By Aditi Vaidya, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy

Great news for the fight for good jobs and clean air at the Port of Oakland!

Last Thursday, a district court judge in California ruled in favor of the Los Angeles Clean Truck program.  This ruling removes the legal hurdles that have prevented the Port of Los Angeles from enforcing all provisions of one of the most effective diesel reduction programs in the country.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the author of the Clean Ports Act of 2010, called the ruling

A very welcome development in the longstanding efforts to modernize the nation's truck fleets and reduce diesel pollution. Now we must pass the Clean Ports Act in order to bring federal law in line with the current realities of our ports and the needs of U.S. truck drivers, and to ensure that future legal challenges do not impede environmental progress.

The ruling comes just months after the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports and the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy took the fight to fix the broken port trucking system all the way to Washington, DC for a historic hearing on clean trucks and ports.

At the hearing, Congressmembers Jim Oberstar (D-MN) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR) not only dared to ask tough questions of the trucking industry, but also promised to further investigate the trucking industry scams that are threatening the livelihoods of port truck drivers.

As coalition members testified, the industry relies on outdated federal laws to justify passing the cost of cleaning up the air onto low-income truck drivers and taxpayers while continuing the vicious cycle of working poverty at our nation’s ports.

Low-income truck drivers and taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for the industry’s responsibility to clean the air we all breathe. Help us bring Los Angeles' pioneering program home to Oakland and to other port communities across America by signing the petition in support of the Clean Ports Act of 2010. 

By Caitlin Vega, California Labor Federation

The foreclosure freefall is nothing new in California. We all know families who have lost their homes, and others who are struggling to hold on as their loan rates adjust and balloon payments are triggered. Our state has been devastated top to bottom by the aftermath of this totally preventable crisis.

A new report concludes that the impact of foreclosures goes far beyond economic damage. The study conducted by the Alameda County Public Health Department and the housing rights group Causa Justa found that those who have had homes foreclosed on are twice as likely to report that their mental and physical health has declined. Anxiety and depression are commonplace in these families. Many cite increased crime in their communities as a result of mass foreclsoures, as well as the strain caused by dislocating their children from friends and schools due to a forced move.

This latest report only underscores the need to protect families from the harm caused by foreclosures. Unfortunately, the lending industry that aggressively marketed sub-prime loans is now resisting efforts to protect borrowers from unnecessary foreclosures. SB 1275 (Leno) would have required lenders to inform a homeowner that a loan modification had been denied prior to initiating a foreclosure. A modest protection, this bill would have simply prevented banks from selling a home while the family living inside it still believes they are getting a loan modification.

This bill passed the State Senate but died on the Assembly floor. Its defeat shows the power of the big banks to stop even modest protections to keep families in their homes. At a time of record unemployment, it is a real shame to keep bailing out the banks while turning a blind eye to the suffering of California’s familes.

By Art Pulaski
This Labor Day, California is at a crossroads. We can either continue the economic race to the bottom – exacerbated by corporate policies and Gov. Schwarzenegger’s slash-and-burn budgets – or we can chart a new course to rebuild California from the bottom up. The heart of California’s economy, our workers, are struggling with near record unemployment, stagnating wages and devastating budget cuts that are eroding the California Dream.

This November, Californians have a critical choice to make about which direction our state should take to deal with the enormous challenges we face. This election is simply a battle for the soul of California.

In the race for Governor, the choices couldn’t be starker.

Meg Whitman epitomizes the disastrous corporate policies that fueled the collapse of our economy. Her proposals to give the rich tax breaks at the expense of middle class programs and public safety would choke off any hope of economic recovery. Her promise to eliminate 40,000 state jobs would spike unemployment and force businesses to shutter. Her long record of outsourcing and eliminating jobs in the private sector to boost CEO profits shows how dangerously misplaced her priorities are.

Jerry Brown has spent his entire career fighting for working families. As Governor, he created 1.9 million jobs. He proposes to create a half million new clean energy jobs, positioning California to be the national leader in the new green economy. He supports investment in infrastructure and education, the two most critical areas in driving job growth. He respects the contributions workers make to the economy and would prioritize an expansion of the middle class.

California voters face a similar choice in the race for US Senate. Barbara Boxer is a champion for California’s workers. She’s led the fight to rein in Wall Street, prioritize good jobs and pass national health care reform. Failed CEO Carly Fiorina, on the other hand, thinks our economy should be more like China’s. She calls outsourcing of American jobs “right sourcing.”

Labor Day marks the beginning of the final push by California’s workers to elect Brown, Boxer and other leaders who will create jobs and restore hope of broadly shared economic prosperity. In the coming weeks, more than 25,000 union volunteers will lead the largest grassroots voter mobilization in California history. Workers will be out in force every week between now and the election to combat Whitman’s avalanche of campaign spending by doing what we do best – talking one-on-one with friends, neighbors, co-workers and members of our communities about the stakes in this election.

Every generation has a defining moment. This election is ours. And California’s workers stand ready to take a leading role in rebuilding our economy and restoring our once vibrant middle class.

by Robert Cruickshank, Courage Campaign

There was always a massive contradiction - or one might say, a dishonest hypocrisy of stunning proportions - at the heart of Carly Fiorina's US Senate campaign. She touts herself as someone who can create jobs, but her record as the failed and fired CEO of Hewlett-Packard shows her to be one of the worst offenders when it comes to corporate destruction of American jobs.

