>of an ad so repugnant on so many different levels it
>boggles the mind."
>
>The 135,000 members of SAG and AFTRA went on strike May 1
>after contract talks with the two main ad agencies broke
>down over pay issues. Actors are demanding residual fees
>when their ads are rerun on cable television, as they are
>for network TV advertising. They also want to discuss a pay
>structure for advertising on the Internet. Meanwhile,
>advertisers want to abolish "pay-per-play" residuals for
>network TV, and give actors a lower flat raise instead.
>Strikers are picketing at the site of ad filming, and
>several prominent figures--including golf star Tiger Woods
>and Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra--have
>refused to cross the picket lines, forcing cancellation of
>filming.
>
>`KISS MY FOOT,'SAY RENO COCKTAIL SERVERS
>
>Women who work as cocktail servers in Reno, Nev.'s
>bustling casinos are challenging requirements that they
>wear painful high heels on the job. They launched a "Kiss
>My Foot" campaign in February. On May 15, they rallied with
>supporters in Reno and "burned"spike-heel shoes on a mock
>fire. The women--who sometimes have to haul heavy drink
>trays in heels as high as three inches--are demanding a
>choice of more footwear. Their movement is supported by 18
>groups, including the Nevada Women's Empowerment Project,
>the Alliance for Workers' Rights, the NAACP Reno branch,
>and the state AFL-CIO.
>
>"We're mothers, daughters, sisters. We're not selling
>sex.we're selling efficient service. We want a choice. We
>want some dignity," said protest organizer Kricket
>Martinez, a cocktail server at Circus Circus. "This is a
>discrimination in the workplace issue. You don't see men
>running around in high heels in casinos."
>
>"I soak my feet all the time after work," said Linda
>Kline, who works with Martinez. "You walk miles and miles
>during one shift." After foot surgery eight years ago,
>Kline got permission to wear lower heels, but joined the
>protest to support her co-workers who still suffer. "I'm
>here fighting for them," she said. "I don't think it's
>necessary for women to suffer physically for the sake of
>men's visual pleasure."
>
>Servers "sometimes go home with blood in their shoes,"
>said Wanda Henry. "You can hardly walk to the parking lot
>at the end of the day sometimes." A cocktail server for 21
>years, Henry is operations director for the Culinary Union
>Local 226, which represents many casino servers.
>
>Groups supporting the "Kiss My Foot" campaign conducted a
>survey of cocktail servers and physicians who treat foot
>injuries. Results released the day of the protest were
>overwhelmingly in favor of giving servers a choice in
>footwear. Of 80 servers surveyed, 75 percent said they have
>experienced discomfort or injury from required shoes.
>Meanwhile, all the doctors surveyed said wearing high heels
>may lead to medical conditions that require surgery to
>remedy. Doctors also said high heels can affect other
>physical conditions--including tendonitis, low back pain,
>knee trouble, arthritis and muscle and skeletal conditions.
>
>Organizers plan a later protest in Las Vegas to keep up
>public pressure on the gaming industry. Marching in
>comfortable shoes with signs reading "Hey, boss: Kiss my
>foot," they also vowed to push for a state law mandating
>lower heel heights and to reach out to the Occupational
>Safety and Health Administration for help.
>
>AIRLINE PILOT POWER
>
>Pilots at a number of airlines are struggling to win more
>hiring and new contracts. At United Airlines, pilots'
>refusal to work overtime has forced the company to hire
>more flight crewmembers. The union dryly observed that
>United's practice of counting on pilots to work overtime
>was "not a wise strategy." United's 10,000 pilots drove the
>message home by turning down overtime after the union
>submitted stalled contract talks to mediation last month.
>
>Pilot wages had been linked to an "employee stock
>ownership plan." But the plan ran out on April 12, and
>pilots are now demanding higher pay and improved benefits--
>showing how quickly struggle can resume when the workers'
>illusions of "ownership" in a company end.
>
>"Nobody's calling in sick. Nobody's not doing their job,"
>said a circumspect Herb Hunter of the Air Line Pilots
>Association. "We've advised the company over the last six
>to nine months that we're going to be short of pilots . now
>it is happening." As flight cancellations mounted, United
>scrambled to hire more pilots and "fine tune" its flight
>schedules.
>
>Pilots at Trans States Airlines threw up informational
>picket lines at Boston's Logan Airport on May 15 and 16 "in
>hopes of avoiding a strike and shutdown of the airline over
>the Memorial Day Weekend," according to the union. Pilots
>of the St. Louis-based regional carrier, who belong to
>ALPA, have been without a contract since November 1998.
>They could strike on May 27, at the end of a 30-day
>cooling-off period. A walkout at Frontier would affect air
>traffic to 50 markets nationwide, including Delta and TWA
>connections. The pilots are fighting for improved wages,
>insurance and retirement benefits, better working
>conditions, and more reasonable working hours.
