News Bytes: Breaking News & News Bytes:
from Partners of The Portland Alliance
A Portal for the Writings of Lawrence S. Wittner: www.theportlandalliance.org/wittner
The Shame of Nations: A New Record is Set for Spending on War
By Lawrence S. Wittner
On April 17, 2012, as millions of Americans were filing their income tax
returns, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute (SIPRI) released its latest study of world military spending. In
case Americans were wondering where most of their tax money -- and the tax
money of other nations -- went in the previous year, the answer from SIPRI
was clear: to war and preparations for war. (click this link for more)
First Some Mangled Messages: NY Times TOP NEWS Section: The Corporate Connection
~Some view the New York Times as some sort of progressive perspective...
But we have observed that too often the Times serves as a tool for the corporate elite.
Yet among the faint praise and disinformation, some truths are revealed...
tmf...
TIMES QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"Our government told us to come back to the village
and then they let the Americans kill us."
ABDUL SAMAD, of Panjwai, Afghanistan.
An Afghan Comes Home to a Massacre
By TAIMOOR SHAH and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Once a believer in the offensive against the Taliban, Abdul Samad,
who lost 11 family members in a rampage, is now insistent that United States
forces get out. Officials said the attack was carried out by an American sergeant.
• Security Fears Lead Groups to Rethink Work in Afghanistan
• Photographs: Shooting in Afghanistan | Times Topics: Afghanistan
~But more often, what we get from The Times are relatively partisan plaudits,
disguised as journalism, masquerading as news, but misrepresenting events,
trends, and geopolitical machinations...
Obama's Rating Falls as Poll Reflects VolatilityBy JIM RUTENBERG and MARJORIE CONNELLY
Despite improving job growth and an extended Republican primary, President Obama's approval rating dropped substantially in recent weeks, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
All That Jazz
U.S.
Today in History
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) News
Published: March 13, 2012
Today is Tuesday, March 13, the 73rd day of 2012. There are 293 days left in the year.
Printer Friendly Format
~ And too soon the Times reverts to form... In spite of the harsh realities of unemployment approaching 25%,
when we count those who no longer even try to look for work, the Times and other corporate clowns are
wont to claim than unemployment is "down" when in fact it is at record levels, people are losing their homes,
pensions are being "disappeared", and while the rich get richer, the middle class shrinks, and the ranks of the
poor grow, in spite of hunger, deprivation, and avoidable deaths...
U.S.
Fed Weighs Job Gains
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) News
Published: March 13, 2012
Since the Federal Reserve's policy-makers last met in January, the job market has shown more muscle. Employers have hired more than a half million people. The unemployment rate is down.
Printer Friendly Format
So, The Alliance is proud to present real news:
Actual News Bytes from Progressive Partners:
Alternative news for everyday people:
Skanner News Bytes: Oregon Passes Foreclosure Reform with One Tiny Problem: Enforcement
Struggling homeowners will get help, by Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News on March 09, 2012
The last-minute success of a foreclosure reform bill, which the Oregon Legislature passed on the last day of this year’s session, astonished even seasoned Salem watchers.
“We did the impossible; I’m not kidding,” says Angela Martin of the nonprofit advocacy group Economic Fairness Oregon, which lobbied hard for the bill.
“Homeowners will now have the right—whether they are in default or are underwater with their homes, but have not fallen behind – to have a face to face meeting with their lender. The lender has to show up and they have to send someone who has the power to make decisions and can give a full accounting of any fees the bank says they owe.”
Angela Martin, executive director of Economic Fairness Oregon
Picture from The Skanner
How effective the reform will be remains unclear, since the law doesn’t give the Attorney General power to enforce it.
What the new Oregon law does say is that mortgage lenders must meet with homeowners in the presence of a mediator and make a good faith effort to avoid foreclosure. In addition, banks are forbidden from simultaneously pursuing foreclosure, while telling homeowners they are working with them to modify their loans. The mediation will cost $200 each for lenders and borrowers, but mediators can waive the fee for struggling homeowners.
“It ends the dual process that banks have been involved in,” Martin said. “It’s surreal. They tell homeowners they are working with them and have them fill in forms for loan modifications. Then maybe they lose the paperwork and the homeowner has to do the forms again. But all the while the bank is fast-tracking them to foreclosure without their knowledge. So the homeowner can think they will get a loan modification in a week and two days later the bank will foreclose on them. With this law the lender is forbidden from doing that.”
...But the Attorney General’s Office says enforcement was not part of the deal.
“While the AG (Attorney General) is given the responsibility of creating the mediation program required by SB 1552, the legislature did not give the AG any authority to enforce violations of the act,” says Tony Green, communications director for the Attorney General’s Office.
Asked what that means for enforcement, Green said, “There are questions about enforcement.”
...By the Numbers
• U.S. homeowners lost 1.8 trillion of home equity in the housing crash –about $20,000 per household.
• 1 in 5 homeowners are underwater and owe more than their homes are worth.
• Borrowers of color are 30 percent more likely than Whites to have high interest loans even after accounting for income level and credit rating.