Fiorina destroyed tens of thousands of jobs while CEO of HP between 1999 and 2005, many of which were shipped overseas. When she was excoriated for this, particularly by the Silicon Valley press during the severe dot-com bust of the early '00s, Fiorina responded by calling outsourcing "right-sourcing" and saying "there is no job that is America's god-given right anymore." Her record is that of someone who got rich by destroying jobs - yet she now declares herself an advocate of job creation, even while opposing the federal stimulus, federal aid to states to hire teachers, and other programs that have been proven to create jobs.

That is not only a contradiction, it's also a big campaign liability that was just waiting for someone to exploit it. And that's exactly what Senator Barbara Boxer did in last night's debate. She opened with this line of attack:

So every time you really get past the surface, you see my opponent fighting for the billionaires, for the millionaires, for the companies who ship jobs overseas.

And it only got worse for Fiorina from there. One of the audience questions selected came from a Republican on the San Mateo Peninsula named Tom Watson, a retired HP employee. His question was:

Carly, while you up were at HP, you sent thousands of jobs offshore, you coined the phrase right shoring. Also, in a keynote speech in 2004, you said, "there is no job that is America's god-given right anymore." Do you still feel that way? Or what are your plans to create jobs in California?

At this point, Fiorina could no longer hide from her past. But instead of accepting responsibility, she made it sound like it was others' fault for her own actions:

The truth is that California has higher-than-average unemployment rate because we are destroying jobs and others are fighting harder for our jobs. Texas is fighting harder for our jobs. So is North Carolina, Brazil, Guatemala, China, India, Russia, Poland. I know precisely why those jobs go. And I'll tell you why. Because China, for example, like Texas, like Brazil, gives companies huge tax credits. They help them cut through regulation.

Fiorina here is repeating the lie that California's job woes are created by overburdened companies seeking less regulations. In fact, as Jed Kolko of the PPIC showed in June, California doesn't really lose that many jobs to other states due to business relocation:

Rhetoric aside, California loses very few jobs to other states. Businesses rarely move either out of or into California and, on balance, the state loses only 11,000 jobs annually as a result of relocation-that's just 0.06 percent of California's 18 million jobs. Far more jobs are created and destroyed as a result of business expansion, contraction, formation, and closure than because of relocation.

What Kolko didn't add is that California also loses a lot of jobs when wealthy CEOs decide to fire their California workers to hire someone overseas so that the CEO and their allies can make more quarterly profit. Fiorina claims companies are forced into doing it, even though when Fiorina did it at HP, it nearly destroyed the company as its profits fell.

And of course, Fiorina says the solution is to become more like China, where workers are overworked to the point of suicide and cities are choked by hazardous pollution and smog.

Boxer responded by hitting Fiorina hard on her record of mass layoffs and opposition to job creation policies, and obviously Fiorina felt rattled. Yet she felt the need to come back to the issue, digging her political grave deeper:

It's a shame that Barbara Boxer would use Hewlett-Packard, a treasure of California, one of the great companies in the world, whose employees work very hard and whose shareholders have benefited greatly from both my time at CEO and all of the hard work of the employees that I had the privilege to lead.

I'm sure this condescending and dismissive statement, where Fiorina ignores the damage she did, the lives she ruined, will go over well among the tens of thousands of hardworking HP employees she laid off.

From there, Boxer hit Fiorina extremely hard on the issues, to the point where Fiorina clearly began losing ground. By the end of the night, the debate had become a rout, with Fiorina thoroughly beaten.

Overall, the night was won by Boxer not just because she showed her progressive colors, but because of how effectively she exposed the contradiction at the heart of Fiorina's campaign. It's just not credible that someone who destroyed tens of thousands of California jobs, and who has opposed every federal effort to create new jobs, would somehow lead the creation of new jobs in California.

Instead the inescapable truth is that Fiorina is using her claims of supporting job creation as a cover for her true agenda, which is to promote further tax cuts for the rich and regulation cuts for large corporations, in order to enrich herself and her wealthy allies while the rest of the country suffers higher unemployment, more pollution, and less safe living standards.

Fiorina was exposed as a fraud by Barbara Boxer last night. Let's hope Californians get that message.

UPDATE: Others are making similar assessments, with the LA Times writing that:

For much of the hour-long debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina's record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was dismissed in 2005.

by James Parks, AFL-CIO

The elections this year come down to a choice between leaders who will stand with working people or those whose right-wing agenda will choke off economic recovery and put corporations back in the driver’s seat.

With that said, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka outlined plans for an aggressive and massive mobilization of working people this Labor Day weekend and for the fall election. During a press conference this morning at the AFL-CIO, Trumka also announced the federation will run TV and radio ads Labor Day weekend in key markets around Major League Baseball games, NASCAR and college football games. (See video below.)

“This is a defining Labor Day for working people—and the kick-off to the final round of a defining set of elections,” Trumka said.

We will either rebuild a fundamentally different economy that values hard work and a strong middle class—or turn back toward one that puts corporate interests before people.

