Six California farm workers have died since May from what appears to be heat related causes.  The latest one was Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, who died early this month.  The first one to die was 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died in May.  Marie was about a month pregnant when she died, and likely did not ever know she was pregnant. The state fined the labor contractor $262,700 for failing to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken, but that won't bring her back. And the deaths have continued at an accelarated pace since then.

You can help to end this tragedy. This Monday, August 18, more than 800 farm workers from throughout California want to go to Sacramento to lobby the Legislature on a key bill that will help them help themeselves. They want the chance to tell the Governor and their elected officials to support AB 2386, "Secret Ballot Elections for Farmworkers," which has moved out of the assembly and which will be voted on that afternoon in the state senate.  

How you can help, after the fold.

Clearly, the new EFCA legislation will be a step forward for workers in America but any delusions that workers will be close to a level playing field are misplaced. There are simply too many flaws in our free market system to overcome with a bandage solution while ignoring the real structural problems.

Like many Americans I work for a corporation. I am lucky because I belong to a Union that helps give employees some say in the decisions our employer makes that govern our working lives. Being part of a union has improved my standard of living significantly.

This has not come without having to fight for it. We had to strike in 2005, in 2002, in 1995, and in 1989. Our employer keeps trying to give workers the shit end of the stick, and we have to keep clobbering Management with the blunt interment of a strike to remind the corporate elite that they don't constitute the whole company.

This year the company seems to want another strike. The company's contract proposal if full of putrid take away provisions, like the ones that would eliminate pensions, and retiree health care for new workers.

So now I am saving my money for a strike that is looking more and more likely. This strike could go on for weeks or it could go on for months, like the Strike in 1995 did, when we had enough backbone to reject the company's paltry fall back offer after being out for more than 2 months (after that second rejection the company caved).

This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance!  The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing--not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

(also on dkos)

Call it a positive effect on the falling US Dollar.  Along with an increase activity by domestic manufacturers, foreign companies are now expanding their operations here in the US.  Now, yes I understand that ultimately the money goes back overseas, but they are hiring folks who needed jobs.  To me, that last part is what counts.

I have been writing about the Campaign to Improve Assisted Living -- please visit their website.  

I'd like to talk about the larger picture.  The other day I asked Who Is the Corporation

So here is the thing.  When you talk about a corporation doing something, who are you talking about?  In reality you are talking about a few PEOPLE, not some anonymous corporation, PEOPLE.  And when you talk about the people of a corporation you are not talking about Bob in Sales or Mary in Accounts Receivable.  They are not the people who make decisions -- they aren't even asked.  They are told from the top how it is going to be.  When you talj about a corporation doing or saying something you are really talking about A FEW PEOPLE and the things these people do and say are not for "the company" they are necessarily for THEMSELVES.  Corporations do not have voices or thoughts or ideas, a few people who have control of the resources of the corporation do, and always, always act for their OWN gain.

Here we have a country that allows vulnerable elderly people to be treated as a product to be harvested and workers to be treated as economic units or annoying costs to be replaced if they are not efficient enough.  The average worker faces longer working hours for less pay and fewer benefits each year.

How did we get here?  When did we decide to have a system like this?  Did we ever decide?

Who benefits from this system?  In the case of Atria Senior Living Bruce Wasserstein benefits.  Other executives at Atria and Lazard benefit.  Does anyone else?  Why do we allow it?

We used to have kings and feudal lords who "owned" almost everything and told everyone else what to do.  People rose up, battles were fought and eventually a compromise was reached.  England still has a Queen!

In America workers faced brutal conditions because a few powerful wealthy people controlled the economy and the mines and the mills and the factories.  Over time unions formed and fought this and a compromise of sorts was eventually reached.  And over time those unions have been eroded and things have been slipping backwards.  That is a gross simplification, but here we are.

When do We, the People start to decide what kind of economy we want?  In Europe and much of the rest of the world people get five weeks vacation, health care, child care, and rights.  That is because the people there understand that they are in an ongoing fight between the people and the powerful, and they still have strong unions.  In America a very few get fabulously wealthy, supported by the work the rest of us -- here and in the outsourcing countries -- do.

When will We, the People decide that WE want a better system for US?  I suggest taking a look at the SEUI's Accountability Project.  This campaign is intended to help all of us, not just their own membership.  It's a start.  But in your own actions and thoughts, start demanding more.  Start demanding that the few ultra-wealthy and the corporations butt out of our system. We are We, the People and We are supposed to be in charge here.

This post was sponsored in part by The Campaign To Improve Assisted Living.

I want to share with you all our endorsement today of Sen. Barack Obama. Seth Michaels on our staff has the details below.

The AFL-CIO today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The AFL-CIO General Board, which voted to endorse Obama, includes presidents of all 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, as well as Executive Council members and representatives of state and local federations, trade departments and constituency groups. The General Board votes by per capita membership. In conjunction with the endorsement, the AFL-CIO launched a new website: Meet Barack Obama.

It's becoming self-evident that certain segments of the Democratic Party are revising historical voting trends to shoehorn spin this cycle. Memes regarding one candidate's "base"--a leading candidate in our party--have taken to calling blue collar voters "swing voters."

Having turned 50 a few months back, and also being a Party activist in years past, as well as a Poli Sci major in college--and one with a high regard for 20th Century U.S. History--I always associated blue collar voters with unions (i.e.: "the Union vote").

Now, somehow, Union members--almost all being considered under the dual status of "blue collar"--are being referenced as self-styled "swing voters" (not in their candidate's camp) by many in support of a certain candidate within our Party.