>
>Meanwhile, 228 Frontier Airlines pilots ratified their
>first contract by 85 percent on May 15. The new contract
>brings "significant improvements to working conditions and
>pay and benefits," according to Captain Ron Stock,
>president of the Frontier Airlines Pilots Association. The
>five-year agreement was negotiated and ratified in less
>than nine months.
>
>
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <065601bfc8e3$9c3bcf40$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Comrade Grandpa Bear, presente!
>Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 16:30:47 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>COMRADE GRANDPA BEAR, PRESENTE!
>
>By Barb Neth
>Buffalo, N.Y.
>
>The Buffalo branch of Workers World Party has lost a
>respected and beloved comrade in struggle: Bill "Grandpa
>Bear" Swanson. Grandpa Bear, a militant Native warrior,
>died May 8 from cancer. He was 59 years old.
>
>Grandpa Bear was a member of the Cayuga Nation, one of the
>nations that comprise the Haudenosaunee Six Nation
>Confederacy. His understanding of the need for solidarity
>among all oppressed peoples made him a respected and
>powerful force in the struggle here.
>
>In the early 1990s Grandpa Bear was a member, and then
>executive director, of the New York Chapter of the American
>Indian Movement. He fought for sovereignty for Native
>peoples, and was especially active in the struggle to free
>Native warrior Leonard Peltier. He later joined with AIM's
>Confederation of Autonomous Chapters.
>
>In 1997 he organized Native participation in the seventh
>U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan over the Peace Bridge in
>Buffalo. The caravan of school buses and cars carried
>school and medical supplies for Cuba, challenging the U.S
>blockade.
>
>Grandpa Bear said at that time, "The people of Cuba are
>our brothers and sisters. We must all join together as one
>and put aside our differences to fight this and all
>struggles. It is the only way to be successful. That is why
>the government wants us divided. Long live Cuba!"
>
>In the same year, the Cattaraugus Senecas shut down the
>New York State Thruway where it passed through their land.
>Gov. George Pataki ordered New York State Troopers
>stationed there to enforce an embargo on oil and cigarette
>deliveries to Seneca businesses. The state demanded a tax
>on sales on the reservation.
>
>Grandpa Bear rallied supporters to demand that the
>troopers be removed from Native land. He argued that it was
>the right of the Senecas to determine whether or not to
>sell tobacco and gasoline, without the interference and
>occupation of New York State.
>
>Despite having 2,000 state police surround the Cattaraugus
>Indian Reservation, Pataki was forced to retreat due to
>overwhelming broad public support for the Native nation and
>widespread outcry against the governor's actions.
>
>HE UNDERSTOOD THE POWER OF SOLIDARITY
>
>In the late 1990s, Grandpa Bear founded the North American
>Native Warriors Association. The group organized and led
>bridge crossings that halted traffic at every international
>bridge between Western New York and Canada.
>
>The crossings protested the failure of the Canadian
>government to honor the 1794 Jay Treaty. That treaty states
>that Native people can freely cross back and forth across
>the bridge without paying duty or taxes on their goods.
>
>The bridge crossings also demanded the release of all
>political prisoners, including Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-
>Jamal and the Puerto Rican 16.
>
>Grandpa Bear reached out to communities of all oppressed
>peoples and their supporters to take part in the bridge
>crossings. He was able to mobilize increasing numbers of
>participants from the African American community, peace
>movement, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
>communities.
>
>He also drew participation from activists against the
>death penalty, anti-police brutality struggles and most
>recently student organizing against the World Trade
>Organization and the World Bank.
>
>Grandpa Bear also showed his solidarity with these and
>many other struggles through his presence and support at
>many picket lines and demonstrations.
>
>He took part in picketing a large downtown office
>building, demanding that union janitors be hired back after
>they were displaced by a non-union workforce.
>
>Grandpa Bear spoke at protests and rallies against the
>U.S. wars waged against the people of Iraq, Yugoslavia, and
>South America. He pointed out the similarities between the
>U.S. pillage of natural resources of Native people here and
>the imperialist exploitation of oil in the Middle East. He
>said these struggles were connected as one.
>
>During this same period of time, Grandpa Bear helped
>organize a successful campaign to explode the "Maid of the
>Mist" myth marketed by the Niagara Falls tourism industry--
>a myth that perpetuated racist stereotypes of Native
>peoples.
>
>He also organized protests against renaming Buffalo
>streets in honor of Christopher Columbus--a symbol of 500
>years of Native oppression.
>
>Last spring, Grandpa Bear and Native women supporters
>joined pro-choice forces in Buffalo following the
>assassination of Dr. Barnett Slepian. Dr. Slepian was a
>highly respected and loved obstetrician/gynecologist who
>provided a full range of health services, including
>abortion.
