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Two Cantrell Appointees No Good for New Orleans Workers

Norman White has been appointed by Mayor Cantrell to be the Chief Financial Officer (CFO )for the City. This is a position most of us have never even heard of or thought about. But it is a powerful job, advising on our tax dollars and all spending matters. (Despite many phone calls to city agencies, his salary remains undisclosed).

White comes to us as the twice former CFO of Detroit, under two discredited Mayor’s. He was also the former head of the Detroit Department of Transportation who was sued over illegal or excessive parking tickets and fines. Oops, watch out!

According to the lawsuit, the city of Detroit has issued about 300,000 parking tickets annually over the last three years, during which the city implemented a high-tech, $3.5 million meter system that accepts cash, credit cards and smartphone payments. The new system generated $13 million in 2015 alone, 30% more than the year before — but the lawsuit says this money is being made illegally.

At his appointment, Mayor Cantrell said of Norman White, “He helped right the ship there during a challenging time.” This is disturbing. Recently, Detroit has cut off thousands of people’s water, and this is not the first time. Tens of thousands have lost their homes and schools were closed. Why? Detroit, during White’s tenure, was under state control, depriving the people of the city from any say in their budget and policies. The state authorized the city receiving millions in loans from the big banks. In exchange, the banks demanded austerity and cuts to all social services. It was a dictatorship of the banks. Norman White’s job was to ensure that these cuts went through and the banks got their tax-free interest payments. Millions are suffering. Norman White may be good for the bankers and developers but not the working class.

CRIMINAL “INJUSTICE” COMMISIONER
Another disturbing appointment is Tenisha Stevens as Criminal Justice Commissioner. She was the deputy chief of investigations for Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro who has shown himself an arrogant, law breaking racist who is responsible for continuing mass incarceration. Recently, his office issued phony subpoenas and arrested domestic violence victims to force them to testify. We need someone who is working to keep people out of jail, not put them in. Stevens, as Cannizzaro’s Deputy Chief, is not the one we need.

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Only One Place for Trump: A Jail Cell

By Gavrielle Gemma

Forget all that claptrap about the Russia investigation. That ignores what by law and decency Trump and his cabinet of war crazy generals, billionaire bankers and capitalists should be indicted for.

He has a deep hatred of the working class, Black, white, Latinx and Asian. He is a danger to humanity and is destroying the planet. His conduct towards women and his policies affecting women are criminal. They’re meant to push us down to domestic servitude. Trump wants to immerse the world in war, possibly nuclear. He is disrupting the peace in Korea, preparing war against Iran by tearing up a treaty the rest of the world wants, and giving a trilliondollar payout to war profiteering corporations. He is most happy when his non-stop racism results in a record number of hate crimes across the U.S.

His main job is to try to infest white workers with racism using vile anti-immigrant rants, and portraying other countries in the most demeaning of terms. But just like the Confederate slaveholders detested poor white southern farmers, so do today’s capitalists detest white workers. They put on a hard hat as they laugh all the way to the bank when the working class is divided.

Trump’s policies are tax cuts for the already filthy rich, to increase their accumulation of wealth to even more obscene levels. For us, the workers, employed and underemployed, of all ages and nationalities, Trump’s goal is to destroy our standard of living to make us desperate. He is aided by his clones in the Louisiana legislature who are cutting every program that we the people have already paid for. That is what fascists do, and they count on people blaming scapegoats rather than them, the cause of all our problems. Every time Trump opens his mouth he lies and spews racist filth and every day as he becomes more unpopular, his anti-working class policies revealed, he escalates his rhetoric.

Trump can be found seated on his gold toilet or almost daily on his golf course. He should be arrested and jailed for crimes against humanity

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Labor Briefs for June 2018

GEORGIA BUS DRIVERS STRIKE

After months of meeting with school board officials and being ignored, bus drivers and monitors in DeKalb County, GA went on strike. The workers are currently not unionized. On April 17, driver representatives presented the district superintendent with 50 demands; these included pay raises, fair pay for sick leave days, and reclassification as full-time employees. On April 19, 400 drivers and monitors called in sick. The school board retaliated by firing 7 drivers. The fight for better conditions, and the reinstatement of the fired drivers, is not over. Drivers, parents and supportive organizations held a press conference condemning the school board’s actions. Drivers are also consulting with lawyers about further action in regard to the firings. Whatever happens, the April strike was historic, being the first work stoppage carried out by Atlanta bus drivers since 1980.

DISNEY WORLD WORKERS ORGANIZE

Disney World is not the happiest place on Earth for workers. Many employees of Disney’s parks and resorts can barely afford housing. Long-time Tomorrow Land worker, Mike Beaver, told Shadowproof.com that he has “lived in a motel for two years and nine months,” sharing the room with another staff member. Workers are fighting back, however. A collection of unions represents 38,000 Disney Workers in Florida. A major demand is that the company raise its minimum Florida pay rate from $10 an hour to $15 an hour. Management has offered a 50 cent annual pay bump, which 93% of union members rejected in a December 2017 vote. Disney withheld bonuses up to $1,000 from 41,000 union employees in Florida and California in an attempt to make them cave. In response, the unions filed a federal charge with the Department of Labor against Disney over these tactics. Workers themselves have taken their grievances to the streets. On March 23, hundreds (including hospitality workers, cast members, and custodians) marched to the entrance of Disney Springs in Florida. Demonstrators carried signs chanting, “We work, we sweat, put a raise on our check!”

25,000 to 50,000 Las Vegas Casino Workers Vote to Strike at 34 Resorts

“I’m here to show the younger generations that this is the way we fight to maintain our jobs, job secuirity, health benefits and to gain a pay raise.” – Louis W Thomas, Utility Porter at Tropicana Casino Hotel

South Carolina Short-haul Truck  Drivers Vote to Join Teamster Union