A Report from Occupy Boston

Yesterday's events were fairly mellow, but the crowds were huge and the momentum is clearly building.

While the bulk of the people camping out were twenty somethings and college students, it's clear the movement itself is much larger than that.

People run the gamut in age, race and ideology, but are friendly and welcoming. I'd say upwards of half the total people there were seniors and young families, many with kids, so it's not just college students and twenty somethings, even if those are the biggest groups camping out.

There's also a wide variety of backgrounds, from Cornell graduates with degrees in engineering to the unemployed and everything in between.

It's a little crunchy granola, but you can't help but feel empowered and inspired by the people participating together in the movement. There's a real sense of community in "Tent City," not to mention the sense that everyone is a part of something much bigger.

Everything was very peaceful and people were greatful that the police have been accommodating thus far. There were certainly constant efforts to keep it that way, with lots of self policing and reminders from members of the community if you were doing something that could attract police attention, even mundane things like not leaving room to pass through the sidewalk.

There's also worries that the Mayor's recent antagonizing comments could change things in regards to the police. The protesters are prepared for that, but have made every effort to avoid it.

They've kept the camp contained to just the square, even though they're at capacity in "tent city" and would like to expand to more of the greenway. There's been little impacts on traffic and lots of effort has been made to keep things safe and sanitary - both of those issues have entire working groups dedicated to them.

Yet, there are also daily work shops for legal training so people know their rights and know what to do if the situation changes and there are arrests. Numbers are given out on who to call if legal help is needed and people are told to write it down on there persons, not just their phones (which can be confiscated), should they think there could be arrests.

Getting Involved

There's going to be a 3pm march today sponsored by several organizations, including labor. It will start with students at the band stand on the Commons at 2pm (gathering at 1:30) and from there, meet with the rest of Dewey Square and the unions for the big 3pm effort. There should be literally thousands of people there.

The General Assemblies are daily at 7pm and are a true experience in democracy to be witnessed. Specifics can be found at the Occupy Boston website beyond that.

These are great opportunities to come and be a part of it all - one of the 99% - as the normal go of things is a much quieter, more subdued affair, with some work group or presentation usually going on every hour or so, but otherwise just lots of people gathered in clusters, holding signs or doing other mundane things.

Those quieter moments are what you make of them. If you want to stay busy, you need to get involved and volunteer.

There's dedicated areas to get involved in their working groups, find out more information, a place to stay at night or grab something to eat.

If you come in to visit, consider bringing some donations, like food and water. At the General Assembly, the food services group specifically asked for vegan salad dressing and a large coffee maker. These are the things that keep people - and therefore the movement - going.

Who's really winning?

The Globe  had an article yesterday about the "ebbing clout" of labor, all the while business interests become increasingly more powerful. This is certainly a dangerous trend, particularly when labor was never as strong in this state (at least over the past few years) as the Globe likes to make out. While certainly labor is an interest, the only time it's really been able to flex its muscles in a 'special' kind of way is when its interests have lined up with Big Business. It's always been that way, and until We the People are working together to run things, it always will work that way.

The trend lines are certainly dangerous, but ever the more potent because business interests have become exceptionally talented in getting like-minded people to feud against themselves, instead of allowing those people to be focusing on Big Biz's creeping power base. When we have local progressive stalwarts like Charley-on-the-MTA sounding like the a Fox News liberal, then we know we've got a problem here.

Maybe the real problem here is that progressives just aren't the same kinds of people as members of the labor movement, and have no understanding for the struggles that movement has had to make to get where it is today. That much has always been obvious, but there was a lot of hope in the strategic alliances that formed between the progressive goo-goo types and labor in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Then again, maybe those alliances were only possible because there was a common enemy -- the GOP -- and now liberal interest groups are back to our usual bickering amongst each other. I hope not.

It's well past time anyone with even a single vertebrae of liberal-apologist spine take a calcium pill. This fight isn't for the weak and timid. We cannot sacrifice our friends in the labor movement because it's now suddenly convenient, and we cannot be so disrespectful and ignorant as to decide amongst our goo-goo liberal selves that, really, collective bargaining on health care rights isn't a big deal anyway, or worse, attempt to lash out at labor because they have something we don't. It's absurd and it's getting us no where -- and we don't have enough friends in this political fight for our lives as it is already.

