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Hezbollah's Rise, Israel's Fall |
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Today's Stories September 12, 2006 John Walsh Kathleen Christison
Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Col Dan Smith Dr. Susan Block Anthony Alessandrini Dave Lindorff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Joshua Frank Jean Bricmont Sprague / Emesberger Website of
the Day
September 9/10,
2006 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St.
Clair Greg Grandin Peter
Stone Brown Ralph
Nader Brian
Cloughley Col.
Chet Richards David
Model Dave
Himmelstein Ron
Jacobs Fred
Gardner Mike
Whitney Josh
Gryniewicz Daniel
Gross / Joe
Bageant Nicole
Colson Alexander
Billet Poets'
Basement
September 8, 2006 Uri
Avnery Paul
Craig Roberts Bill
Quigley Robert
Jensen Norman
Solomon Keith
Bolin
September 8, 2006 Uri
Avnery Paul
Craig Roberts Bill
Quigley Robert
Jensen Norman
Solomon Keith
Bolin Kristin
S. Schafer Jeffrey
St. Clair Patrick
Cockburn Website
of the Day
Marjorie
Cohn Sharon
Smith René
Drucker Colín Michael
Donnelly John
Borowski Lucinda
Marshall Charles
Sullivan Jeffrey
St. Clair Jonathan
Cook Website
of the Day
September 6, 2006 Stephen
Soldz Dave
Zirin Ramzy
Baroud Noel
Ignatiev Dave
Lindorff Norman
Solomon Binoy
Kampmark Jeffrey
St. Clair John
Ross Website
of the Day
September 5, 2006 Jonathan Cook Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney
Roland Sheppard James Petras Alexander Cockburn
September 4, 2006 Clancy Sigal Jeffrey St.
Clair Anthony Alessandrini Dennis Perrin
Daniel Cassidy
Paul Craig
Roberts
September 2 / 3, 2006 Uri Avnery Jeffrey St.
Clair Ralph Nader Noam Chomsky Allan Lichtman Stanley Heller Rana el-Khatib Peter Montague Laura Carlsen Dr. Susan Block Joe Bageant Scott Stedjan / Matt Schaaf Gary Leupp Stephen Fleischman Paul Balles Ingmar Lee Jane Stillwater Ron Jacobs St. Clair /
Bossert Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
September 1, 2006 Uri Avnery Paul Craig
Roberts Bill Ayers Kevin Zeese Xochitl Bervera Norman Solomon Alexander Cockburn Richard Neville Website of the Day
August 31, 2006 David MacMichael John Ross Edward Said Amira Hass Missy Comley
Beattie Lee Sustar Jonathan Cook Website of the Day
August 30, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts George Salzman Dave Lindorff Leigh Davis Alan Maass Mike Whitney Eliza Ernshire Website of
the Day
Saul Landau Jeffrey Buchanan Dave Lindorff James Brooks John F. Burnett Walter A. Davis Rich Gibson Amira Hass Paul Craig
Roberts
August 28, 2006 John Walsh Sibel Edmonds
/ William Weaver Ramzy Kysia Ron Jacobs Gideon Levy Missy Beattie Virginia Tilley
Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn Jordan Green Azmi Bishara Ray Close Gary Leupp Ralph Nader Joe Allen Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff David Krieger Stephen Fleischman Mary Turck Walter Brasch Jim Scharplaz Israel Shamir Alexander Cockburn Charles Henderson Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
August 25, 2006 Elena Everett Juan Cole Chris Moore James Marc Leas Salah Obeid Claudio Albertani Tom Barry Website of
the Day
CounterPunch
News Service Uri Avnery Nermeen al-Mufti Norman Solomon Megan Wiles Laura Santina Mike Whitney Seth Sandronsky Christopher
Brauchli
August 23, 2006 Dr. Trudy Bond Ramzy Baroud Ron Jacobs Heather Gray Amira Hass Mavis Anderson Ingmar Lee Francis Boyle John Ross
Gilad Atzmon Jack Heyman Eamon McCann Sharon Smith Edward S. Herman Ramzi Kysia Bill Quigley August 21, 2006 Jonathan Cook Paul Craig
Roberts Kathy Kelly Mike Roselle Lenni Brenner Maher Osseiran
August 19 /
20, 2006 Uri Avnery Eliza Ernshire Virginia Tilley Kathy Kelly Marc Levy Stephen Bradberry / Barbara Rose
Johnston William Blum Stephen Fleischman Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Fred Gardner David Krieger Dan La Botz Poets' Basement
August 18, 2006 Brian M. Downing John Blair Alan Hart Craig Murray Chris Dols Emily Kirksey Joaquín Bustelo William S.
