I got this email, quoting Mike Keenan who is a well-respected labor leader in the area and president of the Troy Area Labor Council.:
"From: Mike Keenan
The plot thickens! The government of Abu Dhabi, which has a major stake in GlobalFoundries, also owns a piece of Apollo Management, the owners of Momentive - see below:
Mike

Is a New Chip Fab Plant Fabulous for Workers?
by Jon Flanders
Good 21st-century jobs will be built on the basis of high-tech computer-based industries -- this is a narrative that we have been told many times in the corporate press.

The construction of a new computer chip fabrication plant just north of the Capital District of upstate New York by GlobalFoundries is touted by the business and political establishment here as just such a boon for the area.

But, for the union production workers at the Momentive Performance Materials plant just south of the GlobalFoundries project, it might mean the end of any hope of maintaining the living standards that generations of workers fought for.

Why should the building of a new computer chip factory mean wage cuts for union workers nearby?

Lets take a look at some recent history.

In 2006, General Electric sold their Waterford, New York silicone products plant to Apollo Management, a private equity firm. The workers there have been represented by IUE/CWA local 81359 for decades.

In 2007, the government of Abu Dhabi took a major stake in GlobalFoundries, as the computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices spun off its chip-making capacity, in its quest to be another "fabless" chip company.

The influx of money from Abu Dhabi jump-started the chip fab plant for upstate New York, which is being subsidized by the taxpayers of that state to the tune of 1.2 billion dollars.

In October of 2008, Apollo Management, the owners of Momentive, sold a nine-percent stake in Apollo to Abu Dhabi.

In December of 2008, in the middle of a negotiated contract period, Momentive unilaterally slashed the pay of its production workers by up to 50 percent.

In July, 2009, the ground breaking for the GlobalFoundries fab plant began.

Given the reality of the almost completely union-free computer industry, as typified by the giant IBM corporation, is there any doubt that the sequence of events just described points to a conscious anti-union strategy by the GlobalFoundries owners and supporters?

GlobalFoundries plans to hire a workforce of about 1,400. To keep a union out, in heavily unionized New York State, would it not be desirable from the viewpoint of GlobalFoundries, and indeed the whole chip fab industry, to break the union just down the road from a major new facility?

Union jobs at Momentive, making far more than the chip fab standard, would both be a competitor for workers and an inspiration for union organization at GlobalFoundries. Hence a motive for Abu Dhabi to invest in Apollo Management, and demand the wage cuts for production workers at Momentive.

Unfortunately for GlobalFoundries, the members and supporters of IUE/CWA 81359 have decided to take a stand against this egregious union busting.

Most recently, the union won a National Labor Relations Board complaint that will seek an order requiring Momentive Performance Materials to undo its one-year-old "restructuring" that cut 400 workers' pay. A hearing on the complaint is set for April 5 at 1 p.m. in Room 342 of the Leo O'Brien Federal Office Building in Albany, New York.

Workers from New York State have a big stake in winning this fight. A win against Momentive could be the spark for a labor resurgence in upstate New York . . . and beyond."

Give 'em hell!

I plan to tomorrow afternoon at the aforementioned ralley. Got my little bullhorn warmed up.

We actually have a company providing work and people are angry at it for not bowing to mob rule.

goddam lazy union pinko retards.

I'm suprised there's no revision of "the jungle" called "the callcenter" or "the cleanroom".

I've had the opportunity recently to see many of the union "workers" down in Momentive. Of course, I woke some of them up when I walked into one or two of the control rooms. Manufacturing is DYING in the United States, and had died in NY long ago, and we owe much of it to the unions. They still don't understand that their labor NEEDS to be competetive. Momentive has had some tough years and they're lucky to have any jobs in Waterford right now. It is funny how the article doens't mention that non-union Mometnive workers also took a cut in pay (and jobs).

