St. Cloud
Labor Home-1903 4th Street North-St. Cloud, MN 56303
Here is a letter I have sent to
Senator Al Franken and Congresswoman Michele
Bachmann and the St. Cloud Times. If you have use
for it in the Union Newsletter feel free to use it.
We Need GOOD Jobs in
America
An Open Letter to Senator Al Franken and
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
We want and need good jobs now! Stop sending our jobs overseas at
the expense of many and for the profit of a few. I
am employed (thankfully), at the Electrolux plant
here in St Cloud. I have seen first hand how our
jobs are eliminated here and continue to be sent
overseas. Recently we stopped making our own hinges
for our freezer units and now import them from
China. This eliminated at least 10 job positions per
working shift.
You may think that is a small number, but when I look everyday at
all the boxes of product that we use everyday to
assemble our “Made in America” freezers and see
“Made in China” on 90% of them, from screws to
copper products (China buys copper scrape from us) I
think of all the American jobs we have lost that
used to make it over here.
“How do we overcome the fundamental disconnect between our system
of scattered bureaucratic responsibilities and
almost no national economic planning vs. China's
top-down, disciplined and aggressive national
economic development planning machine”, To take a
quote from a May 19 2010 story in the Washington
Post.
For me and the rest of the many on the lower end of the financial
scale the answer is simple Shop Locally! And I don’t
mean go down to your local Wal-Mart, which by the
way is about the fifth largest importer in the World
of Chinese made products just ahead of Germany and
Britain. It may cost you more to go to your local
meat market or bakery or shop by looking at the
label to see that it is made in the USA but that
sends a signal that we want our jobs kept here!
For our Officials in Elected Office the answer is to start working
for what is best for the American People, Stop
importing Cheap Labor and then see what the
competition has done to Beat us and start Beating
them back before we slide further down off our 2nd
Place Tier. We are the biggest consumers, We have
buying power.
majeski@hotmail.com
Rick Majeski
Tanker Bid Tests Who U.S. Trade
Policy Really Helps by James Parks, Apr 22, 2010
If the Obama administration is serious about rebuilding America’s
manufacturing base, it should start by awarding the
$35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the Boeing
Co. and not to a European firm that has ignored
trading rules in its bid, several experts say.
The tanker contract was rebid this year after the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing’s protest
of the original decision to award the contract to
French-based EADS/Airbus and Northrop Grumman. After
EADS dropped out, leaving Boeing as the only bidder,
the Air Force extended the deadline for bids by 60
days and EADS submitted a new solo bid.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) pointed out the World Trade
Organization (WTO) ruled in March that Airbus had
received illegal subsidies to make the A330
aircraft, which EADS will use for the tanker
competition.
Holding this competition up to allow an illegally-subsidized
foreign company to bid is bad for American workers,
our men and women in uniform, taxpayers and our
economy. It means we are bending over backwards to
include a company that has broken the rules of fair
play. A competition between companies on an equal
playing field is one thing. A competition where
American workers have to compete with the treasuries
of European countries is another.
The stakes are high. Granting the contract to Boeing would create
at least 50,000 family-supporting jobs, save
taxpayer dollars and protect fair trade laws.
But if EADS wins the contract, most of the jobs would be in Europe.
The few thousand jobs created here under an EADS
contract would be low-paid assembly jobs with no
union representation.
Writing on hutchnews.com, Jack Otero, a former AFL-CIO vice
president from the TCU/IAM, says the contract award
will be a test of whether our trade policy is on the
side of Americans:
At a minimum, the huge advantage of these subsidies should be
discounted in Airbus’ bid to stand up for American
workers. That would be a welcome “change” that
President Obama and Congress can deliver on a
bipartisan basis.
The government subsidies to EADS have already hurt the U.S.
aviation industry, according to a new report by
Loren Thompson of the nonpartisan Lexington
Institute. In the report, “European Aircraft
Subsidies, a Study of Unfair Trade Practices,”
Thompson says European governments have given Airbus
the equivalent of $200 billion to help capture the
global aviation market. And it has worked. Two
decades ago, U.S. aviation manufacturers like Boeing
provided 85 percent of the market. Today, European
companies control most of the market.
Unless the United States aggressively addresses the government
subsidies to Airbus, Thompson says, we could lose
our ability to compete in the global commercial
aviation market. And the best place to start is with
the tanker contract:
To contemplate making an award without compensating for the unfair
advantage the Airbus plane has received would in
effect reward bad behavior and penalize Boeing for
not engaging in similar impropriety.
