IWW now organizing Jimmy John’s workers
(The following information is from the newly formed Jimmy John’s Workers Union.)
Service was anything but ‘freaky fast’ at Jimmy Johns today as workers walked off the kitchen floor in an unprecedented move to demand improved wages and working conditions at nine Minneapolis franchise locations. Announcing the formation of the IWW Jimmy Johns Workers Union, the workers are seeking a pay increase to above minimum wage, consistent scheduling and minimum shift lengths, regularly scheduled breaks, sick days, no-nonsense workers compensation for job-related injuries, an end to sexual harassment at work, and basic fairness on the job.
“I have been working at Jimmy Johns for over two years and they still pay me minimum wage and schedule me one-hour shifts,” said Rikki Olsen, a union member at the Block E location. “I’m working my way through school and can barely make ends meet. I’d get another job, but things are just as bad across the service industry. Companies like Jimmy John’s are profitable and growing, they need to provide quality jobs for the community.”
The Minneapolis franchise, owned and operated by Miklin Enterprises, Inc., pays the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr, offers no benefits, and has no full-time positions outside of management. Jimmy Johns corporate website lists $264,270 as the average yearly net profit for operating a franchise. Union members estimate that Rob and Mike Mulligan, owners of Miklin, Inc. made an annual profit of at minimum $2.3 million in the last year alone. The Miklin franchise plans to open four new locations this year at an estimated cost of over $1.2 million.
Jake Foucault, a delivery driver at the Riverside store, said, “ If Mike and Rob Mulligan have the money to open four new stores, then they have the money to pay us more than minimum wage. We hope Rob and Mike do the right thing and come to the negotiating table.”
A negotiating committee of Jimmy Johns workers plans to meet with the Mulligans at the Block E central office of the franchise to begin discussions at 4:00pm today.
The fast food workers’ move to unionize is emblematic of mounting frustration amongst US workers with the sluggish pace of recovery from the Recession. With unemployment rates hovering around 9.5%, many workers view low wage service jobs as their only option. Employment in the food service industry is expected to grow 8.4% from 2008 to 2018, higher than the 7.7% rate predicted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for all industries. Wages and working conditions in the fast food industry are widely regarded as substandard; in 2009, 25% of workers in the service industry made less than $7.55 an hour, the highest percentage of any occupational group.
The union campaign at Jimmy Johns could hold deep implications for other companies in the fast food industry, a sector known for the lowest rates of unionization- and lowest wages- in the United States. Only 1.8% of food service workers were represented by a union in 2009, far below the nation-wide figure of 12.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The question of unionization of the food and service industries is assuming greater focus as employment in these non-union sectors increases, while manufacturing, the traditional stronghold of unionization, slides further into decline.
The Jimmy Johns Workers Union, open to employees at the company nationwide, is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World labor union. Gaining prominence in recent years for organizing Starbucks workers, the IWW is a global union founded over a century ago for all working people.
As an act of solidarity, the Grand Rapids branch of the IWW will be holding a Solidarity picket at the Eastown Jimmy Johns, Monday, September 6 (Labor Day) from 12pm-1pm.
ACLU Action Alert – Protect Privacy
(This is re-posted from the national office of the ACLU.)
Tens of thousands of supporters added their names to the ACLU’s Protect Our Privacy Petition—calling on Congress to update and strengthen the decades-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).
But now, the Obama administration is proposing its own changes to ECPA aimed at weakening—not strengthening—your personal privacy.
ECPA is one of the few laws that can protect our privacy online, but the administration’s proposal would warp this crucial law—expanding the government’s power to collect Americans’ email and internet use records in national security investigations.
That’s a huge step in the wrong direction for personal privacy even as we’re trying hard to advance our privacy protections.
Sign our petition and demand changes that strengthen, rather than weaken, our personal privacy.
The administration’s plan would do exactly the opposite by allowing government officials to obtain more of your personal information using warrantless National Security Letters, without going to court and without any suspicion of wrongdoing. That means more secret requests for your personal information—and more gag orders to stop companies from disclosing what they were forced to turn over.