>
>Grandpa Bear helped defend women's health clinics against
>the right-wing onslaught that threatened to close them. A
>poster prominently displayed on his van read "North
>American Warriors support women's rights."
>
>The very first time he spoke to a Workers World Party
>public forum, Grandpa Bear declared, "I'll struggle against
>the forces of oppression until the last breath of my body
>is gone."
>
>He lived up to his word.
>
>His spirit and legacy will continue to live on in those
>who knew him and are in the forefront for the struggle for
>justice. The Buffalo branch of Workers World Party says,
>Comrade Grandpa Bear, presente!
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <065c01bfc8e3$c3796ef0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] New York: Poverty soars while profits boom
>Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 16:31:53 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 1, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>NEW YORK: POVERTY SOARS WHILE PROFITS BOOM
>
>By Leslie Feinberg
>New York
>
>Public policy experts have long touted three bootstraps by
>which single, jobless mothers can supposedly pull
>themselves up out of impoverishment: a college degree, a
>job, and marriage. This advice is of course effortless to
>prescribe and puts the blame for poverty squarely on the
>backs of the homeless, jobless, and hungry.
>
>But as the polarization of wealth and poverty in this
>country becomes more and more exacerbated, a job,
>education, and two-family household aren't enough to
>immunize families from poverty. And the soaring rate of
>those considered less vulnerable to impoverishment has set
>off alarm bells in New York City.
>
>A new study of census data revealed that in New York--
>concurrent with an economic boom--poverty rates shot up
>among families with children that include two parents, at
>least one of whom is employed and has attended college.
>
>Contrasting the three years ending in 1998 with a similar
>period of economic growth in the late 1980s, the study
>found that the overall rate of poverty among these families
>rose from 29.3 percent to 32.3 percent. This is in spite of
>the fact that the concurrent rise in education and
>employment was believed to be protection against sinking
>into poverty.
>
>Poverty in families that included one worker rose 8.2
>percent. Poverty rates climbed by 10.6 percent for families
>headed by individuals with some college, and increased by 4
>percent for families headed by a person with a bachelor's
>or higher degree.
>
>What's considered poverty? A family of three trying to
>survive on $13,133 or less annually is designated within
>the official federal poverty threshold. In New York City,
>rent often consumes more than half that amount.
>
>The statistics were released in April by the Community
>Service Society, a non-profit group that tracks poverty
>demographics.
>
>Over one in five New York City families live in poverty.
>Racism takes an even deeper toll on nationally oppressed
>peoples. Roughly one out of three Black New Yorkers and
>over one-third of Latinos are poor.
>
>But add children and the poverty grows. Averaging all
>nationalities, roughly one in three families with children,
>and over half the female-headed households with children,
>live below the poverty line.
>
>An April 20 New York Times article about the report said
>that the study suggests "a collision of several trends: the
>growing gap between rich and poor, a surge in immigration
>and, as welfare changes push recipients off the rolls,
>increasing competition for low-end jobs with eroding
>wages."
>
>Mark Levitan, senior policy analyst at CSS and author of
>the study, said the statistics revealed that the middle
>rungs of the economic ladder were disappearing.
>
>David R. Jones, president of CSS, said that the emergence
>of this working poor group was "ominous" because it was
>happening at the height of an economic boom, not a
>depression.
>
>WHAT `SAFETY NET'?
>
>The number of working families sinking into the mire of
>poverty shot up by 60 percent in New York during the 1990s,
>outstripping the national increase of 24 percent.
>
>It is true that many immigrant families are drawn to the
>area from around the world, Levitan said. But he added that
>the proportion of poor families born in other countries is
>roughly the same as in the population as a whole.
>Therefore, he argued, immigration trends cannot explain the
>explosion of poverty among working families.
>
>Levitan cited factors in New York City's economy that had
>far outpaced those in the rest of the country, such as the
>rise in corporations using temp or contract workers.
>
>The CSS results explain that the "City Administration's
>single-minded drive to `end welfare' is denying poor
>families the public benefits they need to support their
>families and ease their transition to paid employment."
>
>The study criticized the New York City Human Resources
>Administration, saying the agency "should be facilitating,
>not discouraging, access to Food Stamps, Medicaid, and
>subsidized childcare."
>
>After three years of euphemistically labeled welfare
>reform, welfare rolls plummeted 43 percent from a high of
>1.1 million in 1995. Many of these former recipients were
>forced from welfare to workfare--virtual slave-labor jobs
>at sub-minimum wages with no benefits and no right to
>organize a union. These workfare workers have been placed
>by the corporations and the city in what used to be union
>jobs that paid livable wages and included benefits.
>
>The study stressed that "a new poverty is emerging in New
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