In his travels across the country, Trumka said he has heard decisively that people are looking for economic patriotism. While patriotism has traditionally been defined by foreign affairs, it should begin in our own back yard, in our own communities, he said.

…working people are looking for economic heroes—champions who will put themselves on the line to create a better future for our children.

Union volunteers are  engaged in a mass mobilization in 26 states and more than 400 races, Trumka said, and they already have distributed nearly 2 million fliers at more than  300 worksites—the prelude to a much bigger fall push.

Trent McNutt, an unemployed member of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) from Toledo, Ohio, told reporters the election is critical for workers like him and his father, a retired sheet metal worker:

I’m on track to make a third of what I made last year but things are looking up. We can’ t afford to turn back. We need to elect people who support guys like my dad and not the super wealthy.  We can’t afford to put people in office who will forget about the middle class.

Laura Jackson, a Communications Workers of America (CWA) member from Moberly, Mo., said the mobilization by union families is essential  because jobs and a good economy are the most important issues.

We definitely need to make sure that the people making the decisions make jobs their top priority. I’m going to do all I can to make sure that happens, including getting the message out to my family, union members and anyone who will listen.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler detailed the AFL-CIO’s work over the past year reaching out and engaging young workers. Shuler said young workers would be a key part of the AFL-CIO 2010 political program.  Shuler also pointed to the work of Working America, the AFLCIO community affiliate, which is energizing and mobilizing workers without a union around economic and election issues.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said the AFL-CIO will be a major partner in the Oct. 2 mobilization for One Nation Working Together as a part of the labor federation’s fall offensive.

The radio and television ads running this Labor Day weekend celebrate working people who are the backbone of our nation and the power of working together for a stronger America.  The ads will run during several sports broadcasts: Major League Baseball games on Sunday and Monday, the Sunday NASCAR Pep Boys Auto 500 race and the Monday night opener of NCAA football.

Trumka summed up the imporrtance of the election this way:

This election is about a lot more than just who comes to Congress in January. It will continue to define who we are as a nation, whether we’re a nation that respects workers and rewards work. And that’s the message we’ll be delivering to working people at every worksite, in every neighborhood and every community.

By Rebecca Greenberg, California Labor Federation

Much like her CEO pal Meg “Wall Street” Whitman, GOP Senate candidate “Corporate” Carly Fiorina has been pretending to be a friend to Latinos as of late, in a cynical ploy to garner votes.

But the more Latinos learn about the real Carly, the less they like. The fact is, Fiorina’s positions on the issues that Latinos care most about, like immigration, jobs, education and health care, put her in direct opposition to Latino values and California values.

SEIU-USWW President Mike Garcia:

Carly Fiorina is trying to get Latinos to vote for her, but her positions clearly demonstrate that she does not share our values as Latinos and she does not share our values as Californians. She is against comprehensive immigration reform, supports Arizona’s discriminatory SB 1070 and has outsourced California jobs. We will not be fooled.

To expose Fiorina’s hidden agenda, we’ve worked with Brave New Films and SEIU California to release a new online short produced by Brave New Films. The video, entitled “Carly No Es Mi Amiga,” highlights Fiorina’s far-right positions on immigration and other issues that matter most to Latinos (scroll down to view the video).

Today, dozens of Latino workers, supporters and labor leaders came out for the world premiere of “Carly No Es Mi Amiga,” which was held right outside of Fiorina’s Sacramento office. The film played numerous times on a screen so large Fiorina’s staff couldn’t help but see it.

As part of today’s video release, Brave New Films launched a new online campaign spotlighting the top five reasons why Carly Fiorina is no friend to Latinos:

1.            Fiorina thinks racial profiling is A-OK. She fiercely supports SB 1070  -- the Arizona immigration law that essentially legalizes racial profiling. In fact, Fiorina was quoted saying, “This law [SB 1070] is necessary, because the federal government isn’t doing its job and the people in Arizona are in danger.”

2.            Fiorina opposes vital funding for education and health care in our communities. She spoke out against the emergency state aide bill, which saved the jobs of approximately 13,700-16,500 teachers in California and also funded Medicaid programs serving approximately seven million Californians.

3.            Fiorina is notorious for outsourcing and mass layoffs. While serving as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina fired 18,000 people and outsourced tens of thousands of jobs – a move she calls “right-shoring.” She still brags about this decision every chance she gets, and has said that her only regret is not firing those workers faster.

4.            Fiorina doesn’t care about the uninsured and the under-insured. She wants to repeal the new health care reform law, which provides much-needed access to affordable healthcare for as many as eight million uninsured Californians, as well as countless others with pre-existing conditions who have been denied care.

5.            Fiorina refuses to recognize the essential role that immigrant workers play in our community and economy. According to Fiorina, “Illegal immigration has eroded Americans' trust in government, threatened our national security and hurt our fellow Californians."

Carly’s job-cutting proposals would devastate Latino workers who, like all Californians, are struggling with the economic devastation caused by her friends on Wall Street. She opposes health care reform that will benefit thousands of Latinos and has said she would cut-off unemployment checks for hundreds of thousands who are still looking for work during this economic crisis.