Congress has already held hearings on updating ECPA, and the issue will soon come up again. We must make sure that any changes to our laws come down on the side of protecting privacy.
Add your name to the petition and tell Congress to strengthen our privacy laws.
We can’t sit back and let our privacy protections be replaced by new privacy invasions. Please raise your voice today.
Museum piece: what is and what ain’t
As a kid growing up in the Grand Rapids area, some of my favorite times were spent with my grandparents, parents and big brother, Larry, at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on State St. NE. I still remember the proximity of the huge whale skeleton overhead, stroking the wooly mammoth’s smooth bones and feeling a part of the wildlife taxidermy animal scenes. I still have the small bronze animal figures I collected one at a time from the museum gift shop in my living room.
Fast-forward to the 80s and I was bringing my four little boys through the exhibits. I believe the admission price was 50 cents or a dollar. Something a young family could afford any given Saturday afternoon. (Now it’s $8 for adults, $3 for kids plus an extra charge for special exhibits.) My kids loved running wild though the cobblestone street of the old Grand Rapids exhibit and marveled at the huge, rotating globe of the earth outside the planetarium.
I have to admit that since the museum moved to its new digs, I’ve never felt the same excitement. In part, that’s because my memories aren’t there. In addition, many of my favorite items are no longer on display. Sources say that only 2% of the museum’s holdings are on display in the current museum building. While I realize that 100% of them probably weren’t on exhibit at the old building, it seems like a lot more were.
According to the its Web site, “The Grand Rapids Public Museum has been collecting objects of local and inter-galactic significance for over 155 years, and has amassed a collection of almost a quarter million artifacts and specimens. The collections span dozens of categories, from automobiles to zoology, from furniture to fossils, and beyond. While only a small percentage of the Museum’s holdings are on exhibit at any given time, this website is intended to give our customers a more complete look at the scope and depth of the collections.”
People are invited to peruse some of these treasures online. On special occasions, the museum actually invites the public to come to the old building to view them. However, this invitation does not make these items accessible to the children visiting the “real” museum with their school groups and families. In fact, I bet a very small percentage of Grand Rapids area residents have taken the museum folks up on their offer to visit the old site. Out-of-towners certainly won’t.
Since the current, expansive museum building only has room to display such a small percentage of its holding, it’s baffling that it dedicates approximately 1,000 square feet to an Amway exhibit. While I don’t know if this exhibit was created specifically for the museum or if it’s a trade show leftover, one thing is certain. It’s a 1,000 square foot advertisement for a multi-level marketing corporation that sells products manufactured in China. Since pictures speak a thousand words, take a look at these few shots I took during my last visit to the museum. I say few because they in no way represent the totality of the exhibit.
On Wednesdays in August, museum patrons could also attend Amway Nutrilite Presentations, where they could “join a representative in the Amway exhibit to learn about Nutrilite. This free and interactive presentation includes free samples of Amway products.”
It’s all well and good that well-heeled area residents bless us with their philanthropy. And it’s well known that such donations are given with the intention of honoring those making them. However, such blatant , overblown promotion of a company and its products has no place in the public museum―especially when space strictures allow so few of its treasures to be shared.
Statement to Senator Levin read by activists before arrest
(Below is the statement read by an activist during a public meeting with Senator Levin in Big Rapids a few weeks ago. Just after the statement was read, another activist hit Levin with a piece of pie. Both of the activists are facing serious charges for confronting the Michigan Senator on war crimes.)
Senator Levin,
There’s no doubt that you are one of the most respected senators in the United States. Coupled with three decades of senatorial experience and your role as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, this respect translates into great influence in policy making, especially in regard to US foreign policy.
Despite your relative popularity, I sincerely doubt that many of your constituents know the extent of your contributions to increasing human suffering around the world.
