Mexican consul tampered with migrant farm vote

Threatened Mayfair Farms workers with blacklisting before union decertification vote was held.

Winnipeg (17 Aug. 2009) - The Mexican consul visited migrant Mexican farm workers in Manitoba and threatened to blacklist them from ever coming to Canada again if they did not vote to decertify their union at Mayfair Farms in Portage La Prairie, says a spokesperson for group supporting the workers.

The vote to abandon the union, which they had previously chosen to join, was announced earlier this month.

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Why We Need Health Care Reform

By BARACK OBAMA
Published: August 15, 2009 NYT

Sick for Profit

The Health Insurance Racket:
Getting Rich by Denying Americans Care

Robert Greenwald on the Ed Show for Sick For Profit: Aug. 10, 2009

As Democrats have pointed out, the angry hecklers disrupting town-hall meetings convened by members of Congress are not always ordinary citizens engaging in spontaneous grass-roots protests or even G.O.P. operatives, but proxies for corporate lobbyists. One group facilitating the screamers is FreedomWorks, which is run by the former Congressman Dick Armey, now a lobbyist at the DLA Piper law firm. Medicines Company, a global pharmaceutical business, has paid DLA Piper more than $6 million in lobbying fees in the five years Armey has worked there.

But the Democratic members of Congress those hecklers assailed can hardly claim the moral high ground. Their ties to health care interests are merely more discreet and insidious. As Congressional Quarterly reported last week, industry groups contributed almost $1.8 million in the first six months of 2009 alone to the 18 House members of both parties supervising health care reform, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer among them.

Then there are the 52 conservative Blue Dog Democrats, who have balked at the public option for health insurance. Their cash intake from insurers and drug companies outpaces their Democratic peers by an average of 25 percent, according to The Post. And let’s not forget the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which has raked in nearly $500,000 from a single doctor-owned hospital in McAllen, Tex. — the very one that Obama has cited as a symbol of runaway medical costs ever since it was profiled in The New Yorker this spring.

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Also From Factcheck

Canadian Straw Man

CPR Administers Bad Facts, Again

Olbermann: Legislators for Sale

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”

A very small niche of America's uber-wealthy have pulled off what may well be the biggest con job in the history of our republic, and they did it in a startlingly brief 30 or so years. True, they spent over three billion dollars to make it happen, but the reward to them was in the hundreds of billions - and will continue to be.

"the Select Few"

That's how it works. And it works that way because we let it. The game goes on and the insiders keep dealing themselves winning hands. Nothing will change - nothing - until the moneylenders are tossed out of the temple, the ATM's are wrested from the marble halls, and we tear down the sign they've placed on government - the one that reads, "For Sale."

Just Another Cog in the Machine

Tradespeople oppose Bill 80 because it will allow contractors, instead of workers, to pick the union with which they want to deal. The employer chooses the so-called union, and chooses the terms of the collective agreement. That is not choice for workers. Worse yet, Bill 80's abandonment provisions will let unionized contractors shed their unions without any input from workers. Again, no choice for workers.

Bill 80 robs workers of choice

Union blasted for supporting Bill 80

Bill 80 Written Submission

The Truth About CLAC

Wind Generation has it's Problems Too

Wind farms and gleaming white turbines are springing up across the country as part of the green movement to reduce dependence on coal. But some critics are seeing red, claiming the government isn't doing enough to protect human health, or the environment.

Caution to the Wind - W-FIVE Staff

part one , part two

"They Were Coming at us Hard before the Election. Now they are backing off because we have a Union Standing behind us"

Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights

Countries where widespread and grave anti-union practices have unfortunately continued include: Colombia, Burma, Belarus, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Iran, Pakistan and the Philippines. Countries such as Honduras and Guatemala should this year be added to this list. In many other countries, where violations are not as outrageous, there is an overall growing tendency to undermine workers’ rights. Interference in trade union activities has been reported in Iraq, Kuwait, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Venezuela, among others. Despite some legislative proposals or measures in some Middle East countries and Gulf States, migrant workers are still denied trade union rights in many countries. In addition to that, companies continued to take advantage of poor legislation and weak implementation to undermine workers' rights.

Worldwide in 2008, at least 76 labour activists were killed as a result of their actions for workers’ rights. Latin America remains the deadliest continent for trade unionists with over 66 murdered in 2008. 49 Colombian trade unionists lost their lives (including 16 union leaders, 4 of whom were women), a 25% increase over 2007. Trade unionists were also killed in Guatemala (9), Honduras (3) and Venezuela (4) among others. In Asia, at least 6 murders were reported (Nepal and the Philippines), as well as 3 in Africa (Nigeria, Tunisia and Zimbabwe) and 1 in the Middle East (Iraq).

In countries in every region, trade unions continue to be banned, or their establishment restricted. China still bans independent trade unions. Those attempting to unionise groups of workers or organise protests are often arrested, with some given prison sentences and others condemned to ‘re-education through work’.

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Boston Local Installs Wind Turbine on Historic Nantucket Farm

More than 15 electricians from Boston Local 103 recently completed installation of the first 250-kilowatt wind turbine in the United States on Nantucket’s largest and oldest family farm.
Located less than a quarter of a mile from the southern shore of the island off of Cape Cod, the turbine can produce enough electricity to provide 80 percent of Bartlett’s Farm’s energy needs.
The turbine, which has a rotor diameter of more than 100 feet, is unique because of its size.

“Most turbines are either small models for residential use or 1-megawatt ones for large commercial facilities,” said Herb Aikens, owner of Lighthouse Electrical Contracting, Inc. “The 250 kilowatt is the just the right fit for medium-size businesses.”

Lighthouse Electrical Contracting has specialized in wind power since it was started in 2002.
The farm’s owner, John Bartlett, was inspired to install the turbine after seeing a presentation by Local 103 member Newell Thomas at a wind energy conference more than two years ago.

“His farm had hosted experimental turbines back in the ’70s and was interested in bringing them back to the island,” said Thomas, manager of the renewable energy division for Lighthouse.

The farm, which grows fresh produce for Nantucket residents and tourists, has been in the Bartlett family for nearly two centuries.

Thomas, an electrical engineer, has been an advocate of green energy since the energy crisis of 1974. “Wind power really caught my imagination then, and has held it ever since,” he said.
Bartlett helped finance the turbine through grants from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and the U.S. Agriculture Department meant to encourage farms to establish renewable energy sources. The project ended up costing more than $1 million.

Cape Cod and its nearby islands are quickly becoming a center of wind energy in the region. Cape Wind, a planned 130-turbine offshore wind farm to be located in Nantucket Sound, cleared a major hurdle in January when the U.S. Minerals Management Service issued its positive final assessment of the project.

“We are very proud of this installation and congratulate Herb Aikens for the completion of this significant project at the doorstep of Cape Wind,” said Local 103 Business Manager Michael Monahan.