Labor groups endorse Iran deal. U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW), the grass-roots organization that led the organized labor to oppose George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, is campaigning for unionists and leaders to back the proposed agreement to curb and roll back Iran’s nuclear development program.
The GOP-run Congress could vote on a resolution disapproving the deal by mid-September. If that passes, Obama could veto it, and he would need at least one-third of the members of either the House or the Senate to agree to uphold his veto.
USLAW says the agreement “will make it extremely difficult if not impossible for Iran to ever develop a nuclear weapon.
“This deal is not based on trust,” the group said. “Iran will be subject to the most rigorous and intrusive monitoring, inspections and verification regime ever required of any country in the world.”
USLAW says the alternative is another war in the Middle East.
“As trade unionists, we’ve learned a few things about negotiations,” USLAW said. “When you have achieved your primary objective, raising the ante by adding new conditions is a perfect way to sabotage a good agreement. Rather than something better, you almost certainly will end up with something worse.”
The United Steelworkers agreed and issued a statement: “The USW supports the Iran deal because it would enhance national and global security as well as benefit the U.S. economy. ‘No deal’ is completely unacceptable.”
News Guild leads protest of Ferguson arrests. The News Guild and two reporters arrested a year ago during the protests against Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo., denounced the St. Louis County prosecutor’s charges against them filed Aug. 10 – just before the statute of limitations expired.
County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch charged Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery and Huffington Post reporter Ryan Reilly with trespassing at a local McDonald’s and interfering with police.
“The News Guild-CWA joins with other outraged journalists in demanding the St. Louis County prosecutor drop the trumped-up charges against two reporters who were arrested a year ago covering the Ferguson protests,” the union said. “Lowery and Reilly were doing absolutely nothing wrong when police stormed the McDonald’s restaurant the journalists were using for a reporting base. While attempting to comply with officers’ orders to leave the restaurant, police decided they weren’t acting quickly enough.”
After slamming Lowery into a soda machine and cuffing him, and treating Reilly “like a 5-year-old,” officers took them to a police station. They were released after half an hour with no charges.
McCulloch’s “actions are a gross abuse of power and a vile assault on the 1st Amendment,” said Guild president Bernie Lunzer. “We are not politely calling on him to drop these charges; we are demanding it. If he refuses, he will be in for the fight of his life as he faces the collective and growing wrath of journalists and free press advocates.”
Workers, unions continue anti-TPP drive. Talks on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact foundered in late July, but workers and unions are continuing their campaign against it.
The pact would lack worker rights, establish a secretive pro-business “trade court” that could kill state, local and federal laws that might harm present or future corporate profits, and enable a corporate race to the bottom to export U.S. factory and service jobs to countries that repress workers and pay them pennies.
“Despite years of discussions about the TPP, there continue to be many fatal flaws that are rightfully giving many nations pause on whether to sign off on this faulty trade deal,” said Teamsters President Jim Hoffa the day after talks collapsed in Hawaii July 29.
“Fair trade advocates have taken a staunch stand against the TPP because of how this far-reaching proposal will affect workers across the globe,” Hoffa said. “It will result in thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas, and does not adequately address forced labor and human rights violations that continue to be an issue in nations like Malaysia and Vietnam.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka added, “Democratic, Republican, Independent, whatever, working people are tired of these bad trade deals. They’ve been killing jobs and weakening our country for too long.”
News briefs courtesy of The Labor Paper in Peoria