• 5.9 percent of Oregon homeowners are behind with payments.
• 3.9 percent of Oregon homeowners are in foreclosure.
Source: The Center for Responsible Lending
The Big Picture
...Across the United States investigators have uncovered multiple cases where banks were found to have abused the foreclosure process and committed fraud through practices such as forging documents and altering dates. Lenders employed “robo-signers,” to sign off on hundreds of thousands of legal documents without having any knowledge of the cases.
In many cases, homeowners complained it was impossible to locate the actual owner of their mortgage because the loan had been chopped up and then bundled into multiple packages for sale to investors. When too many of those loans went sour, investor confidence fell and the financial markets collapsed along with the real estate market.
The five largest banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and Citigroup) last week reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states, including Oregon, that ends a 16 month investigation into foreclosure abuses. Under that settlement, one part of that deal gives Oregon $30 million specifically to help struggling homeowners.
According to the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, which is also responsible for enforcing that settlement, homeowners who have been foreclosed on by one of the five banks will receive $1700. The remainder of the money will be used to bring down the principal of loans and to help struggling homeowners.
The Wall Street Journal last week reported that banks made record profits in 2011. “Bank net income in 2011 was $119.5 billion, a hike of $34 billion from full-year 2010 earnings,” writes Ronald D. Orol in a Feb. 28 article for the journal’s MarketWatch section. The article also notes that banks still are lending far less than in the past.
Martin says the banking industry is responsible for creating the foreclosure crisis because its leaders deliberately pursued reckless lending policies they knew could not be sustained.
...“They said ‘We’re the financial professionals, trust us’. And millions of Americans did,” Martin says. “But their loans triggered the financial crisis and now we’re in a place where we have millions of Americans out of work. We lost our jobs because they took our homes.”
Contact a HUD-Certified Counselor
AFRICAN AMERICAN ALLIANCE FOR HOMEOWNERSHIP
Oregon Plaza Building 825 NE 20th Avenue Portland, Oregon 97232
Phone number: 503-595-3517
Web address: www.aaah.org
Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution counseling
CLEARPOINT FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS
9955 SE Washington, Suite 301
Portland, OR 97216
877-877-1995
Web address: www.clearpointccs.org
Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling
HACIENDA CDC
5136 NE 42nd Ave.
Portland, OR 97218
Phone: (503) 961-6413
Web address: www.haciendacdc.org
Mortgage Delinquency and Default Resolution Counseling
Weekly foreclosure prevention information session
PORTLAND HOUSING CENTER
3233 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, Oregon 97232 Phone: 503-282-7744-106
Web address: www.portlandhousingcenter.org
More information at The Skanner http://www.theskanner.com/section/Northwest-News
-
|
Labor Notes Magazine, April 2012, No. 397
Web Exclusive
Mischa Gaus
| March 15, 2012
A
California teachers union struck a deal with Governor Jerry Brown that
would combine a millionaires tax with a sales tax boost. Union activists
split on the move, saying it contains key flaws, but shows how the
debate on taxes has shifted.
Jenny Brown
| March 16, 2012
Women
workers are attacking low pay and bias from many angles, assailing wage
laws that exclude them, suing over outright discrimination, and trying
to organize unions. And they’ve been confronting the disrespect that
accompanies smaller paychecks.
Magazine
Mischa Gaus
| March 15, 2012  Print only
If the war against unions has reached a tipping point, Wilma Smith is among those determined to rebalance the scales.
The 58-year-old assembler at the General Electric plant in West Burlington, Iowa, was called back to work in September.
Theresa Moran
| March 20, 2012
New
York City teachers decried the release of test-based evaluations they
say seek to discredit them and get rid of as many as possible. The
flawed data wouldn't have been gathered, some noted, without their
union's initial approval.
Jane Slaughter
| March 15, 2012 Print only
Workers
in the nation’s sprawling distribution network hold enormous potential
power. They bring $622 billion of goods each year from abroad to retail
shelves. A work stoppage in any section of the interlinked network—dock
workers, railroad workers, truck drivers, warehouse workers, store
workers—could shut off the spigot of goods that keep consumers happy and
keep profits churning through the supply chain.
Pat Fahy
| March 15, 2012 Print only
Just
a few days shy of the six-month anniversary of last August’s bitter
Verizon strike, bosses in New Jersey celebrated by announcing the layoff
of 336 technicians.
The mass firing will leave only 20 Verizon Connected Solutions techs
in the entire state, and will begin April 3. The layoffs pour fuel on
the contract fight that continues for the 45,000 Verizon union workers
on the East Coast.
Eduardo Soriano-Castillo
| March 22, 2012
As
Florida's tomato pickers turn their attention to grocery chains,
they're training farmworkers to form committees and stand up for
themselves on the job—and reporting notable success.
Liz Blum
| March 15, 2012 Print only
The
U.S. Postal Service announced in late February that 223 of its 461
processing plants will close. But 35 more won a reprieve, giving hope to
Vermont postal workers and community supporters who are fighting to
save the mail and good union jobs.