How many people know that you were an enthusiastic supporter of the primarily Clinton-era US-led sanctions on Iraq during the 1990s–sanctions which likely killed over one million innocent people by way of starvation, disease, and denial of medicines? Who were these victims? Certainly not Saddam Hussein and his regime–their grip on the besieged population was strengthened as a result. The victims were poor people, children, the sick, and the elderly. Publicly available declassified government documents now reveal the murderous (and ultimately successful) intentions of the US government to destroy Iraq’s water system and then to systematically ban the importation of crucial items such as chlorine– the effects of which were designed, according to top officials, to unleash “disease epidemics” which were predicted to affect “children in particular.” The result? Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children were deliberately murdered, perhaps up to half a million, according to mainstream estimates. Their blood is on your hands.
For three decades you have been the strongest supporter of Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people. While the record is far too long to run through here, it is worth mentioning that just two winters ago, the Israeli military slaughtered some 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over 1,000 were civilians according to leading Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. Over 300 were children. Israel used F-16 fighter jets paid for by us; they used guns and ammunition, paid for by us; according to Human Rights Watch, Israel dropped white phosphorus–a chemical weapon supplied by US taxpayers which burns the flesh at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit–on Palestinian schools and incinerated children and noncombatants alive. Your response to these atrocities was to co-sponsor a Senate resolution praising the US-organized bloodbath. In fact, for years you have worked diligently to make sure that US taxpayers subsidize these campaigns of murder and oppression against the Palestinian people. Perhaps this is why you receive more pro-Israel lobby money than any other senator aside from Joe Lieberman. The blood of thousands of Palestinians living under military occupation and apartheid is on your hands.
You have repeatedly voted to allocate billions of dollars in funding for the US invasion and occupation of Iraq; an occupation and invasion which has killed, according to conservative British estimates, well over one million human beings. It might behoove you to remember that according to the ruling at the Nuremberg Tribunals following World War Two, an aggressive war is “the supreme international crime” because it encompasses and is ultimately responsible for all of the crimes and suffering that comes about as a result of the aggression. This funding–our money–is the lifeblood of a brutal military occupation which has killed, maimed, caged, tortured, humiliated, devastated, impoverished, and otherwise destroyed the lives of millions and millions of people. But you don’t care how many Iraqi mothers bury their sons; you don’t care how many tears are shed over the unfathomable amounts of death, destruction, degradation, and humiliation suffered at the hands of the US and its surrogates. This blood, too, is on your hands.
And power learns no lessons about human suffering. Today you urge more taxpayer support for the war in Afghanistan and for a so-called government in Afghanistan which is run by, in the words of Human Rights Watch, some of the “most notorious warlords in the country,”; warlords and criminals who killed some 50,000 Afghans during the early 1990s after the US and Russia had systematically destroyed Afghanistan in a nasty game of imperial Cold War politics. The blood spilled in every house raid and every air strike on civilians is on your hands.
Today, you continue to call for more murderous attacks in the region. You have prominently called for increasing US drone strikes in Pakistan. These cowardly bombings–which are carried out by robot planes guided by Americans sitting at computers on an Air Force Base in Nevada–have killed several hundred civilians, including women and children. Not only are these bombings wildly immoral because of this, but they also inflame and incite, quite understandably, hatred against the United States. Pakistani blood will continue to drip from your hands as long as the bombings continue.
You remain hawkish and aggressive in your posture towards other sovereign nations as well. For example, your position on Iran–a country that, in stark contrast to Israel, hasn’t attacked its neighbors for centuries–is that “all options, including military options, should be on the table.” In plain terms, this is a threat to bomb Iran, maybe even with nuclear weapons. Such threats are flagrant violations of the UN Charter, if anybody cares. If and when the US or its Israeli client attacks Iran, that blood, too, will be on your hands.
Senator Levin, reasonable people can disagree on policy and politics. BUT, reasonable people CANNOT disagree on basic human principles of justice and decency. It is both perverse and shameful that you claim to uphold values like freedom and justice while actively taking part in the murder, mutilation, repression, and infliction of suffering on millions of Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Afghans, Pakistanis, and many more peoples living under the whip of US imperialism, from Latin America to Africa, to Asia and the Middle East.
And back home in Michigan, you treat the people you purport to serve with equal contempt. While you go to sleep in your Detroit mansion as a millionaire each night, nearly 20,000 human beings in the same city go to bed homeless, on the streets. Do you have even the slightest idea what being homeless entails? These people could be housed with money you prefer to spend on war, or money you prefer to spend on yourself. While you sit self-righteously in Washington making laws to protect power and privilege, the police systematically brutalize and imprison our state’s African-American population at rate nearly THREE TIMES that of South Africa during the years of apartheid.
