Labor Briefing

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There are reports elsewhere in this paper about the sig­ nificant events in Chicago April 1-3, including the one-day strike and mass demonstrations by the Chicago Teachers Union. Their rallies across the city were joined by soli­ darity contingents ATU, SEIU, NNU, Postal Workers and other local unions, as well as Fast Food Workers striking at McDonald’s for 15 and a Union, and bakery workers pro­ testing offshoring Oreo cookie production to Mexico. Other labor battles over the past month include: • A Minimal First Step—California law-makers have approved a new minimum wage law in the biggest state that will progress in stages to 15 dollars an hour an hour by 2022. While it falls far short of the demand for 15 Now, it will produce sorely needed substantial raises for the 42 percent of California workers currently paid less than 15. It would not have been achieved without the strikes and demonstrations by Fast Food and other low-wage workers for 15 and a Union. There will be another national mobili­ zation of that movement on April 14. • Justice Delayed--The Connecticut Journal-Inquirer re­ ports, “Stop & Shop union workers and their supporters crowded the sidewalk in front of the 940 Silver Lane store on Wednesday to make their case for a new contract. Talks have languished between the United Food and Commer­ cial Workers union—representing workers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island—and Stop & Shop Su­ permarkets since the previous agreement expired Feb. 27.” The article goes on to explain, “Union members said they believe Stop & Shop is deliberately dragging out negotia­ tions, due in part to Royal Ahold’s pending merger with the Delhaize Group, which operates non-union stores, includ­ ing Hannaford Supermarkets. The merger of Royal Ahold, a Dutch company, and Delhaize, based in Belgium, is ex­ pected to be complete by mid-year.” • Impasse Ahead—The Democratic administration in Bernie Sanders’ home state of Vermont has rejected a “factfinder’s” recommendation for raises for state employees. Accepted by the union, it provides for a 2 percent raise, plus step increases in the first year, 2.25 in the second. Ver­ mont is not having a budget crisis but this modest boost in In an attempt to discredit state workers who grab more than their “fair share” from taxpayers, the Secretary of Administration is quoted: “Johnson said the average Ver­ monter is not receiving the type of pay increase sought by the VSEA and probably doesn’t expect it, either.” It’s a half-truth. Unorganized workers aren’t getting these raises. Union victories can help change that climate for all workers. Schalten Sie ihn aus: The Guardian reports, “Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Germany, the company’s secondbiggest market behind the U.S., are starting a new round of strikes in an attempt to pressure the online retailer to increase pay. The walkout by workers in Koblenz, western Germany, began on Monday night and was due to run un­ til the end of the night shift on Wednesday, 23 March, the Verdi union said in a statement. “Verdi has organised frequent strikes at Amazon ware­ houses across Germany since May 2013 as it seeks to force the retailer to raise pay for warehouse workers in accor­ dance with collective bargaining agreements in Germany’s mail order and retail sector.” My rusty German translates the workers most effective workplace tactic—shut it down. If you have a suggestion for Labor Briefing please send it to [email protected] and mention Labor Briefing in the subject.

SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2016 3

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Bill Hackwell (Left) Miguel Fraga, first secretary of the Cuban Embassy, at one of his Bay Area meetings.

by spreading U.S. propaganda to users and operated from 2009 to 2012. The U.S. also continues to operate the radio and TV stations Radio Martí and TV Martí, which broadcast U.S. propaganda in Cuba.

And these are only the mildest offenses. They are in addition to the U.S. government’s long history of training and funding terrorist groups of Cuban exiles based in Miami, whose most notorious attacks in­ clude the 1997 Havana hotel bombings and blowing up Cubana Flight 455 in 1976, killing all 73 people on board. One of the leaders of these attacks, Luis Posada Carriles, lives freely and comfortably in Miami today.

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that Obama aide Ben Rhodes, the point man in U.S. negotiations with Cuba, told a town hall meeting in Miami that the U.S. was “no longer in the business of regime change in Cuba.”

That’s an interesting phrase—“the business of re­ gime change.” To paraphrase Calvin Coolidge, the last president to visit Cuba before Obama in 1928, when it was still a U.S. colony, the business of U.S. capital­ ists is business. And when a government doesn’t want their business, their business becomes regime