Steward's Corner
Robert Schwartz
| March 15, 2012 Print only
Lockouts
seem to be everywhere. At Cooper Tire in Ohio, sugar beet plants in
North Dakota, the New York City Opera, the National Football League, and
Caterpillar’s locomotive plant in Ontario, management is using the
tactic to try to force outrageous concessions. BREAKING: Reports say the president just offered to cut Social Security benefits, if Republicans agree not
to let the U.S. default on its debts. 1
It's his offering to the out-of-control Republicans, who are threatening to crash the economy in order to ram
through savage cuts to crucial government programs.
It's sickening to think that millions of seniors would have to sacrifice in order to appease Republican hostage-takers.Especially because every poll shows overwhelming majority of Americans support raising taxes on the rich and protecting
Social Security and Medicare.2
But there's still time to stop this "bargain" in its tracks. Whatever deal the president offers Republicans
will need Democratic votes to pass Congress. So we need Democrats in Congress to stand strong and oppose any benefit cuts
to Social Security and Medicare.
Can you sign our emergency petition to Democrats in Congress and tell them to stand up and tell the President
they will not vote for Social Security and Medicare benefits cuts?
President Obama is making a huge mistake that will cost our country dearly.
Nurses Back Down Hospitals
Winning a union is just half the battle: The other half is securing a first contract. A tired but happy union negotiating team at Rite Aid's huge California warehouse won a first agreement this week, following three years of talks and a vigorous campaign that spread to other unions and other states.
Nurse unions in five states threatened strikes to honor Nurses' Week, and they too bucked management, winning settlements that beat back health care cost hikes and strengthen patient safety by controlling how many patients a nurse cares for.
|
The Mood in Wisconsin: Shaken, Angry, but Proud
Wisconsin public sector unionists
face a sobering situation after weeks of unprecedented activism: for
many, no contracts. Yet their mood is proud and angry. They're acutely
aware how their struggle has inspired others. |
Teachers Are Singled Out in Attacks
on Public Workers
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Egypt's Strikes Lead the Way to Freedom  As crowds celebrate the departure of Egypt's dictator Hosni Mubarak, tens of thousands of striking workers are among them. Workers' strikes became a central part of the protests that unseated Egypt's government this week.
Labor Notes interviewed teacher unionist Abdel Hafiz on the future of the protest movement and Kamal Abbas, director of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, an independent group, about workers' participation in the Egyptian revolt.
A wildcat action that began Tuesday among 6,000 workers in the Suez Canal showed how some workers' central position in the global economy can amplify the leverage of peoples' movements.
|
Chipotle's Chipocrisy: Dissing
its Mexican Workforce 
The Mexican-themed fast food chain Chipotle likes to hold itself up as a
model of social responsibility, but labor activists in Minnesota say
its ethical behavior doesn't extend to its immigrant workers. Chipotle
fired nearly 700 Latino immigrant workers without notice and in some
cases without paying back wages. SEIU and a worker center are helping
workers fight back. Read more. |
Come Celebrate the Rebel Rank and File Tonight in New York  Come to a discussion tonight with editors and contributors to the new book: Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt from
Below During the Long 1970s
Friday, February 11 at 7:30 PM Brecht Forum, 451 West Street between Bank & Bethune in Manhattan
Labor
Notes emerged from this generation of upheaval, and several Labor Notes
supporters from this remarkable era contributed to this volume and
will share its lessons for today's labor movement. Speakers tonight will include Aaron Brenner, Steve Early, Judith Stein, and Dan La Botz. |
Hotel Workers Target Hyatt
 Hyatt
hotel workers are on the march again. They're calling out management's
push for more work in less time, plus the chain's demands to push more
health care costs onto workers and "lock in the recession" at the
bargaining table. In San Antonio, Texas, workers put the focus on excessive workloads that cause injuries. Read more.
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UK Government Wants Volunteers to Make Up for Massive Public Service Cuts
 Great
Britain's conservative government says voluntarism can compensate for
enormous cuts to the public sector. The idea is nearly devoid of content
and unrealistic, because no amount of voluntarism can compensate for
the huge cuts to the public sector. Really, the idea is an excuse for
more privatization. Read more.
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In the Troublemakers Blog 
In San Francisco, the Young Workers United worker center takes the long
view, building membership and mobilizing to advocate for improved
working conditions--with unusual success. Among their achievements is
winning paid sick leave for all workers in the city. Read more.
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Boost Your Trainings with the
Indispensable Guide for Union Activists
 A Troublemaker's Handbook 2
is the essential manual for workers who want to take control over their
lives at work. In hundreds of first-person accounts, workers tell in
their own words how they did just that.
Each chapter in the
oversize, 372-page guide ends with questions designed to get you
thinking strategically about how to apply what you've read to your
workplace. Get your copy here.
It's a great way to get new
stewards up to speed, and special discounts apply for locals that buy
five or more to use in trainings. Call us at 313-842-6262 to see how
much your local can save!
Check out this and other great books, T-shirts, stickers and other troublemaking merchandise at our online store.
| |
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 For more than 30 years Labor Notes has been a home base for activists who want to put the movement
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