News aggregator

Vice President Delivers Detailed, Sentimental Speech at Union’s 2012 Legislative-Political Conference 

 

Janelle HartmanFebruary 3, 2012TNG-CWA

Photo: CWA President Larry Cohen introduces Biden for noon-hour speech.

 

Fresh from a baseball game, still in his uniform, high school senior Joe Biden pulled his candy apple red ’51 Plymouth into the lot of Porter Chevrolet, the car dealership his father managed in Newark, Del.

 

A perk of having a dad in the car business, Biden was there to borrow an even snazzier ride to take his date to the prom. His father, a “graceful, well-read man with a high-school education,” was in the side lot, looking troubled.

 

“My dad was pacing back and forth and he looked up at me said, ‘Joey, I’m so sorry.” Young Biden worried that something had happened to someone in their family.

 

His father told him he’d gone to Farmers Bank, which financed many of the cars he sold. He’d tried to borrow money to send his son to college. The bank turned him down. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, pal,” his dad told him. “I’m so ashamed.”

 

The look in his father’s eyes, the hurt he felt, has stayed with Joe Biden for decades. At CWA’s Legislative-Political Conference Feb. 2, he offered the anecdote as a way of explaining how much is at stake for struggling middle-class families today.

 

“The worst moment for a parent is when you turn and look at your beautiful child and know something is important to their future, whether it’s their health or their education, and know there’s not a damn thing you can do to help them,” Biden said.

 

Although Biden’s family worked out a way to get him to college, it’s never erased his memory of that day. “At that moment, my father’s image of himself was shattered in front of his son,” he said.

 

As he’s often done when speaking to CWA meetings, Biden began with a happier reminiscence – how CWA was the first union to endorse him when Biden, barely a decade beyond his high school prom, first ran for the U.S. Senate.  He won that election in 1972 and spent 36 years in the Senate before President Obama asked him to be his running mate.

 

Shortly before Biden’s speech, the CWA Executive Board announced it was endorsing Obama-Biden for re-election after soliciting input from members online for nearly two months. TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer abstained from the vote, standard practice for the Guild with regard to political endorsements.

 

“Thank you, CWA. Thank you for your endorsement, but thank you for more than that,” Biden said with affection. “You still have a heart. You still get what it means to an awful lot of people out there who go to bed and stare at the ceiling wondering, “Am I going to be able to keep this house? Am I going to have to call my daughter or son at the state university and say I can’t afford it anymore? Am I still going to have my job?’”

 

Addressing those questions and more, Biden’s speech touched on the revival of the U.S. auto industry, 23 months of private-sector job growth and Obama’s recess appointments keeping the National Labor Relations Board alive. As some Republican candidates for president pledge to demolish the Board, anti-union obstructionists in Congress have tried to shut it down by refusing to approve Obama’s nominees.

 

The job growth includes offshored work returning to the United States, such as 1,000 IUE-CWA jobs making GE refrigerators and water heaters. Biden laid out a case for more of that happening.

 

“They figured out that separating R&D and innovation from the factory floor is a mistake, that’s where innovations occur,” he said. “They don’t want to send innovation overseas because it may get stolen. The cost of shipping is going up and it makes less and less sense to ship products across the ocean, especially those products ultimately destined to be consumed in the United States.”

 

Add that to labor costs rising 20 percent a year in China, stronger intellectual property and legal protections in the United States, and the Obama administration’s determination to end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

 

But on top of all that, Biden said, is what business executives told him at a recent summit. “The one thing they repeated is that we have the most productive workers in the world. That is not hyperbole. That is not being ‘nice’ to labor. We have the most productive workers in the world.”

 

He’s hopeful that means, “that your kids are going to hear the word ‘insourcing’ as often as you’ve heard the word ‘outsourcing.’”

 

Biden’s 50-minute speech wasn’t overtly partisan; he even stressed that he personally likes many of his political opponents.  But he sees their ideas as unworkable.

 

“Our Republican friends say we could get a whole lot more jobs created if we paid people the minimum wage, if we paid them just $10 an hour,” he said. “But guys, that’s not what the middle class is about. That’s not what builds the middle class. You’ve got to make and have enough money to own a home, to send your kid to college, to live in a safe neighborhood.”

 

Home ownership is especially fundamental, he said, noting that no one grows up in America dreaming of “renting a nice place.” He provided some of the nuts-and-bolts of a program Obama hinted at in the State of the Union speech, a way to encourage banks to refinance mortgages and “repay the deficit of trust” they created when taxpayers bailed them out.

 

The program will help Americans – likely including many CWA members, Biden said -- who’ve been paying their mortgages on time every month but have been unable to refinance at a lower interest rate because they’re underwater, owing more than their home is now worth.

