Tucsonans turned out in force last week to support postal worker jobs and protect the Cherrybell mail processing plant from closure.

Inside the Leo Rich Theater, a capacity crowd of more than 500 citizens listened to United States Postal Service (USPS) representative Brian McCoy’s dog and pony show touting plant closures and layoffs as the path to financial solvency for the USPS.

Outside, representatives from Jobs with Justice, Occupy Tucson, and unions chanted, waved protest signs and signed a petition to save local mail processing.

The main reason the post office is going broke isn’t the Internet or the number of postal workers, it’s the Congressional mandate requiring them to pre-pay employee retirement. Last fiscal year, the USPS lost $5.1 billion. During the same time period, they had a $6.9 billion surplus in the Federal Employee Retirement Fund.

Closing 250 mail processing plants nationwide and laying off 35,000 workers won’t solve this structural problem.

Moving from one-day delivery of local mail to two- to three-day delivery of local mail (as proposed by the USPS) won’t make the postal service more competitive; it will further decrease the use of first class mail and could lead to more calls for privatization.

Trucking mail from the city of origin to a regional processing plant and back again isn’t environmentally friendly and could be cost-prohibitive in the future.

For more details on the meeting and background on the postal service’s financial woes, check out my article in the Huffington Post: Occupy the Post Office? Tucson Postal Workers, Supporters, Fight Back Against Threatened Job Cuts.

Tucson Occupiers discuss nest steps on Dec. 22, 2011 after their eviction from Veinte de Agosto Park. (Image Credit: Pamela Powers Hannley)

Although it has been nearly a week since Tucson Police evicted Occupy Tucson from their Veinte de Agosto Park encampment, Occupiers have not folded up their tents and disappeared into the night. They continue to meet, organize, protest, and solidify the movement for 99% and against corporate takeover of our country.

Tomorrow– Dec. 28– will be a busy day of action for Occupy Tucson and its supporters.

Community Food Drive

From 7 a.m. – 4 p.m., Occupiers will be accepting people and pet food donations at Veinte de Agosto (Congress and Church) or DeAnza Park (Stone and Speedway).

From the Occupy Tucson facebook page…

In support of Shaun McClusky’s upcoming “Take Care of Tucson” food drive to feed the hungry, Occupy Tucson announces a companion event to help him boost donations.

McClusky, who has called Occupy Tucson a “smelly stinky presence” and has said he hopes “TPD takes their unemployed asses to jail,” has been awarded permits by the City of Tucson to occupy Veinte de Agosto Park and De Anza Park on December 28.

McClusky is the founder of Rincon Ventures, a real estate company that acquires foreclosed homes at public auction. For the past several weeks, members of Occupy Tucson have been disrupting these auctions, held at the Pima County Courthouse. In November, Occupy activists held a competing event, auctioning off donut holes to the public. The boisterous presence of Occupy Tucson at these auctions has become an impediment to McClusky’s ability to do business.

So we are particularly pleased that Mr. McClusky is spearheading this community food drive, in that it demonstrates his solidarity with the hungry and homeless of our community, the segment of the 99 percent most severely impacted by corporate greed and corruption. