<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 2004 -- 4/08/2009 >>>>>

In February, a TV ad campaign was run on Fox and CNN that was critical of
the H-1B visa. It was sponsored by the Coalition for the Future American
Worker (CFAW). Most of the funding for the campaign came from the
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and the Federation for
American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

The video takes place in an elevator that gets very crowded with unemployed
Americans who have been displaced by foreign labor. It's a hard hitting 30
second ad that is targeted at H-1B and other types of guest worker visas.

You can still see the video ad by going to either of these two web pages:

http://www.americanworker.org/
Coalition for the Future American Worker (CFAW)

http://www.capsweb.org/category.php?category=4&rows=30&menu_item_id=44
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)

On the CFAW website there is a list of supporters at the bottom of the
page. ZaZona.com, which is the LLC for this newsletter and the
JobDestruction website, is proud to be one of those supporters. Until
recently, there were three labor unions that were listed as supporters:
Steelworkers Union, AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (AFL-CIO
DPE), and Communications Workers of America Local 4250 (CWALocal4250). Now
there is only one: CWALocal4250.

The other two labor unions requested to be removed from the list. To find
out why this happened continue reading.

This story begins with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). In February, he embarked
on a five-week tour, visiting 16 American cities to "document the harm"
caused by the lack of "comprehensive immigration reform". He called the
campaign a "Family Unity Immigration Outreach Tour". As you all know by
now, Guitierrez's real agenda is to put pressure on Congress and the
President to pass amnesty and to allow unlimited immigration of Mexicans
and Hispanics into the U.S.

At some point of time around the beginning of the Gutierrez propaganda
tour, he contacted the CWA District 4 Illinois office in order to pressure
them to get CWA off the list of CFAW supporters. Specifically Gutierrez
wanted CWA Local 4250 removed.

NOTE: Sorry about acronyms folks, but it's going to get worse.

It didn't take long after Gutierrez contacted the CWA that a staff
representative for the Illinois union office gave a call to CWA Local 4250
to talk to Steve Tisza, who is the president of the Chicago union chapter.
Tisza was informed that Gutierrez contacted the Illinois CWA regarding
Local 4250's alliance with CFAW. Tisza was asked what his differences were
with Gutierrez, as if that mattered. Tisza gave a simple and
straightforward answer - he explained that he differed with Gutierrez's
views on the H-1B and illegal immigration issues. Furthermore, Tisza said
he is not going to remove his chapter from the CFAW list.

At that point it was obvious that Steve Tisza wasn't going to rescind his
endorsement of the CFAW videos, but this story doesn't end yet because the
union bosses didn't give up.

Fast forward to Miami, Florida, where the AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting
was held on March 2, 2009. The meeting was attended by Larry Cohen,
President CWA; Leo Gerard, President USW; Paul Almeida, President of
AFL-CIO DPE, and the AFL-CIO's general counsel's office to discuss the
CFAW. They concluded that it would harm their agendas if they were
associated with the CFAW. The meeting was behind closed doors so nothing
more is known about what was said. They were no doubt pressured by Hilda
Solis who attended the meeting. If you recall, Hilda Solis had a very short
term as President Obama's Labor Secretary until she got into trouble with
taxes. Before that she was a U.S. House Representative from Los Angeles,
California and a member of La Raza (the Race).

It was probably at this meeting that the Steelworkers agreed to capitulate
to the union bosses by pulling out of the CFAW. The AFL-CIO DPE followed
suit. Their problems weren't over though, because there was still a
renegade that was still on the list of supporters to deal with -- CWA Local
4250.

To deal with the Tisza problem, the Executive Council decided to use
Almeida as their hatchet man. His job was to contact Steve Tisza to urge
him to remove the 4250 Local chapter from the list of supporters.

Almeida never tried to order Tisza to pull out. Instead he used an oblique
approach by telling Tisza that the CFAW supports an extremist
anti-immigrant position. Tisza respectfully disagreed and therefore saw no
need to withdraw.

Almeida told Tisza that the CFAW is against the H-1B visa program but their
opposition is not based on the same grounds as the AFL-CIO. An assertion
was made that the CFAW's motives are driven by racism and fear, while the
AFL-CIO answers to a higher moral authority. It's not clear who that moral
authority is, but it's safe to say that Luis Gutierrez and Hilda Solis
answer to the same one. 

Let's clarify a few things before going further.

The AFL-CIO's official position is not to oppose the H-1B program as much
as to make weak reforms to it. They support amnesty and instant green card
programs, which are potentially more harmful to labor than H-1B. The CFAW,
in contrast, opposes the entire H-1B program, instant green cards, and
amnesty, which is why they are considered extremist by the labor unions and
the liberal oligarchs in elected offices. 

