unions disassociate with CFAW H-1B TV ad

Date: Thursday, April 09, 2009 2:29 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 2004 -- 4/08/2009 >>>>>

In February, a TV ad campaign was run on Fox and CNN that was critical of the
H-1B visa. It was sponsored by the Coalition for the Future American Worker
(CFAW). Most of the funding for the campaign came from the Californians for
Population Stabilization (CAPS) and the Federation for American Immigration
Reform (FAIR).

The video takes place in an elevator that gets very crowded with unemployed
Americans who have been displaced by foreign labor. It's a hard hitting 30
second ad that is targeted at H-1B and other types of guest worker visas.

You can still see the video ad by going to either of these two web pages:

http://www.americanworker.org/
Coalition for the Future American Worker (CFAW)

http://www.capsweb.org/category.php?category=4&rows=30&menu_item_id=44
Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS)

On the CFAW website there is a list of supporters at the bottom of the page.
ZaZona.com, which is the LLC for this newsletter and the JobDestruction
website, is proud to be one of those supporters. Until recently, there were
three labor unions that were listed as supporters:
Steelworkers Union, AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (AFL-CIO
DPE), and Communications Workers of America Local 4250 (CWALocal4250). Now
there is only one: CWALocal4250.

The other two labor unions requested to be removed from the list. To find out
why this happened continue reading.

This story begins with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). In February, he embarked on
a five-week tour, visiting 16 American cities to "document the harm"
caused by the lack of "comprehensive immigration reform". He called the
campaign a "Family Unity Immigration Outreach Tour". As you all know by now,
Guitierrez's real agenda is to put pressure on Congress and the President to
pass amnesty and to allow unlimited immigration of Mexicans and Hispanics into
the U.S.

At some point of time around the beginning of the Gutierrez propadanda tour,
he contacted the CWA District 4 Illinois office in order to pressure them to
get CWA off the list of CFAW supporters. Specifically Gutierrez wanted CWA
Local 4250 removed.

NOTE: Sorry about acronyms folks, but it's going to get worse.

It didn't take long after Gutierrez contaced the CWA that a staff
representative for the Illinois union office gave a call to CWA Local 4250 to
talk to Steve Tisza, who is the president of the Chicago union chapter.
Tisza was informed that Gutierrez contacted the Illinois CWA regarding Local
4250's alliance with CFAW. Tisza was asked what his differences were with
Gutierrez, as if that mattered. Tisza gave a simple and straightforward answer
- he explained that he differed with Gutierrez's views on the H-1B and illegal
immigration issues. Furthermore, Tisza said he is not going to remove his
chapter from the CFAW list.

At that point it was obvious that Steve Tisza wasn't going to rescind his
endorsement of the CFAW videos, but this story doesn't end yet because the
union bosses didn't give up.

Fast forward to Miami, Florida, where the AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting
was held on March 2, 2009. The meeting was attended by Larry Cohen, President
CWA; Leo Gerard, President USW; Paul Almeida, President of AFL-CIO DPE, and
the AFL-CIO's general counsel's office to discuss the CFAW. They concluded
that it would harm their agendas if they were associated with the CFAW. The
meeting was behind closed doors so nothing more is known about what was said.
They were no doubt pressured by Hilda Solis who attended the meeting. If you
recall, Hilda Solis had a very short term as President Obama's Labor Secretary
until she got into trouble with taxes. Before that she was a U.S. House
Representative from Los Angeles, California and a member of La Raza (the
Race).

It was probably at this meeting that the Steelworkers agreed to capitulate to
the union bosses by pulling out of the CFAW. The AFL-CIO DPE followed suit.
Their problems weren't over though, because there was still a renegade that
was still on the list of supporters to deal with -- CWA Local 4250.

To deal with the Tisza problem, the Executive Council decided to use Almeida
as their hatchet man. His job was to contact Steve Tisza to urge him to remove
the 4250 Local chapter from the list of supporters.

Almeida never tried to order Tisza to pull out. Instead he used an oblique
approach by telling Tisza that the CFAW supports an extremist anti-immigrant
position. Tisza respectfully disagreed and therefore saw no need to withdraw.

Almeida told Tisza that the CFAW is against the H-1B visa program but their
opposition is not based on the same grounds as the AFL-CIO. An assertion was
made that the CFAW's motives are driven by racism and fear, while the AFL-CIO
answers to a higher moral authority. It's not clear who that moral authority
is, but it's safe to say that Luis Gutierrez and Hilda Solis answer to the
same one.

Let's clarify a few things before going further.

The AFL-CIO's official position is not to oppose the H-1B program as much as
to make weak reforms to it. They support amnesty and instant green card
programs, which are potentially more harmful to labor than H-1B. The CFAW, in
contrast, opposes the entire H-1B program, instant green cards, and amnesty,
which is why they are considred extremist by the labor unions and the liberal
oligarchs in elected offices.

