Trash the Bag

The Blue Bag program, Chicago's citywide recycling initiative, is one of the least effective recycling programs in the country. In spite of ten years of operation, 90 percent of Chicago's residential waste goes to landfills and only10 percent is recycled.

Yet last week, Mayor Daley announced he would continue Chicago's blue bag program for another two years even though there are more effective programs to encourage recycling.

Ask Mayor Daley to improve recycling and reduce pollution and waste by dumping the blue bag and implementing a responsible multi-bin recycling program in Chicago.

Multi-bins are definitely the way to go. In Madrid, neighborhoods have three bins - one for glass, one for paper, and one for metals and plastics. Everyone sorts their garbage and even though the recycling dumpsters may be a little further away than their regular dumpster, people walk the 100 feet or so. I stop by the bins on my way to work early in the morning, which is apparently when all of the little old ladies like to do their recycling. And it´s inspiring to see that even the neighborhood businesses recycle their trash. So if the Spaniards can do it, and do it well, so can the rest of the world.

Tell Daley to TRASH THE BAG and give bins a chance.

Source: Illinois PIRG

TYSON: Treating Beef & Chicken Better than Human Beings

"This place is a sweatshop. I want a better place to work--a harassment-free environment. I want to come to work without being harassed, leered at, followed, and screamed at. I won't cross that line without a contract--no matter what."
--Ashley Braaten

"When I started work here, I thought there was a union. In Sudan, every company has a union, because if there is no union, they use you like a slave. But there was no dignity, no respect. I started to talk about the union. We all did--white, black, all of us. I worked hard to bring the union here. One day they called me into the office. They told me, 'Monica, we know about you. We know you talk about the union'. They tried to make me take off my yellow hat where I wrote 'Local 401'. I think that’s when they decided they would find a reason to fire me."
--Monica Deng

These are comments made by workers of the Tyson Foods Plant in Alberta Canada who are currently on strike.

About 2,300 UFCW Canada Local 401 workers at the Lakeside Packers plant had no other choice but to strike on October 12, 2005, after the company rejected a provincial mediator’s contract agreement, which workers voted 90 percent to accept. Workers are asking for basic human rights and safety protection on the job, but have only been met with violence and racism on the picket line.

These workers, many of them refugees from Sudan and Somalia and immigrants from Nigeria, have been attacked on the picket line and subjected to racist jeers. Three were sent to the hospital after being beaten and left writhing in a ditch beside the road. The Local 401 president was also hospitalized when his car was run off the road by Tyson officials, who have since been charged with dangerous diving.

Tyson’s greed continues to come before the right of workers to have dignity, respect, and safe working conditions on the job.

Godwin Iwanegba, a Tyson employee, illustrates the fight for dignity when he says, “I begged to use the washroom and my boss said “No”, so I ended up wetting myself and standing in my own urine for the rest of the work shift. Later I was disciplined for filing a complaint about what happened.”

Workers are on picket lines, fighting for basic health and safety measures now in force at other Canadian plants, including:

The right to refuse processing suspect product which might be dangerous to the worker or the general public.

The right, without loss of pay, to refuse dangerous work that could injure you or a fellow worker.

The “whistle-blower” right to report an unsafe or unsanitary work environment to an outside authority without risk of losing your job.

The right to up-to-date and ongoing health and safety training.

The right to a full time Health and Safety Committee, including the right of a professional union representative to inspect the workplace for health, safety or contract violations as required.

The right, without loss of pay, to stay off work if sick.
Workers Need Safety Protections

For more than a decade, Tyson Foods has operated Lakeside Packers with some of the highest injury rates of any industrialized plant in North America. Many workers have been seriously injured and over the years, scores of workers have been left with permanent injuries and disabilities from working the Lakeside line. The company has refused to agree to a fair contract, leaving workers with the bleak choice of having to strike or return to work at a reprehensible workhouse that has chewed through 100,000 workers over the last 10 years.

Send a message to Tyson Foods Chairman and CEO John Tyson and tell him to start treating his workers like human beings.

"They fire some people if they see a doctor. Because if the doctor sends you to the [Workers Compensation Board], the company doesn't like that. They scare people. There are people who are sick, but too afraid to go and see a doctor. They use us just like animals, not humans. That is why we need a union at Lakeside. If we don't have a union, we will be slaves forever at Lakeside. Any worker at Lakeside will be a slave."
--Sabit Anok

"I have a relative whose hand was crushed [at Lakeside]. He had an operation, but he was back to work in 3 weeks. He was still hurting, and sore. They put him in light duty for a week, then right back on to the kill floor. They said he had to do it, but he could not and so he refused. The company says he quit, but they forced him to quit. If you hurt yourself, you become useless. The managers don't allow you to do a modified job, they don't even greet you any more. They get rid of you. This happens to a lot of people. I am surprised to see this in Canada. Even in Africa, in the third world, you are not suspended for getting hurt. If you have a doctor's note, you can go on short term disability."
--Ring Lual

Source: United Food and Commercial Workers, Oct. 31, 2005

The Fight to Save 6 MILLION People

Right now, Congressional negotiators are making decisions about The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and its life-saving work fighting these three killer diseases.