The fact that FAIR and CAPS supported the video campaign doesn't mean that
the CFAW is extremist anymore than it means that FAIR and CAPS are looney
fringe groups. FAIR and CAPS are mainstream immigration reform
organizations that Gutierrez and the Southern Poverty Law Center ($PLC)
prefer to characterize as "extremist", and by corollary they like to
tarnish anybody and any organization like the CFAW that is associated with
them. It's the old guilt by association trick that is based on a false
assumption that FAIR and CAPS are extremist. Unfortunately it seems that
everybody in the unions but Steve Tisza is listening to these boobs!

It's very disturbing that the AFL-CIO DPE is taking such a hard line
position on an organization that used to be willing to reach out and work
with unions to help American workers. Previously, when Mike Gildea was
running the DPE they were very supportive of organizations like the CFAW,
which went a long way towards helping to unite many high tech workers with
unions. The DPE built a lot of bridges between the union world and
non-unionized high tech workers. Now the DPE seems willing to torpedo
whatever bridges were built just to appease the far left faction of the
AFL-CIO.
 
In the past the Steelworkers made overtures to unite their brothers and
sisters in high tech in order to protect all jobs in the U.S. For awhile
the Steelworkers were making some very good moves to heal the wounds
between blue and white collar workers. In the past the Steelworkers ran an
associate membership program to enlist white collar workers. Several years
ago the Steelworkers merged with RescueAmericanJobs but they let the
website deteriorate and the activism fade from memory. The
RescueAmericanJobs website morphed into a Steelworkers associate web site
with a murky mission. That Steelworkers associate program has lost a lot of
legitimacy and the incident with CFAW won't help their cause. It's a real
pity to see this happen after all the work dedicated activists in and out
of the Steelworkers union devoted to expanding their scope.

Techsunite and CWA/Washtech were notably absent from the list of
supporters, and considering they are part of the CWA and AFL-CIO it's not
likely they ever will endorse the CFAW videos despite their claim to
support high-tech workers. Many of us have been suspicious of Washtech's
relationship with the AFL-CIO and this is doing nothing to allay those
feelings of mistrust. Personally I hope I'm wrong and they eventually sign
up, but I won't hold my breath.

It appears that the unions are returning to the same old class warfare that
made it so difficult to unite disparate labor groups. Leftie union leaders
seem far too eager to ignore their core members, and to ignite animosity
with white collar workers. This is not the way to build a new labor
movement!

Steve Tisza will soon retire from the union, and odds are that Local 4250
under new leadership will knuckle under to the Gutierrez goons. Sadly he
might be the last union leader who is a flag waving, Harley riding,
patriot. Is there any other union leader who is willing to step up to the
plate and sign on as a supporter? Could it be that Steve Tisza the only
union guy left with balls and integrity?  The answer is probably self
evident, but it's worth asking anyway.


REFERENCES:

http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1360
Press Release -- Gutierrez Expands "Family Unity" Immigration Outreach
Tour: 16 Cities in Five Weeks

http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=20045&security=1601&new
s_iv_ctrl=1741
Congressman Luis Gutierrez Travels on National Amnesty Tour While U.S.
Workers Stand in Unemployment Lines

http://www.cwalocal4250.org/
Communications Workers of America -- Local 4250

http://washtech.org/
Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of
America, Local 37083, AFL-CIO

http://www.dpeaflcio.org/
Department for Professional Employees (DPE)

http://www.fightbackamerica.net/
United Steelworkers Associate Member Program

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/answering_our_critics/puppeteer.html#splc
What is the SPLC?

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp
Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate Group Map

http://www.channelingreality.com/Economic/attempts_to_rescue_american_jobs.h
tm
We Tried to Rescue American Jobs


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTE: This is an email sent by Steve Tisza to Paul Almeida. Almeida
declined to give me permission to make public the email that prompted
Tisza's reply. So far, the questions raised in this email have yet to be
answered.


From: Steve Tisza [mailto:istvantisza@hughes.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 8:33 PM
To: palmeida@aflcio.org
Subject: Re: H1b visa issues


Paul:

Thank you for your views on the "Coalition for the American Worker" . I was
asked to support this group by a well known, respected activist to
reform/repeal the H-1B Visa program, Dr. Gene A. Nelson. He too has
lobbied/testified to Congress many times over the years and I respect and
admire his never ending work on this issue. Rob Sanchez is also a tireless
advocate to reform/repeal the H-1B Visa program and a supporter of the
"Coalition for the American Worker" who I also respect and admire.

You said; "CFAW has supported an extremist anti-immigrant position for a
long time.  While they
are against the H1B visa program their opposition is not based on the same
grounds as ours. "

What specifically is their "extremist ant-immigrant position?"

AND

What grounds do they base their opposition to the H-1B Visa Program that
differ from the AFL-CIO?

I would like a copy of the AFL-CIO "Ray Marshall Report" AND  answers to
the above questions before making a decision on submitting a proposal to
our Local Executive Board to withdraw CWA Local 4250's support for the
"Coalition for the American Worker".

In Unity-Strength & Solidarity:

Steve Tisza, President
CWA Local 4250
Chicago

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