60 WHEELING-PITT 3.40 18.00 *Estimates based on latest USX proposal DATA: Business Week For many steelworkers, Thursday, July 17, was pay day. Word spread rapidly through the mills that many banks were refusing to honor LTV pay checks. Although company officials tried to assure everyone that the checks were good, banks refused to cash them until the next day, when they would have a chance to review the court order. Some banks refused even then, offering to hold the checks until they cleared.
Company have accusations which were levelled against the Nicaraguan government and the struggling unions in El Salvador had gone on long enough. Several other people took the floor.
Ignacio De La Fuente, business manager of the Molders Union Local 164, and Roger Scott, from the American Federation of Teachers Local 2121, criticized AIFLD policy as running counter to the sentiments of the majority of the American people. Recent polls show 62 percent oppose contra aid.
Carl Finamore, a representative of the Bay Area Mobilization for Peace, Jobs, and Justice, pointed out that "the unfounded accusations of terrorism made by AIFLD against the non-AFL-CIO-supported unions in El Salvador echo the lies spread by the Reagan administration and the Duarte government.
Finamore continued, "Instead of expressing solidarity with the struggling unions in El Salvador, AIFLD levels charges which have been used by the death squads to justify the brutal repression of unionists and their families." At that point, Jessup abruptly ended the meeting.
If AIFLD's campaign of misinformation hits your area, spread the word to anti-intervention unionists who may want to take a peek at the latest packaging of "Cold War" propaganda so reminiscent of the AFL-CIO's disastrous policy during the Vietnam era.
rank-and-file union groups also exist throughout the country.
Thus, the AIFLD/AFL-CIO position has more in common with the war powers in Washington than it does with its own union members and the American people. We do not believe the purpose of this visit was to establish ties between democratic unions of the United States and Central America, as your article stated, but to aid Reagan as he attempts to prepare us for the next Vietnam.
Signatures: Joe Berry, AFT 2121; Renato Larin, AFT 2121; Ignacio De La Fuente, Molders 164; Rudy Meraz, GCIU 583; Ellen Shaffer, AFSCME 3215; Pat Hendricks, SEIU 250; Carl Finamore, Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice. (All organizations are listed here for identification only.)
officers that the labor agreement-with all wages and benefits intact—will remain in full force. They add that there are no current plans to ask for additional concessions.
But LTV workers are taking such promises with a grain of salt. They note LTV's long history of lying to its employees, and the recent example of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel—which used a Chapter 11 to lock out steelworkers and gain additional givebacks.
LTV's bankruptcy has shaken the entire steel industry. Any bankrupt company may use the concessions obtained under Chapter 11 to cut its costs below the industry average-and thus achieve the ability to undercut the prices of its competitors.
LTV's action will embolden the other companies to slash wages and benefits even more. And Bethlehem Steel has a "50-50 chance" of following LTV into bankruptcy next year, a stock-market analyst told the Wall Street Journal.
The industry's biggest company, USX (formerly U.S. Steel), is demanding wage and benefits cuts of at least $3.07 an hour and work-rule changes that could cost 13,000 jobs. The 45,000 workers at USX have responded with a resounding "No."
On July 25, for the first time in 27 years, the steelworkers union voted overwhelmingly to strike US this month if negotiations fail. Major industrial struggles loom in this basic industry.
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A Mass Action Strategy for Peace, Jobs and Justice