Memo to Open Secrets: Unions are nothing like the Koch brothers

Open Secrets, a voter information group, is aligned with the secretive Koch brothers -- at least according to its own logic.

Open Secrets published a blog post claiming there was only 'one degree of separation' between the carpenters' union and the Koch brothers because they use the same lobbying firm. This is not the first time Open Secrets has bashed unions. The Koch brothers bash unions. So according to Open Secrets' reasoning, Open Secrets is in bed with the Koch brothers.

Open Secrets claims it 'aims to create a more educated voter,' but has yet to educate itself on the role of unions in America. It was union pressure that led to Marian Anderson's historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial 75 years ago. Unions staged the first March on Washington in 1941 and strongly supported Martin Luther King's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. It was in support of a striking sanitation workers union that Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis.

Here is what Martin Luther King said about unions:

The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.

And here is what two researchers from Northwestern and Princeton concluded about unions:

Some particular U.S. membership organizations – especially the AARP and labor unions – do tend to favor the same policies as average citizens.

These are the same researchers, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, who studied the U.S. government's responsiveness to ordinary citizens and found none. They discovered the government responds only to business interests and wealthy people.

Unions are a bulwark against the wealthy and powerful who want to exploit and impoverish the people. Unions have fought and are still fighting for the things the Koch brothers are fighting against: Social Security, unemployment compensation, a living minimum wage, child labor laws, paid overtime, paid sick days, workplace safety and environmental protections.

Here's something else Martin Luther King said:

History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.                            

Republic Waste strike spreads from Midwest to 5 Calif. cities

Nothing getting dumped here today at the
Ox Mountain Landfill in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Teamster solidarity is bringing the Republic Waste/Allied Services strike to five California cities today as picketing continues at the Youngstown Carbon Limestone landfill. Teamsters are honoring picket lines in the Bay area cities of Daly City, Half Moon Bay, Fremont, Fairfield and Pacifica.

Today is the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, assassination. He was supporting a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis when he was gunned down. Republic sanitation workers are refusing to go back to the way things were then. Today, Republic sanitation workers carrying "I Am A Man on Strike" signs.

Cynthia Lewis's husband is a Memphis sanitation worker. She posted her heartfelt support on the Republic Teamsters Facebook page:

I'm glad you guys are standing up. It's time for you all to fight Republic back. My husband works in the Memphis,TN location and they treat them like the trash they pick up. They use them up and throw them out. I'm tired of how my husband as well as the other people who work for Republic are being treated. Hopefully they will go on strike as well. It is time to stand up and fight back and make Republic RESPECT you guys. They send my husband and his co-workers out in trucks that are not fit to even be on the road. In the summer they are sent out in the hot heat with no air conditioner in the trucks and on top of that, one of the trucks blow heat inside the truck from the engine. My heart aches at times when my husband comes home so tired and drained out that he dont even have the strength to even do anything with our kids. Just hearing how they are being treated hurts to the core. I know some people would say give up and just find another job then, but I want Republic and he wants them to just stand up and do whats right by their employees!!!! Maybe the Memphis workers will join you soon!!!!! At least I hope so....maybe some of the men will stand up again and stop worrying about Republic because they are not worried about them!!!!!!

This striking landfill worker from Youngstown, Ohio,
 raised a picket line at this Republic/Allied facility
 in Fremont, Calif. this morning. Thanks to all
 our Teamster brothers and sisters for honoring these lines!

Our Teamster brothers are exercising their legal right to strike because the company changed working conditions without bargaining and refuses to negotiate in good faith.

Trash tycoon Bill Gates owns about 26 percent of Republic. He is trying to burnish his greedy billionaire image by giving money to improve sanitation overseas. In a remarkable display of anti-Americanism, he is doing nothing to improve Republic's horrendous environmental record in the U.S. That includes a burning, exploding, radioactive landfill near St. Louis that threatens the health and safety of the people who live and work near the facility. 