 

Up to now, banks have been turning down homeowners in exactly that predicament. “The president had a great idea – a trust,” Biden explained. “With a very, very small fee, literally pennies on a hundred dollars for banks with assets over $50 billion, we can create a fund, about $9 billion. The details are still being worked out, but it won’t cost the taxpayers a penny.”

 

Soon, he said. “You’ll be able to go down to your local banker and they can’t say anymore that they can’t take a chance, because the fund will back it up.” On average, refinancing would put $3,000 a year into the pockets of 14 million homeowners.

 

It’s one path toward restoring basic fairness in the United States, Biden said, the sense that if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be OK.

 

It brings back for him another memory of his dad, earlier in his childhood when the family was living with his grandparents in Scranton. At his son’s bedside one night, his dad said, “Joe, I’m going to move away for a year. I’m going to Wilmington. Uncle Frank’s down there. There are jobs down there, honey. It’s only 157 miles away and I’ll come home almost every weekend. And when I get a little bit of money, when I get a job, I’m going to bring you, your mom, Val and Jimmy down. “

 

Biden said, “I was disappointed as hell, but my dad looked at me and said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ He wasn’t full of woe. It wasn’t tragic. He believed it was going to be OK. I don’t know if very many people in my old neighborhood could make that same walk upstairs today and have the same confidence that my dad had.”

 

His goal as vice president is to see that confidence restored. “When I joined the ticket I said, “I’ll judge whether we’ve succeeded or not by whether people are able to turn to their kids and say what my dad said to me.”

 

And then he brought his message full circle. “To do that, we need you,” he said. “We need unions. Unions built the middle class and unions provide that kind of jobs that even when workers aren’t organized, they benefit.”

Rebecca Rosen LumFebruary 3, 2012Pacific Media Workers Guild

Bills loosening restrictions on media access to prisoners have been vetoed eight times by three California governors, but the latest version stands a chance to become law.

Josh KosmanFebruary 3, 2012New York Post

The owners of Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers, both Guild-represented, have hired an investment banker to shop the papers less than two years after creditors took control of the of them.

Bernie LunzerFebruary 2, 2012President, TNG-CWA

By now you’ve heard that the CWA Executive Board has endorsed the reelection of President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden. As a Guild member you should know that keeping with a long tradition I abstained from that vote.

The Guild has many members who directly cover the election, and it’s on their behalf that I abstained. We are committed to protecting our members who can not be involved in politics, and strongly support our members who can be active.

We continue to pursue political issues affecting our industry and labor. Our members understand that all workers, and especially media workers, are currently at threat.

We’re proud members of our union, CWA. We continue to maintain the strong, important identity that Guild Sector members have in that community.

Lawrence O'DonnellFebruary 2, 2012The Last Word, MSNBC

O'Donnell's "Rewrite" segment on the Feb. 1 edition of The Last Word illustrates how vital the little-known Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation is to U.S. workers, and why it matters who's in charge. That's especially important right now to AFA-CWA members and passengers service agents CWA is organizing at American, which is trying to terminate workers' pensions as part of its bankrputcy.

Amanda Peterson BeadleFebruary 1, 2012ThinkProgress.org

According to Alabama state Sen. Shadrack McGill (R), the Bible says that increasing teacher salaries would only lead to less-qualified teachers. At a prayer breakfast, McGill said that doubling teachers’ salaries — starting pay for Alabama teachers begins at $36,144 — would not help education. In fact, he said that keeping teacher pay low is a “Biblical principle.“

Zach CarterFebruary 1, 2012Huffington Post

House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police Wednesday to detain a documentary crew that was attempting to film a hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to film the event.

StaffFebruary 1, 2012TNG-CWA

Nominations are now open for the Charles B. Dale Guild Service Award, TNG-CWA's annual recognition of excellence in local leadership. Submissions must be received by TNG headquarters no later than April 2, 2012. The award is open to local members who serve in an unpaid  capacity as local officers or in other responsible local positions. The winner will receive a scholarship of up to $2,000 for a course in trade union education.

Andrew PhelpsFebruary 1, 2012Nieman Journalism Lab

Reader comments at the Washington Post website have shot up 142 percent since the paper switched to the Echo platform in March 2011, and Post staffers are getting more personally involved. Jon DeNunzio, the Post's interactivity editor says, “In recent weeks we have had more than 40 reporters post in comment streams, and that number will continue to grow.” 

Tom BabinFebruary 1, 2012Calgary Herald

The Calgary newspaper says asking people to volunteer their expertise and register as sources for future stories is a way to "make our journalism better."

Dave CopelandFebruary 1, 2012ReadWriteWeb

Pinterest, the increasingly popular pinboarding social network, is able to present a visually arresting interface in large part by using copyrighted images pinned by users. Although creative bloggers are concerned, the company reportedly stays within the law by removing content upon request of copyright owners.