Wisconsin, Here We Come? The Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige

With the Washington Post and other papers starting to pick up on the story, the Speaker's bash-the-teachers bill is finally catching national attention. The bill attempts to mask something almost universally detested -- ending collective bargaining -- under the guise of moving everyone on over to the GIC. The two issues, collective bargaining and the GIC, are not the same, and it's important for people to note that distinction.

The Globe drew on that distinction in its front-page story when news of the House's passage first broke, but unfortunately it was buried deep within. Here's the real meat-and-bones of the House bill -- or should I say hack saw?

Under the legislation, mayors and other local officials would be given unfettered authority to set copayments and deductibles for their employees, after the 30-day discussion period with unions. Only the share of premiums paid by employees would remain on the health care bargaining table.

Under the House bill, if your city or town wanted to create a $10,000 health care deductible for families, it could. And all unions could do is stamp their feet and complain bitterly for a few days. 

The key thing here is to ask why the Speaker & Co. want to move in this direction. It's not as if the unions aren't willing to do their part; they recognize the need for health care savings and have a proposal of their own, which would allow them to retain collective bargaining.

Unions proposed their own plan to cut health-care costs that did not hurt collective bargaining rights. “We’re willing to give the savings,” Haynes has said. “All we wanted was an arbitrator, some kind of neutral process that would determine what’s fair, and what was appropriate.”

Let's look at the details -- because it's good stuff, perhaps even better stuff than the House bill. It would save upwards of $120 million a year.

The union proposal would establish health care cost benchmarks that both municipalities and unions would have to meet at the end of the bargaining process. If an agreement can't be reached both sides would enter an expedited dispute-resolution process. 

While there has been a push to force municipal workers into the state's Group Insurance Commission to help rein in health spending, the union proposal would let municipalities and workers bargain either to enter the commission or make changes to existing health plans to lower costs as long as they meet the benchmark.

Only allowing the GIC (as opposed to giving the unions choice between collaboratives, the GIC or other ways of saving money), as the Speaker is trying to do, is a clear mistake -- and the motives are pretty obvious. But first, let's answer the question of why it's a mistake: There are other regional GIC-like entities and collaboratives in the state that consistently outperform the GIC, and there are cities and towns in Massachusetts that, for myriad reasons, don't want to be a part of the GIC -- some with Republican Mayors. 

Kennedy said she has been meeting with union leaders in the hopes of coming to an agreement on concessions that would put the brakes on a possible 8.5 percent increase and keep the city out of the state's healthcare program, the Group Insurance Commission. Kennedy said the unions do not want to join the GIC and neither does she. 

"I'm in the minority of Massachusetts mayors," she said. "I'm trying to stay out of the program."

If there are other options to save money, why not let unions and municipalities come to the table and bargain about how best to do it? This drives straight at the Speaker's motives. On what level does this make sense? While stripping collective bargaining rights on deductibles and co-pays is pure travesty, the Speaker's forced march on GIC, not giving unions and municipalities time enough to at least look at other options is, more than anything, illuminating.

Perhaps there's a much more logical explanation to all this? Right now, while state employees are in the GIC, the vast majority of municipal employees aren't -- and there are far more of the latter than there are the former. Why's that important? Well, the GIC can be changed, without union or employee consent, at the whim of the state.

Get everyone on the state's program, and suddenly you can change everyone's health insurance right from within the doors of Beacon Hill (and those doors are usually the closed ones). The state needs to ax a billion this year? Suddenly, if everyone's all-in, there's a very easy and rather convenient place to do it. The Speaker's bill could ultimately serve to be one of the biggest power grabs we've ever seen in this state, and could have disastrous longterm consequences for cities and towns and their employees. Moreover, if this isn't the real explanation, then it's pure spite -- because the House bill is neither the best nor the fairest solution to the problem.

[Update: The other motive I forgot to mention is this plan will be able to lock in the maximum savings on health care away from the actual employees -- so the savings goes to the state and towns, and isn't shared with employees trying to pay for their health care.]