Valerie Dearing adds this to the Republic Teamsters Facebook page:

...the toxic factor @ the Carbon Limestone Landfill is very dangerous. Emitting from the fracking well is toxic ground ozone visably blowing downwind towards Lowellville. and the flaring from the fracking well is emitting dangerous gasses too. The waste being brought in from Ohio and other states contains toxins and radiation.

Republic Teamsters have also struck in sympathy in Evansville, Ind., Urbana, Ill., Elyria, Ohio, and a Republic commercial recycling facility in Youngstown. Photos of trash piling up in these cities can be seen here. Republic hired scabs to do the Teamsters work, but that didn't go well. Tere Heller Eaglen posted this from Champaign/Urbana on the Republic Teamsters Facebook page: 

Trash is piling up everywhere and the scabs are tearing up the trucks and taking out street signs, etc. in their feeble attempt to do the job our guys do every day !!!

And check out this video of a scab's dangerous maneuvers here.

The first photo is in from today's strike in Fairfield, Calif.

Let's not forget MLK was a champion of justice and jobs

The new Martin Luther King monument on the National Mall. It's three stories tall.

News coverage of the new Martin Luther King monument in Washington is already focusing on his struggle for racial equality. We hope at least a few journalists report that King also led the fight for decent jobs -- not as an afterthought or add-on, but as a fundamental goal.

The monument will be ceremonially unveiled on Sunday, Aug. 28, the anniversary of King's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. As Algernon Austin from the Economic Policy Institute so eloquently wrote,

...the National Mall will house a memorial to a man who never held the nation’s highest office but brought it closer to its highest ideals.

Together with the national celebration of his birthday, the commemoration of the march and the quotation of his speeches, the new memorial ensures that Dr. King will be remembered. But will he be remembered rightly, not only as the subject of a monument but also as the leader of a movement for “jobs and freedom”?

Dr. King’s commitment to jobs and justice lasted a lifetime and cost him his life. During his last year on earth, Dr. King organized a “Poor People’s Campaign” for economic opportunity for all Americans. And he was assassinated while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

This is a history lesson that Teamsters know well. In fact the Teamsters National Black Caucus was reminded of it just recently by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat. Conyers told the latest TNBC gathering that labor rights and civil rights go hand in hand.

Rep. John Conyers

Conyers was born into a union family, is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and was the only congressman present at King’s funeral. (James R. Hoffa was there too.) Perhaps Conyers’ greatest contribution to history, though, is the legislation he introduced to make King’s birthday a national holiday.

Conyers, referring to the photos of King hanging on the meeting room walls, said,

When I see Martin’s picture here, I know that you understand the struggle goes on. It has just taken a different form. Governors across the country are working in what I call an unholy conspiracy. You cannot take working people out of the political equation. We need workers and we need unions.

Links 08/26/10

Wal-Mart Asks Supreme Court to Hear Bias Suit New York Times ...Wal-Mart Stores asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to review the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in American history.

Housing Market Plunged in July, Fueling Anxiety New York Times ...Housing sales in July plunged 25.5 percent below the level of a year ago...

Despite Reform, Banks Have Room for Risky Deals New York Times ...financial regulation...will not stop banks from making bets that some critics deem risky...

SEC backs labor on corporate board votes Washington Times ...The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday handed labor and social-activist groups a big victory by approving rules making it easier for them to put allies on corporate boards...

Should a Union-Busting Company Build the MLK Memorial? Washington City Paper ... the United Construction Workers union ...says Dulles, Va.-based Southland Concrete—which is doing the concrete work for the $120 million project—has by far the most complaints from its workers.

Construction workers win $2.2 million settlement Associated Press ...state Attorney General Jerry Brown says investigators uncovered a years-long scheme at Country Builders, Inc. to cheat employees and evade workers' compensation costs.

GOP seizes on private-public pay gap as a midterm election issue The Hill ...Federal workers have become a new flashpoint in the fight between Republicans and Democrats on the economy.

Court Hears Effort to Delay Dollar Thrifty Buyout Vote New York Times ...Shareholders of the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group asked a judge on Wednesday to delay a vote on the company’s $1.2 billion sale to Hertz Global Holdings, contending that the board had failed to consider a higher offer from the Avis Budget Group.