It goes without saying that these are extremely difficult and trying times for our country, and for the entire planet. The good news is that all across the country working people are standing up and fighting for economic justice and against corporate greed.
04 January 22
2 Straight Months of Record-Low Fundraising
November and December saw record lows in fundraising returns for RSN. We won’t be able to solve all of those problems in January but we can start with a reasonable month of support.
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Marc Ash
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04 January 22
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Corporate greed and class warfare are crushing working people. No one is going to save us – we need to rise up together
We are facing a raging pandemic with seemingly no end in sight. We are rapidly moving toward oligarchy and while income and wealth inequality grows, millions struggle to obtain the basic necessities of life. We have a dysfunctional healthcare system with more than 84 million uninsured or underinsured and nearly one out of four unable to afford prescription drugs. Climate change is ravaging the planet and systemic racism and other forms of bigotry continue to eat away at the fabric of our society. We have a corrupt political system in which corporate money buys elections and a mainstream media that largely ignores the pain that ordinary people experience.
And, in the midst of all this, Republicans across the country are working overtime trying to undermine democracy by making it harder for people of color, young people and those who oppose them to vote in our next elections.
In other words, the challenges we face are enormous and it is easy to understand why many may fall into depression and cynicism. This is a state of mind, however, that we must resist – not only for ourselves but for our kids and future generations. The stakes are just too high. Despair is not an option. We must stand up and fight back.
And here is some very good news. While the corporate-owned media may not be actively reporting it, working people all over the country, with extraordinary courage and determination, are taking on corporate greed, and they are winning.
Workers at John Deere waged their first strike in more than three decades, stayed on the picket lines and eventually won a contract with strong wage increases, a ratification bonus and improved health insurance.
Striking nurses in Buffalo won raises that moved all workers to at least $15 an hour and a reduction in staff shortages. These nurses fought not only for themselves, but their patients – and they won.
Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers won a major victory after rejecting a contract that would have given new workers lower wages and benefits.
Nabisco workers, struggling against forced overtime, inadequate wages and pensions, a two-tier health system and the outsourcing of jobs, went on strike and won. Once again we saw workers fighting not just for themselves, but for the next generation of workers.
More than 1,400 Kellogg’s workers in Michigan, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Nebraska went on strike for months and won, fighting back against a plan to give new workers lower wages and benefits.
Starbucks employees in upstate New York, for the very first time, organized a union shop in a fight against a giant corporation that did just about everything it could to stop them.
Those are just some of the inspiring efforts that took place last year. Let me tell you about what’s happening right now as workers continue to stand up to some of the most powerful corporate interests in the country.
In Huntington, West Virginia, 450 steelworkers at the Special Metals company have been engaged in a major strike for almost 100 days. Special Metals is a profitable company owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett, of course, is one of the richest people in the world, with wealth of over $109bn.
While Special Metals made $1.5bn in profits last year and Mr Buffett became over $40bn richer during the pandemic, executives at this company offered workers an outrageous and insulting contract that includes a zero pay increase for this year, and a totally unacceptable 1% pay raise next year, while quadrupling healthcare premiums and reducing vacation time.
Sadly, the corporate greed that is going on in West Virginia is not an aberration. In Santa Fe Springs, California, about 100 bakery workers, who make cakes for Baskin Robbins, Safeway and Cold Stone Creamery, are on strike against the appropriately named Rich Products Corporation at the Jon Donaire Desserts production plant. About 75% of these employees are Latina women who are often forced into mandatory overtime with little to no notice and sometimes work up to 16 hours a day.
This is a company that made $4bn in revenue last year. During the pandemic, Bob Rich, the majority owner of Rich Products, increased his wealth by more than $2bn. While the workers he employs barely make more than California’s minimum wage, Mr Rich currently has a net worth of more than $7.5bn. Yet, despite his billions in wealth, the “best and final offer” Mr Rich has put on the table for his workers is an insulting $1-an-hour wage increase. That is pathetic.
But it’s also not unusual in the world of corporate greed. In Brookwood, Alabama, about 1,100 workers at Warrior Met Coal have been on strike since April. Just like the bakery workers in California and the steelworkers in West Virginia, these are workers who also have worked as many as seven days a week and up to 16 hours per day.
In 2016, under great pressure to keep the company afloat and keep jobs in their community, these coalminers agreed to a $6-an-hour pay cut – more than 20% of their average salary – and a substantial reduction in their healthcare and retirement benefits as part of a restructuring deal made by Wall Street vulture funds like Blackstone and Apollo.
Meanwhile, the executives at Warrior Met and their Wall Street investors made out like bandits. Since 2017, Warrior Met has rewarded $1.4bn in dividends to its wealthy shareholders while handing out bonuses of up to $35,000 to its executives. Yet, while the company has returned to profitability, Warrior Met has offered its workers a measly $1.50 raise over 5 years and has refused to restore the healthcare and pension benefits that were taken away.