It's looking more and more likely that while money may be the motivation to do something about municpal health insurance, it's not the real motivation for this particular bill. At the end of the day, the budget shortfall is the bait, and all we have left to do is wait and see if the Senate will allow the House's switch to stand. Or, maybe we can all take a step back and ask ourselves what the hell we're doing here.

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As a bonus, Christopher Nolan eloquently explained what's going on right now on Beacon Hilll years ago in The Prestige. 

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

Dragging the Democratic Party on Wisconsin, Kicking and Screaming

The President and national Democratic Party clearly does not want to rise to the level of defending the Wisconsin workers. That became very clear today in Press Secretary Jay Carney's statement on whether or not public and private unions should have the same rights.

What we have said and what the President has said is that with regard to what’s happening in the states now, as the states address their fiscal situations, everybody needs to tighten their belts, everybody needs to sacrifice and work together to bring state budgets into balance, to bring stability to the fiscal situations in the states, much as we need to work together at the federal level. And that’s our position.

Unfortunately, that wasn't today's only scary sign of where national Democrats are at. Democratic Maryland Governor O'Malley, who's in the past come out strong for collective bargaining rights, wasn't so strong on it today, after coming out of a Governor's meeting at the White House.

After a White House meeting with President Obama, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley was asked if the on-going public employee union dispute was raised in their meeting. "No, not really," O'Malley replied bluntly. "We were focused today on the things that we can do together to create jobs."

"So, we didn't talk about whatever it is they're doing in Wisconsin today," O'Malley reiterated.

"I think most of us see that as distraction, really, from the most important work that we can do, which is creating jobs," he said. "All of us get things done. We're about getting things done. We're not primarily an ideological group of people."

President Obama, who, as a candidate, said he'd get up and picket with the protesters if collective bargaining was on the line, and national Democrats must get on board the Wisconsin workers. Union jobs are the jobs we need in this country most of all, so why the President and other prominent party leaders isn't sticking up for them is a very disturbing question. At the end of the day, the Democratic Party does not win without labor, not to any degree of the success that would deliver a majority -- but it looks like we're going to be dragging them kicking and screaming to this fight. The good news is it's a fight working people are winning, even if Democrats in Bizarro Land (Washington, D.C.) are too scared of the Republican Boogeyman to realize that yet.

The Bottom Line on Wisconsin

The size of the Wisconsin Governor's tax cuts for Big Business and the rich? $140 million. The size of the cuts he's trying to make to public employees? $140 million.

Now factor in the fact that the unions will agree to the cuts if the Governor agrees not to go after collective bargaining, and where does that leave us? A Governor who manufactured a crisis in order to help his friends and take a bat to the one group of organizations left that can combat big national corporations and the wealthy elite: unions.

This is not about the money; this is about breaking the will of the American worker, and tearing apart the last big force left to confront the moneyed interests of the right-wing that would like to roll us all the way back to before the Enlightenment. They want a plutocracy, folks. Don't let them have it. We need to do what we can to help the hardworking people of Wisconsin.

Here's what you can do locally:

Call the Wisconsin State Democratic Party at (608) 255-5172 to find out how to participate in a virtual phone bank, or join a rally at the State House on Tuesday, from 4-6pm, to support the protests in Madison and elsewhere. 

A "strike marked by several violent incidents"

First, let's all give a round of applause to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791, the Shaw's distribution workers who just successfully ended their 17 week strike by negotiating a favorable contract. It's important these workers are well compensated for their hard and important work, as we wouldn't eat or drink without them (at least when it comes to perishable goods, like meat and milk). Most people don't think about all the effort it takes to get our food to the grocery store; it doesn't just magically appear there.

However, the article covering their impressive victory was horrendously prejudiced and misleading, making it sound as if the strikers were violent criminals. Don't take my word for it; here's the first sentence of the article.

A four-month strike marked by several violent incidents and arrests ended peacefully yesterday when workers at the Shaw's distribution center ratified a new contract.

Unfortunately, the Eagle Tribune doesn't follow up on the "violent incidents" written in that lead until the end of the article, with two of its final three paragraphs on the strike:

Methuen police maintained a 24-hour detail to keep the peace at the picket line outside the warehouse. The officers directed traffic for delivery trucks and workers who crossed the picket line.