California Labor Federation’s Art Pulaski:

She's pushing more of the same failed policies that destroyed our economy and forced millions of Latinos and other workers into the unemployment line. The last thing California Latinos need is Carly's anti-immigrant, job-slashing agenda.

The bottom line, according to protestors today, is that despite Fiorina’s bogus rhetoric, “Carly No Es Mi Amiga.”

Paid for by the California Labor Federation.
Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.

Meg “Wall Street” Whitman’s big-ticket fundraiser with embroiled ex-CEO of Broadcom, Henry Samueli, raised more than a few eyebrows this week, because Whitman and Samueli have more in common than being billionaire CEOs -- both were corporate insiders whose companies were involved in questionable insider deals that made millions for executives at the expense of shareholders. Under Samueli’s leadership, Broadcom was involved in the nation’s largest stock backdating scandal after it failed to disclose to investors that the company had reset the dates of company stock grants to executives in order to artificially boost profits. Broadcom’s backdating scheme resulted an SEC investigation, Samueli’s ouster, and a $160.5 million settlement with investors. If we’ve learned anything from the economic meltdown caused by Wall Street’s greed, it’s that when corporate insiders get too close to government power, working people pay the price. It’s not hard to imagine the enormous influence corporate types like Samueli would have in a Whitman administration.

California Republican honcho Ron Nehring put out a statement on the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage, touting that his party's ticket honored the women's suffrage movement. Hey Ron, not sure if you've noticed, but Meg and Carly haven’t exactly honored women's right to vote. In fact, they seem to hold some sort of unusual contempt for the act of voting. And by the way Ron, you might want to stop referring to the GOP as the party of Lincoln. That ship sailed somewhere between Jesse Helms and Sarah Palin.

An investigative report by Laura Mahoney released this week in the BNA’s Daily Tax Report made waves by detailing how “Taxpayers with complex tax dispute cases before the California State Board of Equalization were more likely to win their cases if they or their representatives made campaign contributions to the elected board members…” The state Board of Equalization is relatively unknown to most Californians, though it is has the responsibility to collect billions of dollars in sales and use taxes and alcohol, tobacco taxes and fees. The BOE also serves as the “tax court” where taxpayers, both individuals and corporations, can challenge the state on the amount of tax they have to pay and in other tax-related disputes. At the same time, the members of the BOE are on the only elected tax commission in the country. So at the same time that they’re deciding how much individuals and corporations have to pay (or not pay) in taxes, they are also fundraising to get re-elected to the Board (perhaps from the same people before them in tax court.) Maybe it’s time to look into the much over-looked BOE.

Overpriced GOP consultant Mike Murphy -- one of the growing army of Whitman political consultants -- told reporters that the Whitman campaign is going to start campaigning in Oakland. Great, Mike. I guess when you have unlimited amounts of cash, you can campaign wherever you please (not that it's likely to have a positive impact for your candidate). After spending $104 million, Whitman has basically pulled even with Jerry Brown, who's spent somewhere in the range of $800,000 so far. Just one tip for Murphy and the Whitman camp -- if you're going to campaign in Oakland, you might not want to advertise on your office that the place is under 24-hour surveillance. That doesn't exactly put out a welcome mat to the community.

California’s legislature shined a spotlight on shadowy corporate tax breaks this week with passage of the California Labor Federation's corporate accountability tax package. These four landmark bills—AB 2564, AB 2666, SB 1272 and SB 1391—introduce basic reporting requirements and performance measures to future tax breaks for major companies. Also, for the first time, the public will have the right to access information detailing exactly which corporation took how many taxpayer dollars, and if that corporation promised to create jobs but instead created massive layoffs and outsourcing, we get some of that tax break back. (Speaking of massive layoffs, we wonder what Wall Street Whitman and Corporate Carly would think of that…) Next, the bills face an uncertain fate against the Governor’s veto pen.

Yesterday, more than 2,000 nurses, union members and supporters came out for a massive rally in Sacramento yesterday in honor of the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Activists dressed in early 20th century suffrage attire, and carried signs that read, “Women Vote for Women Who Vote,” a reference to the fact that Meg Whitman has barely voted for most of her adult life, and is now out to buy the California governor’s seat. "She is just almost precisely the opposite of the leaders of the suffragist movement," said Rose Ann Demoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, which sponsored the event. "We're basically here to call attention to the hypocrisy of her running and to say just because you're female, that doesn't make you a woman."

The California Assembly took a stand for the thousands of Colombian trade unionists who have been senselessly murdered simply for exercising their right to organize and bargain collectively this week, by passing a resolution urging Congress to oppose Bush's free trade agreement with Colombia. A 2008 Human Rights Watch report found rampant high-level collusion between Colombian elected leaders and the paramilitaries who commit the majority of the violence against union workers. Only five percent of the murder cases involving trade unionists result in convictions, and many of those offenders are never actually taken into custody. “Ratifying a trade agreement with a country where union workers, including teachers, are routinely murdered with impunity would send the wrong message to Colombia and workers throughout the world,” said Assemblymember Alberto Torrico, who sponsored the resolution.

by Mike Hall, AFL-CIO

More than 1,500 people, including many women in early 20th century fashion, marched and rallied in Sacramento yesterday to mark the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave women the right to vote.

