West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
The United Mine Workers of America marks the 122nd anniversary of its creation and continues to stand strong for coal miners and working people across the state and nation.
Stand united. Labor built this country and when the corporatists and their croneys in Washington, D.C., and Charleston tear down American workers, the most productive workers in the world, they're wanting to justify treating us poorly with low wages and no benefits so that the rich can get richer while making us poorer. It's not enough for the right wingers to make the rich richer. They won't be happy until they tear down the rest of us too. They want the rich to rule with a free hand over us like we're serfs.
Last night I went to a Defend the Dream rally sponsored by MoveOn that took place in Steubenville, Ohio. For those of you who don't know, Steubenville is a small city in eastern Ohio. Like Weirton, West Virginia, right across the Ohio River, it's an old steel town. The Steubenville United Steel Workers building was the logical place to stage it.
Even though the local right-wing papers panned the Defend the Dream rallies in this past weekend's editorials, they should be eating a little bit of crow after around 200 people showed up. The total number of attendees could have been more than that. I doubt it was much less. I took some pictures to share with everyone, and they are posted below.
But this diary isn't just about one rally in one steel town in the Midwest. I've been seeing lots of diaries pop up tonight covering Defend the Dream rallies, and I thought I would collect links to them all in one spot. So I guess this is a kind of "meta" rally diary. I'll be going to bed soon, but I will try to keep the links section up to date so you can see that a couple hundred people in Steubenville were connected to thousands all around the country. We're not alone!
You're walking down the street, minding your own business when all of a sudden a well-dressed man in an expensive three-piece suit jumps out of an alley, whips a contract out of his pocket and yells "Give me all your money!" You're terrified of reading all the legalese and he's got a whole pack of lawyers and bankers and bought off government officials in his entourage, so you fork over all your cash and promise to make a monthly payment.
The well-dressed man in the three-piece suit starts to walk away and you think to yourself, "Hey, wait a minute! I just got robbed!" Angry, you storm after him, tap him on the shoulder and yell, "Hey, I just lost all my money!"
But this is when the well-dressed man in the three-piece suit shows his true criminal genius. "You're right!" he says, throwing you off guard. You hadn't expected him to agree with you and validate your anger. And he says it with such enthusiasm and charisma, and here is this very wealthy man who seems to identify with you on an emotional level. It feels good. "I can't believe all that you've lost! You've made sacrifices! You're down on your luck! That's not fair at all!"
All public employees in WV know what the Wisconsin public employees are facing.
WV Public Employees have no collective bargaining rights, can't strike, and are 49th in the nation in pay.
We see the gov and legislature raise their own salaries while WV public employees don't even get a cost of living raise.
We can also see that the legislature raises the amount public employees have to pay into insurance all the time, many times without any increase in pay.
It's interesting that Walker identifies collective bargaining as the culprit in the budget problems due to pension issues yet in WV public employees have NO right to collective bargaining, strikes are illegal, and the we still have underfunded pensions and are talking of cutting benefits further.
Meanwhile we see the state in the past negotiating environmental fines down. Not pursuing firms that failed to pay workers comp premiums, the A James Manchin pension fund fiasco that lost the state millions. Super tax credits that were secret and businesses getting tax credits, staying in the state long enough to collect them, and then pulling up stakes and leaving.
Now that Walker and the GOP have found a way to cut their benefits and remove their right to bargain it's interesting reading the various liberal blogs talk of recall or the next election.
I personally believe that they are dreaming. Outrage just doesn't last long. As soon as the protestors go home the issue will be forgotten by the public, Walker will be a conservative hero and the public will go back to worring about what Charlie Sheen is doing.
If WV has anything to teach Wisconsin other than by our poor example. It has to be in history. The WV teachers strike of 1990.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Twenty years ago, Donna Hark of Charleston taught at Horace Mann Junior High School in Kanawha City, but as winter turned into spring, she wasn't in the classroom.
Instead, she and her colleagues marched from Laidley Field to the state Capitol Complex and rallied with other teachers at the Capitol Theater, as part of West Virginia's first -- and, so far, only -- statewide teachers' strike.
"Everyone stuck together," said Hark, now retired. "It was really great that way. I just remember all of the marches."
People immersed in the 11-day strike recalled frustration, tension and arguments on all sides of the debate. Many also said it led to lasting and positive changes in education.
Teachers in nine southern counties walked out on March 7, 1990, after negotiations between Caperton and the unions failed. Teachers in Boone, Fayette, Logan, Mingo and Raleigh counties were among the first to walk out.
Within two days, teachers in 40 of the state's 55 counties had joined the strike, including Kanawha.
"Teachers had never been on strike in West Virginia," Meadows said. "So this was a new experience for them."
Critics blasted teachers for several weeks. Caperton warned that the law did not allow them to strike, and said on March 9 that striking teachers who returned to work the following Monday would not lose pay or benefits for days off work.
"We didn't feel that we were doing anything illegal," Meadows said. "This was freedom of speech."
Darrell McGraw, who then was a former Supreme Court justice and now is attorney general, said at the time that strike-related activities, such as picketing, were protected under the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Contracts signed as a condition of gaining employment were not really lawful contracts, he said at the time.
Some parents also protested the strike. In schools that were open, many students attended with little work to do. One newspaper photo showed bored children watching cartoons in a school cafeteria.
Meadows, who has since retired and lives in Simpsonville, S.C., said the teachers weathered the criticism.
"They had a tough skin," she said. "This was our livelihood."
The strike forced Caperton to "act on some of his passions," Randolph said.
"My admiration for Gaston is really unsurpassed," Brown said, adding that Caperton did a remarkable job of empowering school employees.