Lind Podcast of the Day Website of
the Day
August 17, 2006 CounterPunch
News Service Barucha Peller Ramzy Baroud Rothem Shtarkman Craig Murray Samar Assad Mike Ferner Arnold Kohen Kevin Zeese Missy Comley Beattie Uri Avnery Video of the Day Website of
the Day
August 16, 2006 Merav Yudilovitch Robert Fisk Mark Williams John Ross Christopher
Brauchli John Walsh Ron Jacobs Rachard Itani Felice Pace Niranjan Ramakrishnan Frank, Sharma
and Peterson Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
August 15, 2006 Andrew Ford
Lyons Binoy Kampmark Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Todd Chretien Chris Floyd Mark Engler George Galloway Laray Polk Trish Schuh Website of the Day
Uri Avnery Karim Makdisi Kathy Kelly Robert Fisk Norman Solomon Sunsara Taylor Robert Jensen Mike Whitney P. Sainath Goretti Horgan Christopher
Reed
August 12 /
13, 2006 Jean Bricmont Norman Finkelstein Robert Fisk Adrian Grima Barucha Peller Omar Barghouti Adam Engel Conn Hallinan John Stauber Rev. William
Alberts Fred Gardner Lucinda Marshall Ron Jacobs CounterPunch
News Service Poets' Basement
Col. Dan Smith John Ross Michael Donnelly William S.
Lind Linda Milazzo Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Azmi Bishara Henri Picciotto CounterPunch News Wire Dave Lindorff Jonathan Cook
Uri Avnery Dave Marsh Gabriel Kolko Arthur Versluis Jennifer Loewenstein
Linda Schade Jackie Mason Jonathan Cook Gilad Atzmon
Charles Hirschkind
Tom Barry Cockburn &
St. Clair
August 8, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Paul Larudee Joan Roelofs Dimi Reider John A. Murphy Tim Llewellyn Website of the Day
August 7, 2006 Uri Avnery Karim Makdisi Nadia Hijab Sharon Smith Magan Wiles George Beres Rachard Itani Norman Solomon Stan Cox Mickey Z. Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
August 5 / 6, 2006 Virginia Tilley Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Sgt. Martin Smith Gary Leupp Neve Gordon Ralph Nader Peter Bouckaert Peter Montague David Krieger Michael Donnelly Fred Gardner Catherine Norris Imraan Siddiqi Missy Comley
Beattie Ira Kay Dave Lindorff Pratyush Chandra Ron Jacobs St. Clair / Donnelly Poets' Basement Website of the Day Video of the
Weekend
August 4, 2006 Ralph Nader Brian Cloughley Eliza Ernshire Roger Assaf George Bisharat Remi Kanazi Laura Carlsen Niranjan Ramakrishnan Derrick O'Keefe Mickey Z. Col. Dan Smith Website of the Day
Jonathan Cook Uri Avnery Saree Makdisi Robert Fisk Farrah Hassen Nicola Nasser Ron Jacobs Mitchel Cohen Seth Sandronsky Bruce K. Gagnon Alexander Cockburn
John Ross Chip Mitchell Saul Landau Naseer Aruri Winslow T.
Wheeler Matthias Gebauer Joshua Frank Bill Quigley Manuel Yang Shamai Leibowitz David Himmelstein Lara Marlowe Website of
the Day
August 1, 2006 Michael Neumann Robert Fisk Omar Barghouti Marc Levy Diana Barahona / Jeb Sprague Claud Cockburn Ross Eisenbrey Dave Lindorff John Chuckman Francis Boyle Phil Doe Stephen Soldz Website of the Day
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September 12, 2006 A Joint Attack by the Senate and the NLRBThe War on Nurses and Other WorkersBy SETH SANDRONSKY These are trying times for U.S. labor unions. Their strength is on the wane. There are many reasons why. One reason is a fierce attack by employers and the federal government. Some of the attacks are harder to see than others. A provision in the recently passed Senate immigration reform bill expands the number of foreign nurses who may work in the U.S. Lifting this cap on immigration is the idea of Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, and backed by the American Hospital Association. The AHA represents hospitals, health care networks and systems. Since the 1990 federal election cycle, the AHA has spent just under $13 million, split about evenly between Democrats and Republicans, to lobby candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Immigration is an economic issue. It crosses national borders. Government's role is crucial in this movement of working people. Case in point is the opening of the U.S. job market to some foreign workers. Contrast the Senate's immigration provision for the labor shortage of U.S. nurses and a national labor policy for medical doctors. There is a government restriction on the number of foreign physicians who may practice medicine in the U.S. Thus domestic doctors are the most highly paid in the industrialized world. Why? U.S. doctors are insulated from foreign job competition. Such insulation from foreign competition limits the supply of doctors practicing medicine in the U.S. A limited supply of doctors practicing medicine stateside increases the demand for their labor services. This policy boosts doctors' annual salaries. Their high pay drives up the over-all price of health care throughout the country's economy. No other nation pays more for its health care than the U.S. In 2003, the U.S. spent 15 percent of its gross domestic product on health care versus five percent in 1960, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The U.S. lacks universal coverage. Canada spent 9.9 percent of its GDP on health care in 2003 compared with 5.4 percent in 1960. All Canadians have health-care coverage. In the meantime, the weakening of U.S. blue-collar workers' protection from foreign competition has driven down their real wages, or what their pay can actually purchase in the marketplace. The Senate's provision in its immigration reform bill will drop the wages and benefits of native-born nurses both inside and outside of labor unions. This is the desired outcome for the AHA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Right to Work Foundation, the lowering of their constituencies' costs for labor services. In this way, lower wages help to boost profits for employers. Nursing homes operators and home health-care employers are also seeking more foreign workers. These workers earn very low wages. The American Health Care Association, which represents for-profit nursing homes, and the National Association for Home Care both joined an industry coalition to lobby