The rally, sponsored by the California Nurses Association (CNA), also spotlighted how Republican gubernatorial candidate, billionaire CEO Meg Whitman, hasn’t exercised that right during  most of her adult life. She has admitted her voting history is “atrocious.”

Susan Segal, a nurse at Oakland Children’s Hospital, told the San Francisco Chronicle:

Not only did she not bother to vote, but then she has the chutzpah to want us to vote for her.

Many in the crowd carried signs that read “Women Vote for Women Who Vote.”

CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro told crowd that Whitman is “precisely the opposite of the leaders of the suffragist movement.”

This woman has such contempt for working people, and you know what? It’s mutual. We’re here to celebrate the suffragettes and to expose a hypocrite who didn’t bother to vote.

Whitman has spent more than $100 million of her own money on the campaign so far. For more on Whitman and her attempt to buy the governor’s office and impose a corporate agenda on California, click here.

By Rebecca Greenberg, California Labor Federation

Over the last 20 years, at least 2,754 union workers in Colombia have been murdered, simply for exercising their right to organize, bargain collectively and, if necessary, strike. In 2009, 48 Colombian union workers were killed, and 29 have already been murdered this year.

Former President George W. Bush turned a blind eye to this horrific trend of violence against workers when he signed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement back in 2006. However, before it can go into effect, it must be approved by Congress.

Today, California state legislators took action to block the trade agreement with Colombia by voting to approve Assembly Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by Assemblymember Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont), which urges the U.S. Congress to oppose the Colombia Free Trade agreement.

Assemblymember Torrico:

The United States should not enter into a free trade agreement with a nation that is ranked as the most dangerous country for trade unionists. Ratifying a trade agreement with a country where union workers, including teachers, are routinely murdered with impunity would send the wrong message to Colombia and workers throughout the world. If these agreements are ever going to benefit workers rather than just being a race to the bottom, there must be enforceable labor standards.

A Human Rights Watch report in 2008 found high-level collusion between elected leaders and the paramilitaries that commit the majority of the violence against union workers. Yet the office of the Attorney General of Colombia has secured convictions in only five percent of the murder cases involving trade unionists. Many of those sentences were given to people who were tried in absentia and not in custody.

Sacramento Central Labor Council leader Bill Camp recently traveled to Colombia and met with union activists, including one who was later murdered. While testifying before the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee in support of AJR 27, he said:

It’s the wrong message for us to say we will open up our arms to trade with people who have murdered so many, so consistently and have refused to investigate.

The resolution passed the State Senate earlier this week. It will now be sent to California’s entire congressional delegation.

By Steve Smith, California Labor Federation

As millions of Californians continue to struggle in this economy, Meg Whitman will spend her evening today collecting huge checks from corporate insiders at the posh Corona Del Mar mansion of fellow billionaire CEO Henry Samueli.

Of course, there’s nothing unusual about candidates holding fundraisers, even billionaires like Whitman. But there’s more to meets the eye with this particular fundraiser considering the host’s background. And there’s some serious questions that need to be raised about whom exactly would have Whitman’s ear if she were to be elected governor.

Among the most burning questions raised in relation to tonight’s Whitman-Samueli cash bonanza is: Why would Whitman draw herself further into the web of corporate greed and corruption epitomized by Broadcom, the company Samueli led until forced out amidst the nation’s largest stock backdating scandal?

California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski:

Meg Whitman’s decision to hold a high-dollar fundraiser with another billionaire CEO whose questionable practices have drawn the attention of federal investigators is both troubling and illuminating. It’s clear that Whitman is growing bolder in her shameless attempt to buy this election. The fact that she would consort with controversial corporate figures like Samueli to fatten her already bloated war chest shows a serious lapse in judgment.

While many corporate insiders are aware of Broadcom’s troubles, Samueli’s past isn’t on the radar of most Californians. But given Whitman’s close ties to him and other corporate CEOs, it probably should be.

A look under the surface shows Whitman and Samueli have more in common than being billionaire CEOs. Both were corporate insiders whose companies were involved in questionable insider deals that made millions for executives at the expense of shareholders. Both Whitman and Samueli’s companies have been targets of federal investigations into the very same kind of shady Wall Street dealings that drove the economy into meltdown. 

Samueli’s Broadcom was involved in the nation’s largest stock backdating scandal after it failed to disclose to investors that the company had reset the dates of company stock grants to executives in order to artificially boost profits. Broadcom’s backdating scheme resulted an SEC investigation, Samueli’s ouster, and Broadcom eventually paid $160.5 million in investor settlements. Samueli pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators before, in an unusual move, a judge threw out the guilty plea. Samueli returned to Broadcom earlier this year as chief technology officer.

Of course, Whitman is no stranger to corporate scandals. Back in 2001, she was a Goldman Sachs board member who was directly involved in the decisions about executive bonuses and mortgage-backed securities that are now cited as major causes of the economic meltdown and the ensuing jobs crisis. Whitman pocketed almost $ 2 million by “spinning” sweetheart stock deals she scored as a reward for bringing Goldman lucrative investment banking contracts, a practice that soon became illegal.