During Caperton's eight years in office, teacher salaries improved from 48th in the country to 30th, Haney said. Teachers saw multi-year pay increases that totaled about $5,000 in just a few years.
For the first time in many years, West Virginia was able to compete with teacher salaries in nearby states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Many teachers lost pay for the days missed during the strike, but felt it was worth it because teachers had never received a multi-year pay increase, Meadows said.
I hear people in Wisconsin saying that if they strike they will lose public support. I don't think the WV teachers had a lot of public support. What enabled them to reach their goals was they stuck together and if the governor had of fired them all he would have had to close school because so many were out that they couldn't replace that number. Especially at the low salary they made.
With what teachers had gained in the strike they moved up to 30th in pay in the US. I think currently they have slipped to 46th. However WV other public employees who did not engage in the illegal strike have remained 49th or 50th in the nation still.
I spent a few hours last night and this morning pouring over images on the web, articles, listening to old labor songs and in the end I came up with this video as a tribute to the ongoing struggle in Wisconsin and the long history of the struggle of labor here and around the world. There IS power in a union, and we ARE going to ROLL THE UNION ON!
This video is already up at DailyKos in my diary there:
I can't embed videos here, either because I'm not computer savvy enough or because no one can. Either way, click on over to DKos and watch it and like it and favorite it on YouTube. Well, if you like it. (you may even see a coal miner or two)
In a key detail, Walker reveals that he is, in effect, laying a trap for Wisconsin Dems. He says he is mulling inviting the Senate and Assembly Dem and GOP leaders to sit down and talk, but only if all the missing Senate Dems return to work.
Then, tellingly, he reveals that the real game plan here is that if they do return, Republicans might be able to use a procedural move to move forward with their proposal.
"If they're actually in session for that day and they take a recess, this 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they'd have a quorum because they started out that way," he says. "If you heard that I was going to talk to them that would be the only reason why."
Then the fake Koch says this: "Bring a baseball bat. That's what I'd do."
Walker doesn't bat an eye, and responds: "I have one in my office, you'd be happy with that. I've got a slugger with my name on it."
Another key exchange:
FAKE KOCH: What we were thinking about the crowds was, planting some troublemakers.
WALKER: We thought about that. My only gut reaction to that would be, right now, the lawmakers I talk to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this.The teachers union did some polling and focus groups...
It's unclear what Walker means when he says he "thought" about planting some troublemakers, but it seems fair to ask him for clarification.
When my great-uncle Bill Blizzard marched up the side of Blair Mountain with several thousand other coal miners in the late summer of 1921, he wasn't thinking about the coal that lay within the mountain. He wasn't thinking about whether the streams along the base of the mountain ran clear or not.
He was thinking instead about the murder of his friend Sid Hatfield by Baldwin-Felts thugs just a few weeks before. He was thinking about the near-slavery conditions coal miners and their families were forced to endure. He was thinking about how to make their lives better.
It's important for Americans to remember the events that occurred on the slopes of Blair Mountain those fateful days, for it is a compelling and historically significant story of struggle against oppression. That story cannot be told nearly as well if the mountain is not there.
Blair Mountain is as close to sacred ground as there is for the UMWA. Though we may not physically own the mountain's land, its legacy is ours. We strongly support its preservation, for it represents the power ordinary people have when they decide to stick together and take up common struggle for the benefit of all. That is the essence of who we are as union members.
Today, West Virginians are still thinking about coal miners' jobs, and about how to make their lives and their communities better. But we are also thinking about the coal under Blair Mountain and surrounding ridges, and what ought to be done with it. And we are thinking about whether the water runs clear, not just for the fish, but for the people as well.
These are critical times in the coalfields. For coal miners, our families, our relatives, our friends and our neighbors, the decisions we make and the actions we take will determine not just how we live, but how our descendants will live for generations to come.
We must do our best to make the right decisions. And as we do, we must also realize (just as those miners did so many years ago) that although we may not agree on everything, we are all in this together. Failure to do so puts us at the mercy of those who would use our differences to divide us, allowing them to reap their own, selfish rewards at our expense.
So let us start.
Let us start by recognizing the dignity of work, and the fact that those who mine coal, by whatever method, do so because they seek to provide for themselves and their families. And let us also recognize that when the UMWA represents any workers anywhere, we have a duty to defend every one of their jobs and make them the best jobs they can be.
The people united. Egyptian unions to Wisconsin protestors:
Now, as tens of thousands of union members and other Wisconsin residents are taking to the streets to protest against Gov. Scott Walker's (R) attempt to abolish collective bargaining rights for most public workers, a leader of Egypt's largest umbrella group of independent labor unions is praising the Wisconsin movement. In a videotaped statement, Kamal Abbas, the General Coordinator of the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services, tells the Wisconsin protesters, "We stand with you as you stood with us." He says "no one believed" that the revolution against the Mubarak regime would succeed, yet they were able to bring the dictator down within 18 days. He encourages demonstrators to stay strong, saying, "Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights":
I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, "Liberation Square", which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights. From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us. [...]
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable. We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don't waiver. Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership is up in West Virginia but down nationally. The Democratic Party would do well to remember one of the strongest elements of the Party's base.
In West Virginia, that means protecting workers trying to unionize, especially in our coal mines, and passing legislation to require West Virginia workers be hired for Marcellus Shale operations.
Nationally, the Democratic Party needs to take head on the Right to be Exploited...I mean Right to Work policies of several states, including the State of North Carolina, which is where the DNC has decided to have the 2012 Democratic Convention. I am not against the Convention being held in Charlotte but it would be a dishonor to hardworking folks everywhere to ignore that State's regressive labor laws.
Conversely, labor cannot just rest on the blood, sweat, and tears of the past. Labor must continue to show the public that through organized labor is the most effective means by which the hard working middle class can get get their fair share.
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