The struggles that these workers are experiencing are not unique. There are millions of other Americans in exactly the same position – people who have to fight tooth-and-nail against wealthy and powerful corporate interests for decent wages, healthcare, pensions and safe working conditions. And let’s be clear. Class warfare in this country is intensifying. Greed is on the rise.
What history has always taught us is that real change never takes place from the top on down. It is always occurs from the bottom on up. That is the history of the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the environmental movement and the gay rights movement. That is the history of every effort that has brought about transformational change in our society.
And that is the struggle we must intensify today. At a time when the demagogues want to divide us up based on the color of our skin, where we were born, our religion or our sexual orientation, we must do exactly the opposite. We must bring people together around a progressive agenda. We must educate, organize and build an unstoppable grassroots movement that helps create the kind of nation we know we can become. One that is based on the principles of justice and compassion, not greed and oligarchy.
The greatest weapon our opponents have is not just their unlimited wealth and power. It is their ability to create a culture that makes us feel weak and hopeless and diminishes the strength of human solidarity.
And here is our new year’s resolution. Like the thousands of workers who stood up and fought courageously in 2021, we will do the same. No one individual is going to save us. We must rise up together.
Happy new year.
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PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
31 December 21
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Reader Supported News
Corporate greed is running rampant as the people on top become richer than any time in history, while working families struggle to pay for health care, housing, food, education and other basic necessities.
Corporate power is undermining American democracy as the big money interests spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to defeat a legislative agenda strongly supported by the American people.
The greed, arrogance and power of the big money interests has never been more apparent.
And working people, with incredible courage and determination, are fighting back.
Time and time again, I have stressed that real change never occurs from the top down. It always happens from the bottom up.
Real change only happens when people demand it and are prepared to challenge the status quo — in the voting booth, in peaceful demonstrations and at the workplace.
This year, in the midst of a terrible pandemic, we have seen workers standing up for basic rights and dignity on the job in a way that we have not seen for years. And we have stood with them. We have supported workers on strike against the corporate greed of the John Deere company and Kellogg's. We have supported nurses on the west coast who stood up to an unfair contract offer from Kaiser Permanente. We have supported the brave employees at Starbucks who, for the very first time, organized a union shop in that giant corporation against enormous opposition.
As a result of your generosity over the last year we have raised more than $150,000 in small-dollar donations to support workers who have been out on strike. We've helped get food, health care and other basic necessities to desperate families who suddenly found themselves without income.
That's what SOLIDARITY is all about. And that's the SOLIDARITY we must continue.
Today, I am writing to inform you about three important strikes that the corporate media has largely ignored, and then I am going to ask you to do something to support these workers.
These are strikes against outrageous corporate greed. These are strikes where workers are taking on some of the most powerful and wealthy special interests in the country. These are strikes that have gone on through Christmas where families have not been able to adequately provide for their kids.
Steelworkers striking at Special Metals in Huntington, WV
Right now, there are 450 steelworkers at Special Metals in Huntington, West Virginia who have been engaged in a major strike for almost 100 days. These highly skilled employees produce critically important materials for space crafts, airplanes and submarines.
Precision Castparts purchased Special Metals and was acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2016. It was an extraordinarily lucrative purchase, as the company made $1.5 billion in profits last year.
And what did they offer the workers who made that company profitable? An outrageous and insulting contract that includes zero pay increase for this year, and a totally inadequate 1% pay raise next year while making major cuts to employee health care and reduced vacation time. With inflation over 6 percent right now, this amounts to a very significant pay cut, despite the company's profits.
BCTGM workers striking at Jon Donaire Desserts in Santa Fe Springs, CA
About 100 Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union workers are currently on strike against the appropriately named Rich Products Corporations at the Jon Donaire Desserts production plant in California. These workers are about 75% Latina women who do extraordinarily difficult and labor-intensive line work. They are often forced to do up to 16 hours of mandatory overtime with little to no notice before the end of a shift. Many of them are paid little more than the minimum wage in California, despite working for the company for years.
Bob Rich Jr. is the Chairman of Rich Products Corporation. He has an estimated net worth of $7.5 billion, and the corporation is extremely profitable.
Yet, despite Mr. Rich's extraordinary wealth and the profitability of the corporation, the “best and final offer” of the company is a $1 an hour wage increase, which just is totally inadequate for the Los Angeles area and its high cost of living. Further, in just a few days, Rich Products is going to kick the striking workers off their current health care plans, leaving them uninsured in the midst of the pandemic.
Mine workers striking at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, AL
About 900 workers at Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, AL have been on strike since April of this year. These are workers who have worked seven days a week, up to 16 hours per day. The mines they work in are up to 2,100 feet deep, are extremely dangerous, releasing toxic, flammable and explosive methane gas. In 2016, coal miners agreed to a 20 percent reduction in wages and benefits as part of a restructuring agreement that kept the company alive.
Fast forward five years, and between January and September of 2021, Warrior Met had $630 million in revenue and $12 million in profits and its share price is up over 250 percent since the start of the pandemic. Executive officers have received raises between 3 and 10 percent and over $3 million in bonuses.