Police arrested a truck driver who waved his middle finger at yelling strikers and then drove his truck at a police sergeant on March 30. A month later, police arrested another trucker who spat at a striker.

Why is it that the mainstream media, even the local variety, almost always portrays activists engaging in non-violent civil disobedience as violent criminals, if it covers them at all?

Given that almost no one reads until the end of a newspaper article, the lead in this story was completely irresponsible. If the Eagle Tribune wasn't going to clarify exactly what it meant by a strike "marked by several violent incidents" right at the beginning of its article, it shouldn't have included that sensationalist introduction at all.

Another Union Embezzled for Casino Cash

Should this surprise anyone?

A "very remorseful" Norwell firefighter/paramedic accused of emptying his union’s bank account was arraigned Thursday in Hingham District Court, where his attorney said the defendant regretted his “unfortunate infraction.”

Truong Nguyen, wearing restraints on both his wrists and his ankles, told the court through his attorney that he was willing to pay restitution to the Norwell firefighters’ union, from which he allegedly embezzled about $46,000.

Morrill told the court that Nguyen, who served as the union’s treasurer for four years, suffers from a gambling addiction.

The unions are being truly stupid on this issue, which is frustrating for someone like myself, who is so supportive of unions. This, by the way, is on top of the $800,000+ embezzled from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state's largest union, to fuel an employee's casino addiction, and $200,000+ embezzled from a NY union due to a casino addiction. All of these have happened in just a few, short years.

People don't realize the damage one casino addict can do to families, businesses and communities. It's been estimated that each single addict brings $13,000 of costs to society, much of which is because of the addicts who embezzle or steal to pay for their addictions. When one person can steal $50k, another $200k and another $800k from unions in the greater region in just a few, short years, it's easy to see why.

The Shaw's Strike: How you can help

So, an old acquaintance of mine works for the union representing the Shaws workers who are under strike right now. Apparently, Shaw's is playing real hard ball and she's looking for ways people get can involved big and small. So, here are some of her suggestions.

1. There's a rally coming up in Boston to support the workers. Here's the information on that:

When: April 1, 2010 at 4p
Where: Shaw’s Prudential Center, 53 Huntington Ave Boston MA 02199

2. Adopt a store.

We continue to ask groups to "adopt a store" for a few hours a week. Since the warehouse has only 300 members and there are 65 non union stores in Massachusetts, it's great when organizations can take over a location for a few hours at a time to pass out flyers to customers. If you're interested in adopting a store, let me know and I can get you some flyers. As long as the store you choose is non-union, you can pick a location that is convenient for you!

3. Mobile picketing.

Last weekend, we began mobile picketing to try to keep Shaw's/Star market on their toes. If you or your members want to join in the fun, we meet at Teamsters local 25 (544 Main St in Charlestown) at 10a on Fridays and Saturdays. We hop in cars and pop into stores for an hour or so before moving onto the next. If you want to attend this event or you have a group of people who want to pick a route, let me know!

4.Talk to the manager at your (non-union) Shaw's.

Finally, we're asking for people to go to your local non-union shaw's or star market and talk to the manager. We have petitions that ask managers to pledge their support for the striking warehouse workers.

If anyone's interesting in getting involved in any of these ways, let me know. I'll get you set up. Shaw's is trying to take advantage of the situation and the relatively small group of people effected to get every inch of benefits they can, right when it's more important than ever to make sure there's a fair solution for the workers involved.

Globe Deal Reached... That was Fast

And here I was ready for a holdout lasting months. Nope. No details yet, but:

The Boston Globe's largest union reached a tentative deal with the New York Times Co. shortly after 3 a.m. this morning, agreeing to a substantial pay cut, unpaid furloughs, and modifications to the lifetime job guarantee provisions that protect almost 200 employees in the Boston Newspaper Guild, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Hmm... Perhaps the 400+ people who didn't have those lifetime guarantees had something to do with it? Regardless, it would have been nice for the NYT and Globe management to be honest about this whole process -- it wasn't about the $20 million. That was window dressing - window dressing that, as I said Monday, the Globe unions already agreed on.