Whitman resigned from the board after a Congressional probe into spinning but Goldman is still dealing with the aftermath of SEC investigations into the company’s shady dealings and recently coughed up more than $500 million to satisfy the charges.

It’s pretty easy to imagine the enormous influence corporate types like Samueli would have in a Whitman administration. It’s also deeply troubling that it’s that very type of influence Wall Street had with George W. Bush, and we all know the end to that story. If we’ve learned anything from the economic meltdown caused by Wall Street’s greed, it’s that when corporate insiders get too close to government power, working people pay the price.

Pulaski:

The last thing California’s working families need is more of the same corporate greed and corruption that destroyed our economy. Cozying up to corporate insiders in order to get elected shows that Whitman remains tone-deaf to the growing concerns voters have about her Wall Street ties and agenda.

Paid for by the California Labor Federation. Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.

State workers once again face a mandatory three-day-a-month furlough after the state Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s decision to temporarily halt the furloughs. The Governor ordered mandatory furloughs for 150,000 state workers in February 2009, supposedly to save money. The furloughs amount to roughly a 15% cut in pay for state workers, dealing a major blow to the economy in Sacramento and other areas that have large concentrations of state workers. Now ‘Furlough Fridays’ are resuming for state workers, despite studies that have shown that the furloughs do not save the state money and may actually cost the state in lost revenue due to work backlogs and loss of licensing and other fees.

Yet another greedy ex-CEO reveals her true colors on economic policy -- GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina recently announced that she wants to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans. The tax cuts have already cost our country trillions in lost revenue over the last nine years, and respected economists agree that they’ve done little to stimulate our economy (unlike tax cuts for the poor and middle-class, which have proven time and again to be far more beneficial in stimulating consumer spending and economic growth). Extending them for just one year would add $36 billion to the federal deficit. There’s no doubt that Fiorina supports Bush’s tax breaks for the wealthy because, well, she’s super-wealthy and benefits greatly from them. She completely fails to recognize how this massive tax loophole for rich people and corporations has effected our entire economy. In fact, if not for the Bush tax cuts, we might very well have a surplus right now, instead of a deficit.

Carwash workers in Los Angeles celebrated a huge victory this week when the LA City Attorney announced that two of LA’s worst carwash owners -- brothers Benny and Nissan Pirian – have both been sentenced to a year in jail for egregious workplace violations. This major legal victory is in large part due to the carwash workers and allies with the CLEAN carwash campaign, who reported the numerous labor violations that led to the criminal complaint and subsequent conviction. CLEAN carwash campaign director Henry Huerta said it best -- “Carwash owners should take notice that workers can—and will—continue to expose illegal workplace conditions in their fight for a voice at work.”

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed deep cuts to many crucial social services, including In-Home Supportive Services, a program that provides aide workers to allow low-income seniors and the disabled to stay in their homes. This week, the people who depend on IHSS and other state programs came to Sacramento to send a strong message to the Governor—No More Cuts! The theme of the rally was that cuts to services are throwing the most vulnerable Californians into the streets. Protestors illustrated their message by blocking the street with their wheelchairs. Police arrested 22 protestors, including eight people in wheelchairs, for civil disobedience. The protestors, however, were willing to take the arrests in order to demonstrate how the cuts will force them out of their homes and into nursing homes or worse yet, leave them out on the streets.

For the first time, we’re raving about Meg Whitman this week, because it turns out her non-stop advertisements are actually working to our benefit. New polling data from the Jerry Brown campaign verifies what we knew all along – Whitman’s ad blitz is repelling more voters than it’s enticing. Most people who have seen a Whitman ad don’t believe her claims are true. Nearly a third of those polled said that Whitman’s ads actual worsened their opinion of her (by comparison, only 4 percent of those polled said that Whitman’s ads worsened their opinion of Jerry Brown, despite the fact that the vast majority of her ads are attacking Brown). When will Whitman realize California voters can’t be bought, no matter how many flashy ads you inundate them with?

Highlights from Our Facebook Fans and Twitter Followers--

• From Luke Mauerman [via Facebook]: I sent Mz Whitman an email telling her that if she's able to buy the governorship then the least she could do was also to buy me a pony. She hasn't responded.   
• From @sheaanderson [via Twitter]: Every time you see a lying @Whitman2010 ad, donate $1 to @JerryBrown2010. (Will make Jerry a billionaire.)
• From Richard Hausman [via Facebook]: Should [Whitman] become Governor, she'll issue a special coin: her face will be on one side and her other face on the other.

By Chloe Osmer, CLEAN Carwash Campaign

This week, carwash workers, and community and union members of the Community-Labor-Environmental Action Network (CLEAN), rallied at Vermont Hand Wash in support of carwash workers who have been fighting for a voice on the job for more than two and a half years. The event celebrated the car wash workers’ victory against corporate abuse: the announcement by the City Attorney that two of Los Angeles’ worst carwash owners –brothers Benny and Nissan Pirian-- have each been sentenced to one year in jail.

Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor:

Carwash owners are on notice that this is a new day in Los Angeles. Abuse of workers will no longer go unchecked.

According to Henry Huerta, director of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign:

The Pirian brothers were held accountable because workers at the Pirian carwashes collectively stood up for their rights and for better conditions on the job. Their efforts to organize for a voice are finally bringing accountability to the carwash industry.

