privatization

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 31, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• There is No Drought: California’s Twisted Water Ways - By EastWest, FireWorks Anarchist Counterinformation Project for the Bay Area, December 26, 2014

Railroad Workers, Safety, and the Environment:

• Aging Railway Infrastructure Raises Safety Concerns As Bay Area Readies To Receive Dramatic Increase Of Bakken Crude Oil, Part 1 Of 3 - By Jeffrey Shaub and Giancarlo Rulli, KCBS, December 29, 2014
• Investigation: federal railroad officials ignore regulations on fatigue - By Bill Lambrecht, CTPost.com, December 27, 2014
• Oil Trains: The Industry Speaks for Itself - By Eric de Place, Sightline Daily, December 30, 2014
• Railroads, unions to begin collective bargaining talks next month - By Russell Hubbard, Omaha World-Herald, December 26, 2014

Other News of Interest:

• [Appeal]: Help Capital Bikeshare Employees Unionize!
• Bosnian Workers who Started February Demonstrations are Leaving the Country on Foot - Revolution News, December 26, 2014
• 'Change the System, Not the Climate!' - By Asoka Bandarage, Huffington Post, December 20, 2014
• Green Neocolonialism, Afro-Brazilian Rebellion in Brazil - By Santiago Navarro F., Renata Bessi and Translated by Miriam Taylor, Truthout, December 28, 2014
• How 13 Complaints Against McDonald’s Could Help Millions Unionize - By David Moberg, In These Times, December 23, 2014
• Morton Salt facility partially collapses; further building inspections to come - By WGN Web Desk and Gaynor Hall, WGN TV, December 30, 2014
• Oil-field lodging company slashes jobs, curbs spending - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, December 29, 2014
• Rio Tinto ‘representative of the destructive and devouring process of colonization’ - By Steven Newcomb, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, December 30, 2014
• Trafficking, Child Labor May Be Growing In Global Chocolate Industry: Labor advocates say failure to address the root causes of poverty among cocoa farming communities may be leading to both human trafficking and child labor along the chocolate industry’s supply chains - By Carey L. Biron, Mint Press News, December 26, 2014
• Unsustainable growth can’t be wished away: When it comes to explaining destructive growth, many green writers confuse cause and effect - By Ian Angus, Climate and Capitalism, December 30, 2014
• Up to 700 jobless as Patriot Coal idles mines in western Kentucky - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 29, 2014

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 30, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Did Somebody Say Direct Action? What’s Missing from the Victory Narrative - By Alexander Reid Ross, Earth First! Journal, December 22, 2014
• Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart - By Rebecca Solnit, Tom Dispatch, December 23, 2014
• Protest too much? 2014 was a big year for rabblerousing - By Heather Smith, Grist, December 23, 2014

Other News of Interest:

• BHP, Rio, Anglo fear effects of Chile’s new labour bill - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 23, 2014
• Busting the Myth of “Job-Killing EPA Regulations” - By Ken Kimmell, President, Union of Concerned Scientists, Renewable Energy World, December 28, 2014
• Canadian Pension Funds To Invest In Renewables To The Tune Of $2 Billion - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, December 24, 2014
• A Dollar a Day Keeps the Smokestacks Away [Fundraising appeal for a project involving IWW members] - By Josh, Energy Justice Network, December 23, 2014
• Electricity suppliers are shedding jobs, despite renewables growth - By Melissa C. Lott, Scientific American, December 23, 2014; [related]: Employment Drops in All Segments of the Power Sector—Except Renewables - By Julia Pyper, Greentech Media, December 24, 2014
• Environmentalists Are Gearing Up for the Next Phase of New York's Fracking Wars - By Peter Rugh, Vice, December 18, 2014
• The 4 Day Week? - By Tegan Tallulla, Earth Baby Blog, September 30, 2013
• Innovations or Hucksterism? Three Little-Known Infrastructure Privatization Problems - By Ellen Dannin, Truthout, December 22, 2014
• Marathon evacuates personnel from two North Sea platforms - By Robert Grattan, Fuel Fix, December 23, 2014
• Dave Kerin on Workers’ Cooperatives and the Climate Emergency - By Dave Kerin, Anarchist Affinity, November 12, 2014
• Phoenix warns of bus disruptions as union negotiates - By Brenna Goth, Arizona Republic, December 24, 2014
• Railroads seek permission to put a single person in charge of miles-long freight trains [Quotes IWW members] - By Josh Funk, Star Tribune, December 22, 2014
• Railroads, unions to begin collective bargaining talks next month - By Russell Hubbard, Omaha World-Herald, December 26, 2014
• Talcher workers up against coal mining privatization - Nyooz, December 2014
• TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections - By Patrick Gleeson, The Ecologist, December 24, 2014

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Dan Bacher - Indybay, November 5, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Proposition 1, Governor Jerry Brown's $7.5 billion water bond, sailed to easy victory on November 4, as forecasted in a number of polls.

The election results show how the power of millions of dollars of corporate money in the corrupt oligarchy of California were able to defeat a how a grassroots movement of fishermen, environmentalists, Indian Tribes and family farmers opposed to Prop. 1.