So now they want to make sure that the chip fab will be the LAST fab Global Foundries build
in Upstate NY or even in the US. So then those potential non-union and former union workers can get jobs at Home Depot or Best Buy, instead.
We wonder why jobs are going over seas or our trade deficit is increasing......all of this in light that GF is weighing to build fabs over on the Arabia Peninsula; all this during the midst of 12-20% unemployment. Amazing. Go for it IUE/CWA 81359! And turn those 500 jobs into a big fat 0.

You got to Hate-Love any unoin, I have worked 45 years without one..Here is a nice example of being two faced...You don't want unions in the Global Foundries, but yet its ok for those contractors building up Malta to use them, without them no Malta build up. Now I see how there are two sides of some people, there is a name for that. I am hoping someday there will be no union workers and everyone gets paid by perfomance and not by what the union says is the going wage....Oh did I say perfomance? That will leave alot of people out of work, lets start with those N Y State workers.
GOOD LUCK NON-UNOIN PEOPLE YOU GOT MY SUPPORT

So you want to blame the unions for the poor management decision to make things that nobody wants to buy? For what? Shareholder value? Let me tell you something about shareholder executives- they don't take pay cuts when things go south. They don't reinvest in America. They don't even pay their taxes. If the union is going to help funnel the money from Arabia back into the Younited States of a Merkin, you ought to have their back.

And the State Of New York makes what?
And the shareholders are who?

Look up Google, the largest unions in the
United States...Over all most of them are services, GOVERNMENT, TEACHERS, FOOD SERVICE, ETC.
The people who make items, are paying high dues
and getting nothing,very little support from their unions...it is the union leaders making bad decissions, pressing companies out of the states....But don't worry, these unionshave now popped up in Japan, Germany, England and even Iraq...I used to support buying union, not since they screwed my dad...they will get nothing from me. If you think these union leaders are sending cash back to the United States, you might want to see how much investment they have over seas.
Where are your investments?

It's a bureaucracy problem and not an institutional problem, and it doesn't have a place in government. We're not talking about governmental unions- we're talking about labor unions. Start another thread if you want to beat on government worker unions. There's a need for reform there, but it needs to come from within.

You're wrong about unions pushing companies out of the country. Declining manufature came from companies not investing in innovative technologies because they inveted ways make money without contributing a product. They turn the prospect of another person's labor into cash. That's why we have these volatile "bubbles" and not sustained economic growth. That's why we haven't created a single net job since Carter. That's why GloFo is a big deal. We're making things again. If we're going to keep making things, we need unions to demand that as much work stays here as possible.

I believe CSEA is a labor union, those state workers are laborers.
Next, your union goes to management, gets you higher wage and benefits. (of course they say see what we got you and raise the dues)
management now needs to pay higher wages which means higher payroll tax to match. Management says we can not afford that new technology..so they look at over seas option. less wages and now they can afford new technology. Yes along with this is probrably better dividends as well for stock holders...now don't you worry, as I said the LABOR unions are popping up all over the world...and eventially your dividends will go back done. I guess its a matter of opionion which came first, the chicken or egg. Don't get me wrong, I respect your opinion and your beliefs, but today I do not agree with them.
And where are your investments?

I'm really into small cap domestics with a "socially responsible" filter.

Union leaders (who are management) shouldn't be asking for more pay for doing their job any more than a cost of living expense proportional to the laborer's increase. You see this sort of thing all the time at worker cooperatives and very small manufacturers who don't need collective bargaining to get a livable wage. You're again completely mistaken on management not being able to afford new technology. They don't have the humility to accept that they rely on labor to earn their money too. They choose to send work overseas because they don't have the cojones to actually look a worker in the eye and try to make a deal- they want to make money and forget all else. It's greedy and it's destructive and it fails to help anyone get ahead.

But ya got to admit, its all for money, no matter whose fault we might think it is.
I am sure you do not work for free, and demand
what you are worth. I do the same, but I never
needed a union or anyone else be to my mouth piece. Good luck on your investments.
And if your running for union leader, good luck on that too. Thank you for your input.
I appreciated it.

Actually, I barter. Regularly. And I would work for free if I didn't have to pay for survival. You should too.