Carwash workers reported the violations that led to the criminal complaint, and to this conviction. Owners should take notice that workers can—and will—continue to expose illegal workplace conditions in their fight for a voice at work.

Luz Elena Oseguera, a union supporter who was fired from Vermont Hand Wash, told the crowd-

I want to say to all carwasheros that what happened to the owners of this carwash means there is justice for us workers. We are going to keep fighting until we have a union, because that’s the only way that we are going to have real justice on the job.

On August 13, the Pirian brothers, who have become the face of abusive and unrepentant owners in the carwash industry, each pled no contest to six criminal charges brought by the LA City Attorney and were each sentenced by a judge to 365 days in county jail. This is in addition to the restitution they will still have to pay workers in the case.

Protective orders were also issued that prohibit Benny and Nissan Pirian from attempting to intimidate or dissuade any employee or victim in the criminal case from participating in the prosecution of any law enforcement or legal action, and from unlawfully prohibiting these workers from engaging in union activities.

The Pirians remain on probation for four years. During the term of their probation, the carwashes have to keep their payroll and any health and safety-related records open for inspection, without notice, by the City Attorney to ensure continued compliance with terms of the judge’s order. If the Pirians violate the terms of their probation, the remedy is to send them back to jail. The case moves forward with respect to the remaining defendant, former Vermont Hand Wash manager Manuel Reyes.

The Los Angeles City Attorney filed charges of criminal misconduct against Benny and Nisan Pirian, as well as Manuel Reyes and four of the Pirians’ carwash businesses – Vermont Hand Wash, Five Star Car Wash, Celebrity Car Wash, and Hollywood Car Wash – back in February 2009. The charges against Manuel Reyes include witness intimidation, brandishing a deadly weapon and sexual battery.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis commented on the announcement of the sentencing:

All workers deserve safe and healthy work places and to be paid the wages for which they have worked so hard. And law abiding employers deserve a level playing field. I applaud the hard work of all those who fought to uphold the law in this case. Employers should heed this warning - we will not tolerate the exploitation of vulnerable workers.

By Rebecca Greenberg, California Labor Federation

Where does Meg Whitman stand on immigration? Well, that all depends on when she’s being asked, where she’s being asked, and who is doing the asking.

• Last year, in an attempt to cater to her Republican base as she prepared for a heated primary, Whitman told reporters she believes the state should "prosecute illegal aliens and criminal aliens in all of our cities, in every part of California."
• This spring, in a stark reversal, Whitman spoke out against the Arizona immigration law when it first passed in April.
• When Whitman’s primary opponent, Steve Poizner, began gaining traction by veering far to the right on immigration, Whitman’s campaign advisor, former Governor Pete Wilson, produced an anti-immigrant radio ad, touting Whitman’s opposition to “amnesty” and her plan to block immigrant families the having access to education, driver’s licenses and other vital services. He said she’d be “tough as nails” on immigration. Gov. Wilson is the notorious architect of Proposition 187, the initiative that sought to deny immigrant families these same basic rights.
• Whitman’s hypocrisy became even more evident when she told a reporter, “You haven’t seen an ad from me with the border fence,” while at the same time airing TV ads across the state that prominently feature the border fence.
• Just one week after winning the primary, Whitman again changed direction, and began airing Spanish-language ads during the World Cup, indicating she was against the Arizona immigration law.
• But in late July, she went on a conservative talk radio station and said she thinks the Arizona law should stand.
• One week later, Whitman opened a “Latino outreach” office in East LA., and was greeted with a mob of protesters, furious over her perpetual flip-flopping on immigration.
• At the same time, she was also being lambasted by the right-wing John & Ken show, again for flip-flopping on immigration.

By our count, Whitman has changed her position on immigration at least five times since announcing her candidacy. And in her cynical ploy to mask her true positions, Whitman managed to alienate both the left and the right… and certainly isn’t making a case to Latinos. A recent poll shows that Jerry Brown still has a commanding lead among Latinos -- 42 percent for Brown compared to just 18 percent for Whitman.

That’s because California Latinos remember that Jerry Brown stood up for immigrant workers when he marched with Cesar Chavez and gave farmworkers the right to form and join unions to collectively protect themselves from being exploited at work. And they also remember that Whitman has been changing her mind on Latino issues whenever it suits her.

Columnist Thomas D. Elias points out this example:

In one of her Spanish-language ads, Whitman says "The Latino kids attending public schools in California today will be tomorrow's doctors, engineers, businessmen and teachers. I want them to have the opportunity to go as far in life as their God-given talent will take them."

Unless, notes Democratic Party communications director Tenoch Flores, "their hard work and talent take them to a California institution of higher learning." If they make it there and their parents are illegal immigrants (regardless of the kids' own status), Whitman's policy statements say they shouldn't be allowed to stay long. In the spring primary, she said such "Latino kids" should be banned or removed from community colleges and the Cal State and University of California systems. Will Latinos remember those declarations?

Our answer is yes, they do remember. And they will still remember in November, regardless as to how many more million-dollar ads Whitman airs.