The truth is that, on principle, you are no different than every other senator in the U.S. and I don’t respect you. And I’m not the slightest bit interested in hearing your entirely predictable response, replete with the same old dastardly lies and apologetics for heinous crimes against humanity. If there was any justice in this country or in this world, you would be in prison and I am going to say it straight to your face.
Dogs, Cows, Ice Sculptures and Governor Candidates
It must have been a slow local news day at the Grand Rapids Press. Today’s front-page story is about the Labor Day weekend weather and gas prices.
Not to be out done the front page of the Region-section from top to bottom featured a story about a dog, then a cow, the filming of ice sculptures and at the bottom a story about Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero meeting with people in Grand Rapids.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all in favor of animal welfare and the story about the cow and dog did mention the mistreatment of animals and an animal sanctuary. However, if the stories were to explore in more detail the realities of animal abuse and resources and services available in this community, then those stories would have been more compelling.
The ice sculpture was a bit more ridiculous, since it was in many ways a promotional piece for a local ice sculpting business, who’s work is being featured on the agribusiness TV channel, the Food Network. This article has garnered 3 pictures compared to just one each for the other 3 articles on the front page of the Region-section.
The article about the gubernatorial candidate in Grand Rapids was as short as the dog story, maybe even a few sentences shorter. The article tells us that Democrat Virg Bernero and his running mate Brenda Lawrence were in Grand Rapids yesterday to meet with voters.
The story did include a comment from the gubernatorial candidate, but only one of the voters’ concerns was included. This is frustrating in that even that story stated that the candidates, “sat for more than an hour……fielding questions and concerns” from people. It would have been nice to know what the concerns are of people. Instead, the Press reporter decided to include commentary about recent polling on the Governor’s race.
As readers of this site know, GRIID has been monitoring the local news for the past 10 years. We are not surprised by the kind of journalism that the Press and other news agencies practice, but we think it is important to continue to critique this kind of journalism, especially since there is so little independent news available that focuses on West Michigan.
US Drones Will Patrol Entire Southern Border
(This article is re-posted from Common Dreams.)
The US will today send another Predator drone on patrol flights along its border with Mexico, allowing authorities for the first time to monitor the entire frontier with the unmanned aircraft.
National Guardsmen will also arrive at the border this week as part of the Obama administration’s plan to strengthen security and combat smuggling.
With immigration a critical issue in midterm elections in November, the President, Barack Obama, last month signed into law a $US600 million ($674 million) bill aimed at reinforcing border security, including programs aimed at countering the smuggling of drugs and migrants.
His administration is also pressing for a comprehensive immigration reform measure that would probably allow many of the millions of illegal migrants in the US to legalize their status.
Many Republican politicians say no immigration measure can be considered unless the federal government can ensure security along the border to prevent a spillover from Mexico’s crime-ridden north and to prevent the arrival of more illegal migrants.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said the first unmanned aerial system flight from Corpus Christi in Texas would mean the whole border from California to Texas was now covered.
”Unmanned aerial capabilities will now cover the south-west border – from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas – providing critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground,” she said.
Ms Napolitano said the drone would begin flights today to provide ”critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground”.
The US, deeply concerned by the raging drug war in Mexico, has allocated 1200 National Guard soldiers and 1500 new agents to the border. The first National Guardsmen were expected to arrive in Arizona this week. Texas is to receive 250 National Guard personnel, who will perform a support role until additional border patrol agents are hired and trained.
The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, says the number of National Guard personnel is insufficient to provide adequate security. Mr Perry, a Republican seeking re-election, is asking for 1000 National Guardsmen to be paid for with federal funds and assigned just to Texas.
Ms Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, said that what ”we are seeing today is the most serious approach to border enforcement that I have seen in my career”.
The new border security law includes two additional Predator B unmanned aerial vehicles for the south-west border, which should be operational next year.