Yet, Warrior Met offered workers an insulting $1.50 raise over 5 years. They did not offer to restore the pre-restructuring health benefits, and the company is demanding the power to fire workers who engage in their right to strike.
The workers' demands are reasonable: now that Warrior Met is a very profitable company, it’s time to reverse the cuts they bravely and graciously took to save the company.
So, given the ferocious struggles these three unions face, what do we do?
We stand with them:
That is why I am once again asking for your support of striking workers — this time at Special Metals, Jon Donaire Desserts and Warrior Met Coal. I am asking for you to help them sustain their strikes and win the wages, benefits, and workplace protections everyone deserves:
It is critical we show solidarity in these moments because these workers are not only striking for themselves and their co-workers, but for all of us.
There are millions of other Americans in exactly the same position as these workers who toil for obscenely profitable corporations, yet have to fight tooth-and-nail and risk their jobs simply for adequate wages, health care, benefits and safe working conditions.
And in a world where everything is connected to everything, it is often the struggles of the working class in one industry and community that ultimately determines the quality of wages, benefits and the ability to retire with dignity in other seemingly unconnected industries and communities.
That is why it is so important we support the workers at Special Metals, Jon Donaire Desserts and Warrior Met Coal today.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
17 December 21
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The poster child for the culture of corporate greed that we are experiencing is how Kellogg’s is currently treating its employees
In America today, we have more income and wealth inequality than at any time in the last 100 years. After adjusting for inflation, the average worker in America is making $40 dollars a week less today than he/she made 48 years ago. The result: millions of working class families are struggling to pay for health care, prescription drugs, housing, child care, higher education or put away funds for retirement. They are also trying hard to maintain their family life amidst irregular work scheduling patterns.
Meanwhile, as working families live under increased stress, the people on top are doing phenomenally well. Today, the two richest people in our country own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent. The top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 92%.
During the pandemic, when thousands of essential workers died doing their jobs, some 700 billionaires in America became more than $2 trillion richer. As the rich get richer, corporate profits are soaring and the CEOs of major corporations are earning outrageous compensation packages.
Unbelievably, they now make over 350 times as much as their average employees as they receive large salaries, stock options, "golden parachutes" and a wide range of perks.
In the midst of this growing inequality, workers throughout the country are fighting back. As corporate profits skyrocket and top corporate executive receive outlandish pay, these workers are demanding their fair share. They want decent wages, benefits and working conditions. They want to be treated with respect.
The poster child for the culture of corporate greed that we are experiencing is how Kellogg’s is currently treating its employees.
Last year, Kellogg’s made over $1.4 billion in profits. It paid its CEO, Steven Cahillane, nearly $12 million in total compensation, a significant increase over recent years.
One of the reasons that Kellogg’s had such a profitable year during this pandemic was the extraordinary sacrifices made by their employees who, in significantly understaffed factories, were asked to work an insane number of hours.
At the Kellogg’s plant in Battle Creek, Michigan for example, when the pandemic began many employees worked more than 50 days in a row – often 12-hour days.
Let me repeat that: Many employees at Kellogg’s have been working seven days a week, week after week after week, often 12-hours a day. In fact, I spoke with one employee there who worked 120 days in a row.
Last year these employees, who were helping to feed America during the worst public health crisis in 100 years, were considered "heroes."
Today, the company considers them disposable – even though many of them have spent their entire adult lives working for Kellogg’s.
These workers, members of the BCTGM International Union, have been on strike for over two months demanding better wages, working conditions and an end to a grossly destructive "two-tier" system which provides newer workers substantially lower wages and benefits than long- term employees.
The company has responded viciously to the union’s demands. Instead of sitting down and bargaining, they have walked away from the negotiating table. "There is no further bargaining scheduled and we have no plans to meet," Kellogg’s said in an official statement to workers following the last round of negotiations.
With Christmas approaching they have terminated the health care benefits for these striking workers, leaving many of them with no health insurance at all.
In addition, they have initiated the ultimate act of disloyalty by attempting to permanently replace the striking workers. In a statement Kellogg’s said, "The prolonged work stoppage has left us no choice but to hire permanent replacement employees in positions vacated by striking workers."
They are also threatening to outsource 275 jobs from Michigan to Mexico where new workers are paid just 97 cents an hour.
The workers’ struggle against Kellogg’s is a lot more than just 1,400 employees on strike in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Nebraska.
It’s about what this country and our economy is supposed to stand for.
It’s about whether we continue to tolerate the excessive corporate greed that is running rampant throughout our economy and where workers are treated with contempt.
It’s about whether we have a stable middle class with a decent standard of living or whether we descend into oligarchy where a small number of people are extremely wealthy while ordinary Americans struggle to survive.
I am proud to join the striking Kellogg’s workers in their fight for justice and dignity.
I hope that all Americans, as we sit down at breakfast with our Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or Raisin Bran, remember the people who produced those products and join me in demanding that the company return to the negotiating table and work out a fair agreement with the union.
Kellogg’s, like other large corporations, must understand that it cannot have it all.
Their workers deserve a fair shake.
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PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
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