Category Archives: Global Labor

Jerry Tucker, progressive and independent UAW leader

I received the sad news this evening from the midwest that Jerry Tucker, a lifelong progressive and democratic union activist and UAW leader, passed away.

Jerry and I began to work together five years ago when he joined with other UAW activists to oppose the imposition of another wave of cutbacks in wages and benefits of auto workers at the Big Three.

Like Jerry I began to speak out about the attempt to set up a VEBA that would force the UAW to manage a massively underfunded and badly structured health care plan and relieving the Big Three of that responsibility, a benefit fought and won by auto workers over many decades. Eventually I filed a petition with the SEC on behalf of auto workers arguing that the UAW and GM were ignoring their obligation under federal law to provide full disclosure of the impact of the proposed VEBA on union members.

Just as we argued then, the VEBA has indeed proved a disastrous turn for the UAW as a recent Reuters story noted. If the union and GM had disclosed the actual risks that it implied it may never have been imposed. As he was many times before Jerry was right then, too.

Below is a video of a tribute to Jerry at a Labor Notes conference. In addition, take note that there will be a panel discussion of the State of the UAW at UM-Flint on October 28 with Dr. Tom Adams and Gregg Shotwell. Gregg was one of my clients in the petition to the SEC. It would honor Jerry’s memory and lifelong efforts on behalf of the UAW and workers everywhere to attend that meeting and discuss the future of one of our most important labor unions.

Tribute to Jerry Tucker for his contribution to the Labor Movement at the Labor Notes Conference.

The Myth of Japan’s Failure by Eamonn Fingleton

As long term followers of my blog may recall I am a big fan of the work of  economics writer Eamonn Fingleton, whom I count as well as a personal friend. Eamonn has been a keen follower of economic development in Asia. He has written several very important books that deserve even a larger readership than they have already achieved. The opinion essay he has in tomorrow’s New York Times, link below, may help.

Eamonn succinctly makes the case that the Asian economies get something right – that there is an alternative to the Washington consensus and as of yet American liberals have yet to really grasp this. Japan and now China are engaged in capital intensive investment that also pays attention to the risks of unemployment.  Both countries, particularly China, achieve this in part by authoritarian forms of politics. But they do not shy away from the link between manufacturing and global economic competitiveness.

In the wake of a devastating economic crisis and the response of movements like Occupy Wall Street it is high time that the American left articulate a new approach. These days it seems that only Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum know that there is a working class in this country.

The Myth of Japan’s Failure – NYTimes.com.

Victory for authors against Google as court torpedoes book settlement agreement

Google has been trying for several years now to appropriate centuries of intellectual effort by writers by scanning books and yet not paying royalties. Since it is very difficult for authors, especially those who are no longer alive, to organize to defend their interests, the company has been able to strike deals with intermediary groups (who appointed them?) such as the so-called “Authors Guild” to pay nominal royalties where authors could be located.

But the patent inequities of the arrangement convinced a US district court judge to scuttle the deal. A US Justice Department investigation of the Google maneuver is also underway.

One tactic used by Google that caught the judge’s eye: the private company requires authors to “opt out” of their attempt to take author’s works and make them available on their computer system rather than “opt in” – this greatly disadvantages groups like widely dispersed and poorly organized authors. Berkeley Law’s IP law professor Pam Samuelson wrote about the issue in greater detail here.

BBC News – Google books agreement torpedoed by US court.

What’s the matter with Wisconsin?

Here is my take on the recent events in Wisconsin, in the form of a short talk and roundtable discussion at Santa Clara’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, where I am an Ethics Fellow.

Here is a recap:

Governor Walker’s attack on unions is part of a longstanding animus from employers in this country to unions, what some call American exceptionalism because this kind of hostility to trade unions is rare in the rest of the world, outside of countries like China.

Walker’s approach is also dysfunctional because it is an attack on labor policy but it does nothing to address deep concerns we should have about fiscal policy and social policy, which are the other two key pieces of the debate.

Our fiscal policy is out of whack because pension funds are now used by Wall Street for financial engineering at great expense to those funds not for investment in long term economic development.

[Left out as there was a time constraint]: We need to shift our approach to social policy away from the volatile and chaotic capital markets to investment in infrastructure and other methods of revitalizing the economy, a process in which state and local public employees can play a vital role.

Santa Clara University – Podcasts from Ethics Center Events.

Scott Walker goes Greek – the real agenda in Wisconsin

This essay in the Guardian makes the key point about Wisconsin and also shows why a narrow trade union approach to the issue will fail. Walker is implementing the Greek solution – the looting of public goods to fend off the bond markets.

Greece tried it and it failed and it nearly brought down the EU. If the Republicans want to go down this road they better be ready for the consequences.

But the left must broaden their response – it is about trade union rights but only because the trade union acts a check on the abuse of power that would return to the state sector if these reforms go through.

Scott Walker’s real agenda in Wisconsin | Michael Hudson and Jeffrey Sommers

Egypt Could Rescue Libyan Revolution

Forget a US led No Fly Zone or a Nato intervention force, the force that could save the Libyan chapter of the people’s revolt in the Middle East and North Africa now is the Egyptian military.

It is an army in which all Egyptians serve – its leadership is corrupt but no doubt the reason that leadership was not willing to use force to crush the Egyptian revolution was the fear that the rank and file soldier would refuse and then it would be all over for the officer corps.

Now that army faces a real test and so does the heart and soul of this region-wide movement. As the brutality of Qaddafi is on full display against poorly armed people’s forces, the Egyptian army could intervene and tip the balance.

Not only would the Libyan revolution have a chance to succeed, it could be the first step to genuine regional independence from the world state system that has sent only the IMF and World Bank, together with training in torture of dissidents, to the region over the last two decades.

Crony Capitalism and “The Great Arab Revolt”

The only comment I would add to this otherwise excellent analysis of the current revolutionary wave washing over the middle east and north Africa by Michigan historian Juan Cole is that the combination of authoritarian rule and neo-liberal reform is not peculiar to the region.

There is no alternative, as Thatcher would say, to authoritarian rule in order to implement neo-liberal reform – from Poland to China to Egypt it has always and everywhere been accompanied by repression, forced restructuring and unemployment and political corruption leading to inequality and the harshening of class conflict.

The myth of the two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall that globalization would lead to a stable rule of law and democracy has now been exposed for what it is. The events of the last few weeks, only the most visible of a long wave of resistance to restructuring in places like Egypt, only highlight this reality.

Cole says there are now renewed hopes for liberalization, which he suggests indirectly are naive. That is to be determined. The question is the content of “liberalization” – the aspirations of a Wael Ghonim, the Google entrepreneur in Egypt, are likely to be satisfied with a far different approach to reform than the textile workers at Ghazl Shebeen el-Koum.

The Great Arab Revolt | The Nation.