Ms Napolitano said those two drones and the one that will begin flying this week would give Customs and Border Protection a fleet of six to monitor the 3200-kilometre border.
The Press and the so-called US Troop Withdrawal from Iraq
As the nation gets ready to listen to President Obama tonight explain the US “withdrawal” from Iraq, the Grand Rapids Press has run a story on that theme.
Entitled, “Grand Rapids area residents who lost loved ones in Iraq war glad to see troops leave,” the story continues to read like so much of the coverage on Iraq over the past 8 years.
Press reporter Ted Roelofs talked to 3 military families and one Cascade Township resident about their thoughts on the US invasion/occupation of Iraq. The military families have mixed feelings, but primarily think that what their family members were doing in Iraq was noble.
The Cascade Township resident says he thinks the war in Iraq was a big mistake and “it hasn’t been worth the blood and it hasn’t been worth the dollars.” The Press article provides the cost in “blood” by giving the number of US soldiers who died in Iraq (4000 plus), but never mentions the number of Iraqi deaths, which some sources put at 1,366,350.
The Press reporter does not pursue the monetary cost of the war in Iraq, which according to the National Priorities Project is $744 billion and counting. Even this number could be considered low, since it does not factor in the costs at home because of the war. Economist Joseph Stiglitz estimates the costs to the US are more accurately estimated around $3 Trillion.
It should be noted that the Press does not speak to any of the number of individuals and organizations that have been resisting the US invasion/occupation of Iraq over the past 8 years, ever since the build up to war in the fall of 2002. Just because there is one person who says it was a policy mistake doesn’t provide balance, especially since that source also said that getting rid of Saddam was a good thing and that, “We have created a power vacuum that is very likely going to be filled by the Islamist fundamentalists.”
Continuing the Government View on Iraq
Beyond the limited perspectives in this story, what is really problematic about this Press article is that it continues to present the US invasion/occupation from the point of view of the US government.
As we have documented in numerous studies of local news coverage since 2002, others have documented that the national US news media has more or less embraced the US government propaganda on the US invasion/occupation of Iraq (see When Media Goes to War, by Anthony DiMaggio). It is incredible on one level that the major US media has accepted government propaganda on Iraq, but even more incredible since the whole WMD lie has been exposed.
This Press article continues with the line of propaganda, even though it may appear to have multiple views on this topic. The way that the article is framed is both simplistic and ultimately vindicates US policy towards Iraq over the past 8 years. The most only criticism provided in the story was that it was a mistake. By framing it as a mistake, the Press fails to avoid what the rest of the world pretty much feels, which is that the US invasion/occupation was both illegal and immoral.
Framing at as a mistake or taking at face value the comments of military families who think that what their sons/husbands did was honorable means we don’t have to seriously evaluate or come to terms with the motives/intent of the policy and its last legacy.
As many writers and analysts have demonstrated, the US invasion/occupation of Iraq has all along been about dominating Iraq’s oil resources, having permanent US military bases in a country that borders Iran and restructuring Iraq’s economy to fit the larger neo-liberal agenda. (See War Without End: The Iraq War in Context, The Shock Doctrine and Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.)
The legacy of the 7-plus years of the US occupation is still unfolding, but we do know that the human and economic cost to Iraq and Iraqis has been tremendous. In an article by Patrick Cockburn, one of the few un-embedded reporters in Iraq, Cockburn identifies some of the ongoing violence as a result of the US occupation and which sectors of Iraqi society the US has backed.
The Press article is meant to put a local spin on the recent announcement by the Obama administration that its promise of troop withdrawal is going as planned. However, as many writers have pointed out, the US occupation is being rebranded since there will be at least 50,000 US troops remaining in Iraq, advisors, an increase in the amount of private military contractors (paid for by US tax dollars) and no intention of dismantling the numerous US bases that play such a vital role in determining US hegemony in the region.
There is certainly a great deal of things that one could point to in terms of the “failures” with the US occupation of Iraq, but one area that we must recognize is the role that the US commercial news media has played and continues to play in misinforming the American public.