This was always about the job guarantees. It's tough to argue against a union that would protect those jobs -- the NYT signed on the dotted line, after all. However, if this helps facilitate a sale, then it was well worth it. The NYT has done nothing good for the Globe.

Now, the NYT has one remaining task for their role in acting as publisher and corporate daddies of the Boston Globe: facilitate a sale. They've ruined a once-great paper. They owe it to the city of Boston to find a good ownership group for this paper, preferably local ownership. The Globe needs its version of John Henry or Bob Kraft. (Or maybe they just need John Henry or Bob Kraft?) If there's any way for the NYT to save grace for its treatment of the Globe, that's it.

Oops

The NYT and Globe made a big whoopsie in its union negotiations. Now, the negotations truly must be extended out of fairness - at least a week or two.

Saving the Globe Millions, Instantly

Ask the execs to give their bonuses back.

Outrageous - they'd ask the poor schmucks loading the buses take huge benefit and pay cuts, many of them to lose their jobs, all the while they take large bonuses in years their business is tanking.

There's only one solution to the Boston Globe. Local ownership. If the NYT won't sell the paper, even if it's for next to nothing, it probably should close. Maybe a new one would take its place?

The unions should hold strong in making sure that the NYT's executives cough up all that bonus pay and take significant (50%?) cuts in salary. The publisher of the Globe, for example, probably doesn't deserve $1.9 million this year, plus the hundreds of thousands in bonus pay and stock options. The deeper one digs in this mess, the worse the Times and Globe management smells.

Why Palmer?

They may as well turn the UMASS Amherst Student Center and its hotel into a Mohegan Sun, it's so close to Palmer. Am I crazy to think that's why Mohegan wants it there? (The correct answer is no.)

The good news is that there's almost no chance this bill goes anywhere. No chance that the Governor pushes it after last year's fiasco and this year's economy. The bottom line is this is one area the unions are very, very wrong on - casinos are bad for people, bad for Massachusetts and bad for our state's economy.

Amen

Companies pocketing tips is just not right.

Last Night's Late Night Too Funny

Last night's late night shows were all too funny without the writers. While some people scoffed at the late night shows coming back before the writers did, others suggested that it was the best thing possible for the striking writers - and they were right: there's no better encouragement for NBC to sign on to a new deal than Jay Leno unscripted. Viewers were gifted with the special treat of a Jay Leno 'free for all' where he (get this) took real questions from the audience. 'Hey Jay, would you ever do a show for me in Missouri?' 'Hey Jay, do you ever think you'll go to Daytona Beach?' Yes, these were the questions audience members were asking - and, I'm sure, the same questions that had producers crying.

Conan O'Brien's show wasn't nearly as bad. He was actually quite funny, but that's only because he has something Jay Leno lacks (talent). However, it's clear that the "man, this is delicious water" jokes can only go too far, as he was literally boasting toward the audience about how he was going to be wasting time, without his writers. It won't be funny again either tonight or tomorrow. Nor will Conan's efforts to spin his wedding ring on his desk, seeing how long he can make it go before it falls (38 seconds and 28 seconds each - and, yes, viewers got to see him do it twice.) We also got to see Conan with a beard, not shaving in solidarity with his writers - and spending about 5 minutes of the show's time talking his fire-red facial fur. As much as I think Conan O'Brien is a comic genius, it's clear his show can't last the test of time without his team of talented writers.

Further complicating matters is the fact that David Letterman has his own production company, which operates the show. Therefore, he was able to negotiate his own deal with the writers. That means Letterman's show won't completely suck - at least, any more than he usually does - which spells certain doom for at least Jay Leno. NBC, if it would like to maintain it's Late Night ratings edge, may want to think fast about how many more Jay Leno Audience Question Times it wants before it drags on this strike any longer than it already has been. If one of the major networks signs on to the writers' deal, then the rest will too, lest they have no original content while the other stations are producing Emmy-winning fresh episodes. The writers aren't asking for much and deserve high compensation for their work; it's clear that even the most talented actors and hosts can't keep up entertaining shows without their entertaining writers, never mind the Jay Lenos of the world.