" What is offshoring? Offshoring describes the relocation by a company of a business process from one country to another-typically an operational process, such as manufacturing, or supporting processes, such as accounting for lower labor cost. "
Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, made an appearance yesterday on NBC's Meet The Press program in a round table discussion. Trumka was the only labor representative to appear on any Sunday news show since the Wisconsin protest started almost 2 weeks ago. Some 'liberal media'.
Scott Ross, the Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now appeared on a viewer call-in segment this morning on CSPAN's Washington Journal. One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values. One Wisconsin Now is a 501(c)4 non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization and is not affiliated with nor works with any political party. The group does not endorse nor oppose candidates for political office.
Steve Ross discusses the ongoing legislative battle between the Wisconsin Governor and state Democrats on the budget.
Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President, appeared this morning on the Morning Joe program to discuss Governor Walkers' attempt to eliminate collective bargaining for the majority of public workers in Wisconsin.
With the constant national narrative on budget cutting from the Republicans and corporate media, there has been very little examination on the consequences of the budget cuts and how these cuts would affect working families across the nation.
Republican Governors across the nation have decided to 'declare war' on union workers under the banner of closing state budget shortfalls. Workers in states like Wisconsin have already agreed to wage and benefit reductions to help lessen the financial cost in state budgets, yet that isn't apparently enough to Governors like Scott Walker. He wants unions of public employees in Wisconsin to give up their ability to collectively bargain.
Laura Flanders of GRITtv travels to Wisconsin to interview various representatives of labor there to get insights on just what is happening there.
What did the corporate media all have in common last week? The manner in which they reported on the protests taking place in Wisconsin. As events have unfolded, the singular theme in the media's (television and print) coverage of these events have been attempts to generally attack and question the motives of the public workers who are spearheading these protests. Meanwhile, they have generally portrayed Governor Scott Walker's position as one of reason and necessity to balance the state's budget.
What is constantly missing from the discussions about Wisconsin's fiscal situation is the option to slightly increase taxes on upper income earners in the state as a way to close some of that budget shortfall. That option is never a part of the mainstream media's discussions, whether they are covering Gov. Walker or any number of other Republican Governors who are attempting to balance budgets on the backs of the working class in states like Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois. Why?
Terms like "sacrifice" in the media and in Republican circles have come to mean "everyone except the wealthy." To avert situations like what we are witnessing in Wisconsin, all citizens should be asked to take part in the "sacrifice" equation instead of just some.
Another problem was the resistance to covering the events in Wisconsin. It took several days before all of the mainstream news networks decided to cover these protests. With the exception of MSNBC's Ed Schultz, there was no other coverage initially. Yet, the Tea Party can show up with a crowd of 500 and every camera and correspondent is on air live with a mic interviewing the protesters. There were estimates from yesterday's crowd of around 60,000 protesters. There have been reports from actual participants that only a handful (a few thousand) were protesters in support of Governor Walker. Yet the majority of mainstream news networks portrayed the event as if the pro-Walker participants (50 thousand or more) were equal in number as the anti-Walker participants. Why?
On another note, the Sunday Morning News Show today continued to follow the pattern of down-playing the events in Wisconsin by not having schedule guests on to talk about the events. Fox News was the only show that had a guest on directly involved with the protest and of course that guess was Governor Walker himself. And he appeared, of course, unchallenged. The networks could not manage to book a representative of one of the local public sector unions there? Why is that if the media is constantly branded as "liberal" from the right?
Ed Schultz discussed the lack of media coverage with radio talk show host Joe Madison the other evening. Watch.
Richard Trumka appeared on CSPAN's Washington Journal viewer call-in programtoday to talk about about federal investment in the transportation system as a way to create jobs and spur the U.S. economy.
After Governor Walker proposed a plan to virtually eliminate the majority of collective bargaining rights for most public workers in Wisconsin, the state AFL-CIO on Sunday launched a major advertising campaign against the proposal.
A current bill in the state legislature in Ohio would eliminate collective bargaining for state employees and workers at state colleges. The bill also would drastically limit the bargaining power of teachers, police, and firefighters in Ohio.
A local Ohio television news station, WKRC, reported on this bill. Watch the report.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed a plan to strip union rights. It has bee reported that this plan would effect close to 175,000 public employees in the state. The teacher unions in Wisconsin have come out strongly against this proposal. A local Green Bay television news station interviewed the President of the Green Bay Educational Association Toni Lardinois.
All too often in America today we read so many stories about US companies cutting jobs and shipping them overseas or companies not paying workers living wages. So it was a great change of pace to read about General Motors providing their hourly workers with at least $3,000 each in profit-sharing bonuses this year.
As I surfed online for more information on this news, I noticed that the anti-union/ anti-worker crowds are already out in force repeating corporate anti-worker talking points ad nauseum. One commenter ridiculously urging others "not to buy from GM" or another commenter seemingly hoping that GM fails. I don't understand this insanity?
Do these individuals not realize it was companies like GM that basically built states like Michigan and the strong middle class life that is continuously reminisced about from the 50's and 60's? Do they not realize that without these type of jobs, you would not have a middle class that afforded so many households to have Moms waiting at home when their children returned from school? Do they not realize that these jobs, with their good wages and benefits, allowed so many Americans to send their children to college, often times for the first time in that families' history?
This hatred of workers and unions is something that I truly do not understand? The union is there to represent the workers at the table when companies make important decisions about pay rates, benefits or whether or not to add or cut jobs. Without jobs with good pay, there are no consumers to buy products or services. Without them where would any company be?
Here is a link to a video news report from a local Michigan television station about the GM worker bonus.
President Obama tried once again today to get American corporations to start creating jobs in this country. He made references to President Franklin Roosevelt and the successful partnership he was eventually able to hammer out with big business. That partnership made America the #1 economic 'super power' in the world, creating the largest and most prosperous middle class the world had ever seen.