Media Bites – Twix and Male Deception
In this week’s Media Bites we take a look at a recent Twix commercial, where a guy actively deceives a woman in order to get her to come home with him. The candy bar provides the guy with an opportunity to think about a better way to verbally convince her that he shares her passion about politics.
How Long Can Grand Rapids Hang On?
It’s almost time for Labor Day—the supposed tribute to the American worker. But across the country, and especially here in Grand Rapids, there’s not a lot to celebrate. Consider these issues:
Crippling unemployment levels. The “official” unemployment rate in the country is currently 9.5 percent. But Michigan’s unemployment rate is 13.1 percent. Grand Rapid’s unemployment rate this summer was 11.1 percent, but don’t get excited yet. We may have slightly lower unemployment than the state average, but we also are getting paid less for the same work.
Lowest salaries of any urban area in Michigan. It’s no secret that Michigan is limping ruinously behind the rest of the country in employment. But here in Grand Rapids, we have the lowest wages in the most depressed state in the country. The cross-country average wage is $20.90 an hour; the statewide average is an hourly wage of $20.64; in Grand Rapids, it’s $19.57. It’s quite a distinction to be fleeced more than anyone else in the United States.
Dwindling insurance coverage. Along with those dismal wages, Michigan has the fastest-growing rate of uninsured workers in the country. Folks in Grand Rapids are almost completely dependent on employee-offered insurance—that’s how over 81 percent of the insured get their benefits. But 7.8 percent of Michigan residents have no insurance at all. Thirty percent of those workers are employed for companies with 500 workers or more; companies that could easily provide benefits. But with a huge pool of available, and desperate, labor, why should the capitalists pay a dime more than they have to?
There are a few exceptions to this bleak picture, but it’s not good news for most of us. In fact, Grand Rapids citizens have an additional monetary burden: footing the bill for fat salary and benefit packages for City of Grand Rapids workers. The current average gross salary for Grand Rapids city workers is $60,801, way more than the median household income in 41 U.S. states, including, of course, Michigan. Along with those wages are excellent benefit packages—completely paid for, even after retirement.
A lack of living wages for the rest of us. Remember our slightly lower unemployment rate here in Grand Rapids? Just because we have jobs doesn’t mean the jobs are worth having. Starting in 2001, the area’s biggest employers, such as the furniture manufacturers, began massive layoffs. Companies like Steelcase laid off more than half its workforce; Electrolux in Greenville closed completely. And the available jobs now? They are not what anyone can consider adequate replacements. One jobs site states that two of the most common jobs available in Grand Rapids are for registered nurses and physical therapists, both of which require special degrees and certification. Another frequent hiring category? That would be for cashiers.
Part of this scenario is being created, of course, by the NAFTA/CAFTA stranglehold that allows U.S. jobs to be removed to other countries where workers are exploited via minimal wages and no benefits, equaling low overhead costs for the companies.
Another capitalist trick that’s popular in the Grand Rapids area is the “contract re-hire” scam. In this situation, manufacturers lay off long-term employees; wait until they are desperate; and then hire them back at much lower wages and sometimes without benefits. One local manufacturer that conducted a deep layoff 20 months ago is now offering their former workers a chance at their exact same jobs…but at 50 percent of what they were paid before, and without pensions or seniority.
Increasing household costs. Grand Rapidians are having to take their cashier jobs and figure out how to use them to cover increasing costs—since our current economic depression has not been accompanied by price deflation. Food prices in Michigan are up again, after falling slightly last year. But it’s our utility costs that are the current budget-busters. One example: our electric rates went up over 14 percent this year alone, and between 20 to 30 percent in the past 22 months. We can thank new state legislation that allows our utility companies to start charging consumers for increases before they have even received approval for the changes.
And city residents in Grand Rapids pay water costs that far exceed those in the comparable regions. Areas like Kentwood, for example, have the same water service as Grand Rapids residents, but pay less. Our water costs have increased 11.4 percent in the past year. You can find the reasoning, padded in incomprehensible double-speak, in a 245-page report online.
Outraged? Call manager Joellen Thompson at 456-4550 and see if she’ll return your call. But don’t hold your breath.