Right now, your Representative has the power to push those at the negotiating table to include critical funding that will make a difference to millions.

Please email Congress NOW and ask them to support including $100 million for the Global Fund in the Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill.

In addition to providing life-saving prevention, care and treatment, America's contributions also challenge other countries to do their share, as every U.S. contribution is matched by other countries - so that American money for the Global Fund saves three times as many lives!

Take one minute to email your Representative NOW and ask for their leadership in the fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Together, these three preventable and treatable diseases kill 6 million people each year.

This Message is from The ONE Campaign an organization that fights global AIDS and proverty. Amazingly, this organization has the backing of the celebrities that most charities and foundations can only dream about. Just watch their video and see.

In Memorium

One act of rebellion, one person´s civil disobedience changed the course of history. And for that we are forever indebted to Ms. Rosa Parks.

With Love,

La Justa

Three Sites You Might Want to Visit if You Haven´t Yet

TELL CONGRESS TO IMPEACH GEORGE BUSH http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/65

TELL CONGRESS TO DEMAND DICK CHENEY'S RESIGNATION
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/73

URGE THE SENATE TO REJECT SAM ALITO
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/74

Exposing Bush

Michael Moore is a very, very, very smart man, plus he employs sarcasm and irony expertly when making a point.

Here´s a letter he sent out to everyone on his mailing list right after Hurricane Katrina. I´m not sure why I sat on this for so long, but I am happy to bring it back to life as the press coverage of the disaster and Bush´s response is beginning to lull.
Friday, September 2nd, 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

Any idea where all our helicopters are? It's Day 5 of Hurricane Katrina and thousands remain stranded in New Orleans and need to be airlifted. Where on earth could you have misplaced all our military choppers? Do you need help finding them? I once lost my car in a Sears parking lot. Man, was that a drag.

Also, any idea where all our national guard soldiers are? We could really use them right now for the type of thing they signed up to do like helping with national disasters. How come they weren't there to begin with?

Last Thursday I was in south Florida and sat outside while the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over my head. It was only a Category 1 then but it was pretty nasty. Eleven people died and, as of today, there were still homes without power. That night the weatherman said this storm was on its way to New Orleans. That was Thursday! Did anybody tell you? I know you didn't want to interrupt your vacation and I know how you don't like to get bad news. Plus, you had fundraisers to go to and mothers of dead soldiers to ignore and smear. You sure showed her!

I especially like how, the day after the hurricane, instead of flying to Louisiana, you flew to San Diego to party with your business peeps. Don't let people criticize you for this -- after all, the hurricane was over and what the heck could you do, put your finger in the dike?

And don't listen to those who, in the coming days, will reveal how you specifically reduced the Army Corps of Engineers' budget for New Orleans this summer for the third year in a row. You just tell them that even if you hadn't cut the money to fix those levees, there weren't going to be any Army engineers to fix them anyway because you had a much more important construction job for them -- BUILDING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ!

On Day 3, when you finally left your vacation home, I have to say I was moved by how you had your Air Force One pilot descend from the clouds as you flew over New Orleans so you could catch a quick look of the disaster. Hey, I know you couldn't stop and grab a bullhorn and stand on some rubble and act like a commander in chief. Been there done that.

There will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy and try to use it against you. Just have your people keep pointing that out. Respond to nothing. Even those pesky scientists who predicted this would happen because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is getting hotter and hotter making a storm like this inevitable. Ignore them and all their global warming Chicken Littles. There is nothing unusual about a hurricane that was so wide it would be like having one F-4 tornado that stretched from New York to Cleveland.

No, Mr. Bush, you just stay the course. It's not your fault that 30 percent of New Orleans lives in poverty or that tens of thousands had no transportation to get out of town. C'mon, they're black! I mean, it's not like this happened to Kennebunkport. Can you imagine leaving white people on their roofs for five days? Don't make me laugh! Race has nothing -- NOTHING -- to do with this!

You hang in there, Mr. Bush. Just try to find a few of our Army helicopters and send them there. Pretend the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are near Tikrit.

Yours,
Michael Moore