The fact that FAIR and CAPS supported the video campaign doesn't mean that the
CFAW is extremist anymore than it means that FAIR and CAPS are looney fringe
groups. FAIR and CAPS are mainstream immigration reform organizations that
Gutierrez and the Southern Poverty Law Center ($PLC) prefer to characterize as
"extremist", and by corollary they like to tarnish anybody and any
organization like the CFAW that is associated with them. It's the old guilt by
association trick that is based on a false assumption that FAIR and CAPS are
extremist. Unfortunately it seems that everybody in the unions but Steve Tisza
is listening to these boobs!

It's very disturbing that the AFL-CIO DPE is taking such a hard line position
on an organization that used to be willing to reach out and work with unions
to help American workers. Previously, when Mike Gildea was running the DPE
they were very supportive of organizations like the CFAW, which went a long
way towards helping to unite many high tech workers with unions. The DPE built
a lot of bridges between the union world and non-unionized high tech workers.
Now the DPE seems willing to torpedo whatever bridges were built just to
appease the far left faction of the AFL-CIO.

In the past the Steelworkers made overtures to unite their brothers and
sisters in high tech in order to protect all jobs in the U.S. For awhile the
Steelworkers were making some very good moves to heal the wounds between blue
and white collar workers. In the past the Steelworkers ran an associate
membership program to enlist white collar workers. Several years ago the
Steelworkers merged with RescueAmericanJobs but they let the website
deteriorate and the activism fade from memory. The RescueAmericanJobs website
morphed into a Steelworkers associate web site with a murky mission. That
Steelworkers associate program has lost a lot of legitimacy and the incident
with CFAW won't help their cause. It's a real pity to see this happen after
all the work dedicated activists in and out of the Steelworkers union devoted
to expanding their scope.

Techsunite and CWA/Washtech were notably absent from the list of supporters,
and considering they are part of the CWA and AFL-CIO it's not likely they ever
will endorse the CFAW videos despite their claim to support high-tech workers.
Many of us have been suspicious of Washtech's relationship with the AFL-CIO
and this is doing nothing to allay those fellings of mistrust. Personally I
hope I'm wrong and they eventually sign up, but I won't hold my breath.

It appears that the unions are returning to the same old class warfare that
made it so difficult to unite disparate labor groups. Leftie union leaders
seem far too eager to ignore their core members, and to ignite animosity with
white collar workers. This is not the way to build a new labor movement!

Steve Tisza will soon retire from the union, and odds are that Local 4250
under new leadership will knuckle under to the Gutierrez goons. Sadly he might
be the last union leader who is a flag waving, Harley riding, patriot. Is
there any other union leader who is willing to step up to the plate and sign
on as a supporter? Could it be that Steve Tisza the only union guy left with
balls and integrity? The answer is probably self evident, but it's worth
asking anyway.

REFERENCES:

http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1360
Press Release -- Gutierrez Expands "Family Unity" Immigration Outreach
Tour: 16 Cities in Five Weeks

http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=20045&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1741
Congressman Luis Gutierrez Travels on National Amnesty Tour While U.S.
Workers Stand in Unemployment Lines

http://www.cwalocal4250.org/
Communications Workers of America -- Local 4250

http://washtech.org/
Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, Communications Workers of America,
Local 37083, AFL-CIO

http://www.dpeaflcio.org/
Department for Professional Employees (DPE)

http://www.fightbackamerica.net/
United Steelworkers Associate Member Program

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/answering_our_critics/puppeteer.html#splc
What is the SPLC?

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp
Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate Group Map

http://www.channelingreality.com/Economic/attempts_to_rescue_american_jobs.htm
We Tried to Rescue American Jobs

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NOTE: This is an email sent by Steve Tisza to Paul Almeida. Almeida declined
to give me permission to make public the email that prompted Tisza's reply. So
far, the questions raised in this email have yet to be answered.

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009 8:33 PM

Paul:

Thank you for your views on the "Coalition for the American Worker" . I was
asked to support this group by a well known, respected activist to
reform/repeal the H-1B Visa program, Dr. Gene A. Nelson. He too has
lobbied/testified to Congress many times over the years and I respect and
admire his never ending work on this issue. Rob Sanchez is also a tireless
advocate to reform/repeal the H-1B Visa program and a supporter of the
"Coalition for the American Worker" who I also respect and admire.

You said; "CFAW has supported an extremist anti-immigrant position for a
long time. While they
are against the H1B visa program their opposition is not based on the same
grounds as ours. "

What specifically is their "extremist ant-immigrant position?"

AND

What grounds do they base their opposition to the H-1B Visa Program that
differ from the AFL-CIO?

I would like a copy of the AFL-CIO "Ray Marshall Report" AND answers to
the above questions before making a decision on submitting a proposal to
our Local Executive Board to withdraw CWA Local 4250's support for the
"Coalition for the American Worker".

In Unity-Strength & Solidarity:

Steve Tisza, President
CWA Local 4250
Chicago

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