[Marxism] black workers rights

[Zeno Storm <zenostorm@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

what are peoples' positions on the question of opposition to Project Labor 
Agreements (requirements on public works projects that mandate them to have 
union contracts) out of commitment to racial justice? seeking racial justice at 
organized labor's expense? why is there, in the first place, an antagonism 
between some unionized sections of the working class and racial justice? why is 
up to the black chamber of commerce to lead the fight for black workers' rights?
article from the Bay View newspaper, San Francisco, CA

A great opportunity to integrate the construction unions
        
                
                        by Harry C. Alford, NNPA columnist

        
        Harry Alford
One of the most curious situations going on in the political
arena is the strong support construction unions get from Black elected
officials and traditional civil rights organizations.
This blind and unconditional love affair going on even though
construction unions are the most racist organizations in the nation
defies all common sense. It is more than 44 years since the Civil
Rights Act, and the construction trades are no better today than they
were during the struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Unions, per se, have been great and progressive, but the
construction trades have hid behind the “skirt” of that legacy to
prolong their exclusive and discriminatory ways.
The same unions that put out a “contract” on the life of Dr. Arthur
A. Fletcher when he went around the nation implementing Executive Order
11246 [issued Sept. 24, 1965, the first "affirmative action" mandate,
requiring equal opportunity employment by contractors on federally
funded projects] and the Civil Rights Act are still resisting diversity.
That made it easy for us to convince President George W. Bush to
prohibit Project Labor Agreements involving federal money. PLAs are
agreements that prohibit any business other than a union shop from
working on a specific project.
Show me a PLA and I will show you Jim Crow employment plus a locking
out of most Black-owned firms that happen to be nonunion most of the
time. A Project Labor Agreement is a license to discriminate against
Black workers.
We showed President Bush that on the Wilson Bridge Project in the
D.C. area, if we were to have a Project Labor Agreement like Maryland
as opposed to Virginia, it would reduce Black labor by 70 percent. When
the president banned any PLA on the bridge, he actually said, “I want
to support small business and stop discrimination in the workplace.”
That was a great moment for Black employment and business development.
With the new elections, the love affair between unions and the
Democratic Party is about to emerge again. That is fine with me except
with the bigoted construction unions.
I feel that instead of screaming and complaining, perhaps this is a
great time to make a long overdue change. Let’s make the construction
unions integrate.
President-elect Obama has promised groups like the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers that he will end the ban on PLAs. As
he makes good on this promise, we must be vigilant and qualify each and
every PLA. We must look at the demographic goals for each geographic
area which are set by the U.S. Department of Labor and match that with
the current capacity of the applicable construction unions.
In essence, if a major project is going up in Chicago or Detroit, we
must see what the availability is for Black employment - laborer,
journeyman, foreman, management etc. - in that market. If the
construction unions do not have those numbers in their ranks, then we
should file a complaint and stop the “set up” for discrimination. We
have no other option.
Let’s remember how the City of Detroit had less than a 10 percent
Black workforce on their new baseball and football stadiums - the city
is 83 percent Black! - because of a stupid PLA.
Sooner or later the discriminating union halls are going to get the
message and start recruiting Blacks into their ranks once and for all.

This
is a great time to make a long overdue change. Construction unions are
the most racist organizations in the nation. Let’s make them integrate.

When the Indiana Pacers needed their new stadium built, the
construction unions demanded a PLA. The Indianapolis Republican Mayor
Steve Goldsmith saw that he needed to do this to get funding from the
Democratically controlled state legislature.
Black State Representative and Chair of the Budget Committee William
Crawford displayed the wisdom of Solomon. Here was his deal: The state
will put up the money but the PLA will provide that the Department of
Labor standards [requiring the workforce to racially reflect the
population] are met. Harry Alford would verify those numbers and report
them.
The unions got their way, the mayor got his money and Black
employment and contracting wouldn’t suffer. However, it was indeed
creative how the unions met those numbers. They didn’t have enough
local members to make them, so they recruited or brought in workers
from as far away as Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati etc. to work on
the project.
That was the only way they could do it. Also, there wasn’t a Black
in town working anywhere else but on the stadium. It was quite an
experience that I cannot forget.
The pre-apprentice scams, the hush money to civil rights groups and
political contributions will no longer work for the construction
unions. They have got to integrate here and now. We are going to audit
them and rank them market by market.
Anywhere a PLA pops up, the National Black Chamber of Commerce will
be there to scrutinize, challenge and call out any discrimination.
Eventually our leaders and the unions will realize that it is 2009 and
doing the right thing is the only thing they can do.
Never again will we close our eyes, turn our backs or simply ignore 
institutional racism. We will fight and kill it. Yes we can!
Harry Alford is the co-founder, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber 
of Commerce
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