The Hoopa Valley, Yurok, Winnemem Wintu and Concow Maidu Tribes, the defenders of California's rivers and oceans for thousands of years, strongly opposed Prop. 1. because of the threat the bond poses to water, salmon and their culture. (http://www.indybay.org/...)

Prop. 1 proponents, including a rogue's gallery of oil companies, corporate agribusiness tycoons, Big Tobacco, health insurance companies and greedy billionaires, dumped over $16.4 million into the campaign, while Prop. 1 opponents raised around $100,000 for the effort. In other words, the Yes on Prop. 1 campaign outmatched the No on Prop. 1 campaign by a factor of 164 to 1.

In a state and country where corporations have the same rights as people, the political game is rigged so that Goliath is usually able to defeat David. The state's voters, responding to the avalanche of pro-Prop. 1 ads funded by corporate interests, approved the measure by a vote of 66.77 percent to 33.23 percent.

By Yi Xi - Labor Notes, October 13, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

For two weeks, sanitation workers gathered daily on the lawns of Guangzhou’s Higher Education Mega Center—a complex of ten universities serving 200,000 students that has taken over Xiaoguwei island—in the latest of a series of Guangzhou sanitation strikes.

The strike erupted August 26 after the sudden replacement of a contractor jeopardized the jobs of 212 sanitation workers, jobs many had held for a decade.

By the time it came to an end September 9, workers had won an agreement that included severance pay of 3,000 yuan (about $489 U.S.) per year of service.

Tensions are still simmering over whether the new company will rehire all veteran workers as promised. But although the dispute isn’t settled yet, its significance is clear.

This strike, a symptom of the increasing privatization of basic urban services, sets a promising precedent for solidarity between locals and migrants, for women workers' leadership, and for student-worker collaboration.

By Morgan Meaker - Red Pepper, October 17, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Back in July the gallery announced plans to privatise up to 400 of its 600 staff positions, blaming government cuts for leaving them with no other option.

Staff went on strike on Wednesday morning to coincide with the opening of the Rembrandt exhibition, which was manned entirely by private security forces. However the industrial action succeeded in closing the gallery’s East Wing.

The protest formed part of the national dispute over job losses, pay cuts and pension increases. More than 200,000 Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members took part in the strike outside government offices, museums, galleries and court buildings across the UK.

Paul Bemrose, an officer for PCS told me, 'National Gallery staff are living on very low income. Costs are going up but wages aren’t. Ultimately we blame the government. They dictate wages here but their pay restraints are not stimulating the economy.'

Outside the entrance to the Rembrandt, two striking gallery workers said they felt undervalued seeing a private company do their job without the same knowledge or passion in art. 'It’s a strange feeling' one said. 'It’s like have squatters in your house. We’ve been turfed out'.

Many gallery workers were reluctant to talk to Red Pepper and refused to be named, fearing repercussions.

Bemrose said, 'Management are frightened that the gallery’s reputation will be damaged and there’s a threat of disciplinary action if staff speak to the press. There are elements of management who see PCS as a blocker. We want our members to be treated fairly but their primary focus is the exhibitions.'

Another PCS member at the Gallery told Morning Star that 'when the privatisation package was announced, the head of human resources told us that we couldn’t speak to the press, and that it was an infringement of the confidentiality agreement. On a basic principle of free expression I don’t think it’s right to gag union reps.'

By Lauren McCauley - Common Dreams, October 13, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Privatized U.S. hospitals are driving a "system failure" in the face of the Ebola epidemic, warn nurses, who say that healthcare facilities and workers across the country are ill-prepared because of poor training and oversight— putting those on the front lines at great risk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed Sunday that a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital tested positive for the virus after treating Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the disease last Wednesday.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden blamed what he called a "breach in protocol" on the part of the healthcare worker for the spread of the infection.

However, nurses across the country have warned for weeks that hospitals are not doing enough to prepare for the epidemic.

"We're seeing that caregivers who are not being adequately trained are being blamed," said registered nurse Katy Roemer during a Sunday press conference hosted by the country's largest nursing union, National Nurses United (NNU). Roemer said that the organization has been asking hospitals to provide hands-on training during which nurses can ask questions about the precaution measures, to no avail. "We cannot blame the healthcare providers who are on the front lines, risking their lives to help patients and then face possible infection themselves," Roemer continued.

"You don't scapegoat and blame when you have a disease outbreak," agreed Bonnie Castillo, director of the Registered Nurses Response Network at NNU. "We have a system failure. That is what we have to correct."

Castillo and Roemer are among the voices expressing growing concern over the poor federal oversight of hospital preparedness, including proper staff training, in light of the Ebola crisis. "Because we have a privatized health care system it's all over the board," Castillo explained to CBS News. "There's no uniformity or enforcement mechanism."

By the CDC's own admission, they are unable to properly monitor hospitals and have no authority to make sure they comply with official guidelines.

By Steve Zeltser - Labor Video Project, September 21, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Trade unionists at the Oakland climate rally on September 21, 2014 called for public control of the utility industry and challenging the profit drive by the energy industry and utilities that are destroying the planet. They also discussed the climate and environmental crisis cause by the US military. Workers also discussed the attacks on education and privatization as well as healthcare.