As we approach Labor Day, it’s painful to look at the Grand Rapids scenario: Nine years of economic downturns and layoffs, increasing taxes, increasing wages for city workers, slashed wages for everyone else, and price-gouging food and utility prices. People are scared to speak up, scared to object, and scared to stand up for their rights. Some hope that if this or that political party dominates in the upcoming election, things will change. They won’t. All politicians are the paid creatures of the capitalists—special interests and campaign contributions see to that.
But we do have one card left in our deck. That’s the choice to put a stop to this now. We can only do that collectively, with one voice, with one sense of purpose.
This Labor Day, think about how different life in Grand Rapids would be if you and your fellow workers could control production for the good of the people, not for the good of the CEOs at the top of the economic food chain. It’s time to choose, and time to act. We simply can’t hang on much longer.
3rd Congressional Race – Follow the Money
It has been nearly 4 weeks since the Primary Election and not much attention has been given to 3rd Congressional District race. There is just over 2 months left before the November 2nd vote and it is worth looking at the race to replace Congressman Vern Ehlers.
There are five candidates running for the 3rd Congressional District: Justin Amash (Republican), Pat Miles (Democrat), Charlie Shick (Green), Theodore Gerrard (US Taxpayers) and James Rogers (Libertarian).
If people are relying on the mainstream commercial media in the Grand Rapids area they would be somewhat familiar with both Miles and Amash, but the other three candidates are virtually unknown to most voters. The first time we noted any coverage of the other three candidates was in yesterday’s Grand Rapids Press, which mentioned that Charlie Shick was the Green Party candidate for the 3rd Congressional District in the Political Polpourri section.
This lack of local news exposure of candidates outside of the Republican and Democratic Party will no doubt continue until Election Day and local political debates are likely to exclude those candidates as well. Lack of exposure is also due to limited campaign funds. As of the last required campaign finance filing in late July, no money had been raised by Shick, Gerrard or Rogers. Money dictates attention in political races and it also can tell us a great deal about whom candidates give their allegiance to.
Follow the Money
When it comes to money raised so far Amash and Miles are pretty even, with Amash having raised $379,373 by July 14th and Miles $318,251, according to OpenSecrets.org. These number will increase tremendously between now and November 2nd, but for now lets look at who the major donors have been.
The single largest campaign contributor to date for Amash has been Michigan Industrial Tools ($25,250), which is owned by Amash’s family. The second largest contributor has been Amway/Alticor ($15,700), but if you included any and all DeVos connected entities you would have to add Windquest Group ($4,400) and DP Fox Ventures ($2,400). In fact, virtually everyone in the DeVos clan is endorsing Justin Amash, from Amway founder Richard DeVos to son’s Doug and Dick and even Artprize guru Rick DeVos.
Other major contributors to Amash’s campaign are Club for Growth ($14,200), which is a national ultra-conservative group committed to getting Republicans elected to Congress. Then there are several local businesses whom have contributed significantly to Amash’s campaign, such as Savory Foods ($9,600), Preusser Jewelers ($7,200) and local insurance company Coleman, Dugan & Hughes ($4,800). Other notable donors are S. Abraham & Sons ($3,500), Ellis Parking ($2,700) and the law firm of Warner, Norcross & Judd ($3,400).
For Pat Miles the biggest campaign contributor to date has been Dickinson Wright Llc ($9,500), a law firm with a long list of corporate clients. Besides the $9,500 they are listed as contributing they also have given another $5,500 listed as Dickinson Wright Pllc and another $4,650 listed as Dickinson, Wright et al., according to OpenSecrets.org. This would put that law firms total campaign contributions to Pat Miles at $19,650 as of July 14.
Other major contributor’s to Miles campaign are the law firm of Varnum ($8,250), Yesterdog ($4,500), the Wege Foundation ($4,000), Crystal Flash Energy ($2,400), Steelcase Inc. ($2,400) and the Microsoft Corporation ($2,400.) to name a few.
Clearly, a good percentage of the funds raised by both Amash and Miles to date are disproportionately from the elite sectors of West Michigan, which should be an indication to us about whom their allegiance will be to if elected.