For my 2 cents:
I think a lot of you who think unions are the reason for our problems are drinking too much of the corporate,union bashing,free marketer kool-aid!
Any cursory level reading on how unions have influenced work in this society and how working conditions have evolved will also show that if it weren't for the struggles of those early workers, fighting and dying to gain the working conditions that we as workers have today, we would be much worse off in all aspects of our working lives. You remind me of the recent rants of the like minded morons who cry loud and clear that we 'mercans don't want or need any soshlist form of healthcare-but keep your hands off my medicare!
Unions, just like any entity that is populated with humans, can be either good or bad-alll depends on the people who run them. A bad union is probably run by some greedy,conservative, screw-you-i-got-mine capitalist. But as is the case in any union management-they were elected!
I can attest to the unworthiness of this freemarket, for profit capitalist economic construct mainly from my spending forty plus years making my daily bread from it. Yep, that would be forty plus years of being lied to, manipulated, cheated and stolen from by employers, harassed, discriminated against and generally treated like crap. Hmmm, kind of reminds me how I'm treated by our government.
And yes, unions do improve the lot of workers who will at least have others with them addressing these and more severe working conditions.
I'll take working conditions where co-operation, education and pride in what you do over the conditions of cut-throat, competitive
'ends justify whatever means used 'atmosphere that has permeated our work world. What a wasted life it is to be sucked into running on this cunsumption oriented, military industrial complex capitalist ridden treadmill.
To SHO's red baiting, and I'm probably paraphrasing a bit, but when Marx wrote-"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" I'm betting he wasn't talking about everyone lounging at the beach regarding "from ...according to his ability".
Everyone participates-willingly to not only better themselves, but for the betterment of all who share in his/her culture.
As to what a wonderfull democratic-free market enterprise we represent to the world as evidenced by my own spreading of our form of free market democracy at the end of my M-16 in Viet Nam, I'll save that for another time.

Yes, we truley are living in cockles of the dark-heart of capitalism.

I think when both sides of the argument are analysed, one can see that any and all isms are generally there to corral people into a single mode of thought or operation. But such is Society I suppose.

I believe George Orwell said it best when he said; "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stepping on a human face forever."

quote:

Originally posted by RED:
To SHO's red baiting, and I'm probably paraphrasing a bit, but when Marx wrote-"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" I'm betting he wasn't talking about everyone lounging at the beach regarding "from ...according to his ability".
Everyone participates-willingly to not only better themselves, but for the betterment of all who share in his/her culture.

Actually, he did mean that. When the work is done, go home to your family and foster a good home life, too.

We've gotten so jammed up with consumption and ownership that we haven't had the headspace for a good philosophical awakening in almost fifty years. Proles cower in fear of the bomb, commies, and now, muslins on airplanes. The aristocrats run a show election every two years, and the lizard people eat the young.

Too often it seems that people's positions are reduced to an "ism" or force fit into a pigeon hole even at the expense of the facts. Then we can be intellectually lazy and stop thinking about the compexity and nuance of what is being said and what is going on.

Oh, that's just "so and so" being "such and such" and so I don't have to bother to think any more.

quote:

Originally posted by Peter Klotz Sr.:
Too often it seems that people's positions are reduced to an "ism" or force fit into a pigeon hole even at the expense of the facts. Then we can be intellectually lazy and stop thinking about the compexity and nuance of what is being said and what is going on.

Oh, that's just "so and so" being "such and such" and so I don't have to bother to think any more.

Isms give us a context to pit-fight opposing ideologies dressed down to their respective dogma. Facts are like their teeth. Ideologies aren't capable of being fought against without ideologues. All nuances and contexts are situational- we can't have traditionalism if things necessarily do not stay the same. What we disagree on is the appropriate application of an ism to a situation. True ideologues go down with the ship. There's always the option to change your mind.

Labeling positions with "isms" distorts them. There are few pure idealogues. Maybe even none. Positions maybe "-ish", but usually not the strawman extreme of an "ism".
My point is that many people stop listening once they think they have heard enough to dismiss someone (erroneously) as being an idealogue or an "-ist".