Machinists in Houston Rally to
Save Space Program Jobs
HOUSTON, April 25, 2010 - The International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) held a rally
today at the Hilton Americas-Houston Hotel and urged
hundreds of supporters of the U.S. manned space
program to send a message that could be heard all
the way back in Washington, D.C.
“It’s time to let Congress know that American astronauts deserve
better than a heavily outsourced space program that
relies on Russian, Japanese and even Chinese
contractors to provide transportation to the
International Space Station (ISS),” said IAM
President Tom Buffenbarger. “If NASA and the Obama
administration have their way, American astronauts
will be reduced to hitchhiking to the ISS.”
Speaker after speaker called on President Obama to reconsider his
plans to terminate the Constellation program and
commercialize the shuttle program. More than 20,000
direct and indirect jobs in Texas, Florida and other
states are associated with the two programs.
While the president’s space budget allocates an extra $6 billion
for NASA over the next six years, thousands of
highly-skilled jobs would be eliminated as the
agency turned to private contractors to develop
launch rockets and crew capsules.
“Do we really want to risk our astronauts’ safety on equipment and
technology developed by for-profit companies with
unproven track records in safety and reliability?”
asked Buffenbarger. “The manned space program in the
United States has been the pride of the nation and
the envy of the world for more than 50 years. It has
more than earned our continued support."
Light Up the Night Gala
A benefit for people affected by seizures was Saturday, April 10
at:
Marriot City Center
30 South 7th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402.
The bench in the
picture was made by Craig Schmitz, in memory of his
daughter April Schmitz, who pass away on May 26 2007
from a seizure she had at night. The bench was
auctioned off at the benefit.
I would like
to ask you to please review this new website for the
unemployed
www.minnesotaunemployed.com and consider doing a
feature on it and/or posting the link for your
membership.
The website – in addition to providing comprehensive listings of
job search engines along with information about
careers, education and training resources also
provides valuable resource information about
bargains, health care, money and legal, housing,
faith-based resources as well.
The site was designed so that users would not have to spend hours
and hours going in and out of websites scouring for
information and resources.
In the four months + months that the site has been
active, there have been over 21,000 unique visitors
who have made over 38,000 visits with over 2 million
hits.
The state of Minnesota is the highest user – widely believed to be
workforce centers.
www.minnesotaunemployed.com was recently
nominated for DOT.com award given annually by MCN.
I hope that you will share this unique and innovative website with
your constituencies.
Thank you.
Peggy Byrne
Community Building Inc.
You lost your job. You're not alone.
31 million Americans face the same challenges. You
want your job back. You want your life back. But you
can't do it alone. Neither can anyone else. You all
need each other.
That's what UCubed
is here to do: Help you and 31 million other
Americans organize, work together and get back to
work. Let
UCubed
help you connect. Form a cube, and multipy your
political and economic power by 6. Then by 36.
Eventually, by 31 million. Take Control.
●09/19/2009
This legislation will level the playing field for
all unorganized workers in this country by providing
another option for employees to form a union at
their place of work.more.....
District
165 & Local Lodge 623
Mission Statement:
Our mission is to create a powerful Union. Respected
for its diversity, integrity and accountability.
Relentlessly organizing workers in order to improve
the quality of life
and standard of living of all workers and to
continue to contribute positively to society.
Greater New Haven Labor History Association
Your History At Work
Pass It On
The Greater New
Haven Labor History Association is united by the
inspiration we draw from working people's struggles
to better
our lives as we build our community. It is
determined to learn and to build upon history's
lessons so that the mistakes of the past are not
repeated. Formed in 1988 by union activists,
historians, and students of labor history.
Tell Us Your Own
Ideas
Write To:
Greater New Haven Labor
History Association
267 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06513
●05-15-2006
I destroy homes, I tear families’ apart, take your
children, and that’s just the start....more
The billboard displayed, is one of the many ways to
reach out to the unorganized workers all across our
district in Minnesota. If anyone desires to meet with a
union representative, we will gladly do so at their
earliest convenience. All contacts will be held strictly
confidential.
Please call the phone number listed on the billboard
above for more information.
The slogan is very true that, "Union Members Live
Better. You Can, Too." Give us a call. You'll be glad
you did. If you wish to speak with a
Union Business
Representative call 1-320-252-4654 or 1-320-685-8760
or call the toll free number listed on the bill
broad above.