Congress for a new visa that they hoped would annually admit 400,000 low-skilled workers -- the grist of the home-care field -- which would be equal to the number that now arrive illegally" (Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2006). It is unclear what is low-skilled about caring for people living in their homes. Nevertheless, the basic point that immigration is a labor issue remains. On another labor front, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 23 that a summer ruling by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board could change the employment status of some of the nation's nurses and other wage earners by re-classifying them as supervisors who use "independent judgment." Significantly, supervisors cannot be in unions, U.S. labor law says. The National Labor Relations Act, the nation's primary law determining the rights of employees to join unions and bargain collectively, excludes "supervisors" from the definition of "employee", according to an issue brief from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The Act defines a "supervisor" as "any individual having authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or responsibly to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment." President George W. Bush appointed each of the five current NLRB members. President Clinton appointed the previous members of the labor board. The United States Supreme Court has twice rejected prior Board rulings for minimizing the importance of independent judgment in the assignment or direction of employees by nursing personnel, the NLRB stated in a press release. In those cases, the Board found that nurses who direct other employees in their patient care duties are not statutory supervisors." In 2001 in a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found the Clinton NLRB's interpretation of "independent judgment" to be wrong. The Court ruled that registered nurses on the payroll of Kentucky River Community Care used independent judgment through oversight (such as scheduling) of co-workers' labor. Therefore, the RNs should have the occupational status of supervisors under U.S. labor law, according to the Court. Now at stake in the Bush NLRB decision on the Kentucky River cases, pending since 2002, is the supervisory status of charge nurses employed by health-care facilities in Michigan and Minnesota and manufacturing workers ("leadmen" and "load supervisors") in Mississippi. In terms of the corporate healthcare sector, consider a brief filed by the AHA to the Bush NLRB. The charge nurse's role presumes an education and experience that equip him or her to assume a management function. If charge nurses are not perceived as supervisors with managerial prerogatives, the quality of patient care will suffer, hospitals will continue to experience staff shortages and the already significant financial burdens on hospitals will increase. Charge nurses' loyalties will be strained and their already challenging job of ensuring quality care will only become more difficult. A ruling by the NLRB, the federal agency that certifies union workplace elections, is expected soon. Up to eight million employees inside and outside of labor unions could be affected, according to the EPI. These women and men toil in dozens of occupations, from construction to financial services and health care. Clearly, an NLRB ruling reclassifying nurses and millions of wage earners as supervisors would cut the potential number of unionized employees in the U.S. Plus, overtime wage rates would likely drop or disappear for the newly created category of salaried supervisors. They would see their workloads increase without a rise in pay. Moreover, employees now in unions could lose their contract protections. Welcome to President Bush's ownership society. What is to be done in the face of the Bush NLRB and Republican controlled Congress? For one answer we turn to the 65,000-member California Nurses Association. Registered nurses are the mainstays of the CNA, which also represents nurses through the National Nurses Organizing Committee across the U.S. Crucially, the CNA has been a strong backer of universal health for the U.S. populace, and endorsed anti-war and consumer activist Ralph Nader as a presidential candidate in 2000. The CNA, which was an independent union that decided, in fall 2005, to consider joining the AFL-CIO, has gone beyond getting more bread and butter for its rank and file to advocating for the general public. In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (transforming himself into a liberal Republican now) threw down the gauntlet to the CNA concerning hospital staffing requirements. He sought to keep the ratio of one nurse to six patients. A state law signed by the previous governor, Democrat Gray Davis, required the ratio to drop to 1-5. As an advocate for improved patient care, the CNA opposed Schwarzenegger's move. Everywhere he went in public, the nurses union was there to meet him with protest rallies. This political stance surely has its roots in the largely untold and under-appreciated history of female nurses standing up to male doctors. That book waits to be written. Schwarzenegger's hospital proposal preceded the special election he called for November 8, 2005. Momentum created by the nurses union helped to defeat all four of the governor's ballot measures. His measures would have changed laws on public teacher tenure, labor union dues, legislative district borders and the state budget. A kind of united front emerged to battle the governor. CNA's popularity rose. His dropped. Working people united to take down a politician and his paymasters. There is a lesson here for California and the nation. The lesson goes far beyond voting for or against a ballot measure. Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento Area Peace Action and a co-editor of Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive paper. He can be reached at: ssandron@hotmail.com
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                     |