Paid for by the California Labor Federation. Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.

by James Parks. Crossposted from AFL-CIO Now Blog

In the political showdown between Wall Street and Main Street, California is a key battleground. With the third highest jobless rate in the country and a towering budget deficit, California needs leaders who can create and save jobs, not just spout ”more of the same corporate bull,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a crowd of thousands at a mass jobs rally in Los Angeles today.

“How are we going to rebuild America? With jobs! Who’s going to rebuild America? Working people with jobs!”

The choice for voters is clear in California, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation. The Republican candidates for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, are mirror images of each other.

Both are failed CEOs. Both slashed thousands of jobs to make themselves richer. And both have a dangerous agenda that will douse any hope for economic recovery. They want to slash jobs. Eliminate pensions. Scale back overtime pay and meal breaks for workers. They’re part of the greed is good crowd. I think it’s pretty clear that’s the wrong direction.

It is crazy that Wall Street would destroy our economy and rob us of millions of jobs, Trumka said, and the Republican response is: “Great! How about more of the same?”

We’re done with that kind of deal for America.

Delegates to the Letter Carriers (NALC) convention, meeting in nearby Anaheim, joined the rally along with union members from the building trades, public employees and other trades to send a strong message: “Paychecks Pay the Bills.”

Participants carried signs highlighting the need for jobs as the top answer to the economic crisis and to push for the 30/10 Initiative to build 30 year’s worth of mass transit in the next 10 years.

They also called for the U.S. Postal Service to continue six-day mail delivery and keep thousands of postal jobs and for more money for public safety, schools, mass transit and health care.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), NALC President Fredric Rolando, Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and community and labor leaders also spoke at the rally in front of city hall.

by Steve Smith, California Labor Federation

Every once in a while you have one of those weeks where it seems like nothing goes right. For Meg Whitman, it’s been one of those weeks.

Workers and community allies have been out in force protesting at a number of her recent appearances, she continues to get slammed from both the left and the right for her hypocrisy on immigration and other issues, top economists shredded her economic plan and polls show she’s continuing to lose support, even though she’s up on the air with wall-to-wall TV ads.

It all started to go south for Whitman at her East LA office opening last Wednesday – coincidentally Meg’s 54^th birthday. Whitman has been flip-flopping on Latino issues as of late, trying to deceive Latino voters on her positions on immigration, education and other issues. She’ll say one thing to an English-speaking audience, and then deliver another message through Spanish-language advertising. As part of her cynical strategy, she decided to open an office in East LA to do “Hispanic outreach.”

Bad idea. Twice as many protesters showed up to her office opening as supporters.

LA Times reporter Seema Mehta chronicled the office-opening debacle in a story last Thursday:

Mike Garcia, president of Service Employees International Union Local 1877 and one of Wednesday's protest organizers, scoffed at Whitman's efforts to woo Latinos. The ads she aired during the World Cup soccer games, the billboards she has scattered across Latino communities and the glossy Spanish-language booklets being mailed to Latino voters won't work, he said.

Latinos will remember that former Gov. Pete Wilson, who was the most visible supporter of Proposition 187, is her campaign co-chairman and that she spoke harshly about illegal immigrants during the primary campaign, Garcia said, adding, "She can't buy the Latino vote."

After the protest, she was skewered on the conservative “John and Ken Show” over her flip-flopping on immigration.

On Tuesday, Whitman’s day got off to a bad start when a group of prominent economists, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, released a scathing criticism of her economic plan. Her proposals, top economists said, would hinder economic recovery. They blasted her plan to cut taxes on the very wealthy while eliminating 40,000 jobs.

Later that day, Whitman sought refuge where she’s most comfortable, at a high-dollar fundraiser with her corporate friends. Unfortunately for Meg, workers led by SEIU Local 521 organized a raucous protest at the Bakersfield event to continue educating voters about her attempts to deceive Latinos. The protest received widespread media coverage.

Whitman was greeted by more than 100 protesters last night in Sacramento, where she held a private $25,000-per-plate fundraiser. Union members representing a range of public and private sector unions protested in front of the Elks Building for about two hours, questioning Whitman’s Wall Street agenda, her corporate background and her proposals to slash jobs, overtime pay and retirement for workers.

Firefighter Jason Livermore, from Local 1909 in Hayward, made the trip to Sacramento to set the record straight on which of the two gubernatorial candidates stands with working people:

Jerry Brown has a proven record of supporting firefighters’ rights. He gave state workers collective bargaining rights, so he has a record of supporting labor and supporting workers’ rights.  Meg Whitman does not.  She has a proven record of supporting the rich.  She is trying to buy the Governor’s race.  

And if that weren’t bad enough, the latest SurveyUSA poll on the race shows that Whitman, despite now having spent more than $100 million in an effort to buy the election, saw her poll numbers slip two percentage points. The race is now statistically even, according to the poll.

While Whitman’s week may be one she’s trying to forget, $100 million can buy a lot of good weeks, too. Whitman’s expected to reach deep into her personal wealth to continue the barrage of misleading TV ads she’s been running for months.

Workers and community allies are going to continue to keep the heat on Whitman in the coming weeks to ensure that come Election Day, her hidden corporate agenda is exposed.
 

Paid for by the California Labor Federation. Not authorized by a candidate or committee controlled by a candidate.