David BrauerFebruary 1, 2012MinnPost.com

As bargaining continues at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, the Guild has negotiated a two-month extension of a no-layoff provision that was set to expire Jan. 31.

Erin SherbertFebruary 1, 2012SF Weekly

"Local reporters have now become part of the very story they were covering, prompting the local Newspaper Guild to craft this very blunt message to the Oakland Police Department: Back off," SF Weekly reports. Another story is on NBCBayArea.com.

Jonathan W. PetersJanuary 31, 2012Columbia Journalism Review

The benefits of cloud computing are significant, but be careful what you store online, the author warns. "That’s not only because of the technical risk that someone might access my data without my knowledge, but also because the legal protections for journalists using the cloud is, well, cloudy. Congress should clear the air by updating the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 (PPA), which protects journalists generally from government searches and seizures."

Jeni DiPrizioJanuary 31, 2012ABC 24 News

An off-duty TV news photographer tried to document a minor police incident with his cell phone camera, only to have officers grab it, delete photos and video and detain him in the back of a squad car.

Steven MikulanJanuary 31, 2012Frying Pan News

Layoffs, corporate paranoia and the suicides of two former workers have led to despair at the LA. Times, says Ed Padgett, a pressman at the Times for 30 years until he, too, was fired in December.

 

Julie BosmanJanuary 31, 2012The New York Times

Investigative reporting by the nonprofit news operation ProPublica will be published in e-book form beginning in February. Early titles will include "Presidential Pardons" and "Post Mortem," a series on coroner and medical examiners' officers.

Meena Hart DuersonJanuary 31, 2012New York Daily News

When the Travel Channel's Nisha Chittal launched her public profile on Facebook Subscribe, she looked forward to connecting with a community that shared her wanderlust and passion for social media. Instead, she got sexually explicit messages, pornographic photos, and spammy, irrelevant messages from thousands of users around the world. Many other journalists also report being shocked, disturbed or disappointed by Subscribe's results.

Leilani AlbanoJanuary 31, 2012Workers Independent News

After forging a tentative agreement to merge, leaders of Hollywood's top unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, will meet this weekend to finalize their decision. The unions' 70,000 members are expected to vote in April, if the plan goes forward.

NABET-CWA, SPJ Also Sign Letter to Mayor, Police Chief; Seek Meeting

 

StaffJanuary 31, 2012The Newspaper Guild

 

Police Chief Howard Jordan
Oakland Police Department
455 7th Street
Oakland CA 94607

Mayor Jean Quan
1 Frank Ogawa Plaza
3rd Floor
Oakland CA 94612


Jan. 30, 2012

Dear Mayor Quan and Chief Jordan:

We write to object, once again, to unacceptable interference with journalists covering Occupy Oakland protests and resulting law enforcement.
  On Saturday, at least six credentialed journalists were detained and/ or arrested while covering Occupy Oakland protests. They included representatives of the San Francisco Chronicle, KGO radio news, the Guardian (U.K.), East Bay Express, Mother Jones magazine,  and the SF Bay Guardian. Despite repeatedly identifying themselves as members of the media, two were jailed.   Some wore official Oakland Police Department press credentials; others were carrying credentials from the San Francisco Police Department or from their assigning publications or broadcast outlets, a customary practice among working journalists.
Although several journalists were released quickly on the scene, others were held for long periods of time, making it impossible for them to do their jobs. Numerous reports from the scene document officers ignoring reporters presenting their press credentials and admonishing them for not following orders to disperse.

This despite the OPD's own guidelines, which stated, "Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media shall be permitted to carry out their professional duties in any area where arrests are being made unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action."

Earlier this fall, many of us individually and collectively contacted the city to ask for a response to reports that plainly credentialed journalists had been detained and in some cases jailed covering Occupy protests. In another incident,  police grabbed at a camera belonging to an Oakland Tribune photojournalist, breaking off the flash and throwing it to the ground

Freedom of the press is key to our democracy and must be vigorously defended. Arrests of journalists and other police interference with reporters and photographers cannot be tolerated.

We therefore request a meeting with city and police department leaders to discuss the immediate formation of a training and monitoring program to ensure that police no longer detain, harass, or otherwise block journalists from doing their jobs by reporting breaking news in the city of Oakland.

If you have questions about this request, please let us know.


Sincerely,




Bernie Lunzer
President
The Newspaper Guild-CWA
blunzer@cwa-union.org
202-434-7175

Jim Joyce
President 
The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA)

Liz Enochs 
President
Northern California chapter
Society of Professional Journalists

Kevin Wilson
President
NABET-CWA Local 51
San Francisco

Carl Hall
Executive officer
Pacific Media Workers Guild
San Francisco

Rebecca Rosen Lum
Chair, Guild Freelancers unit
Pacific Media Workers Guild
San Francisco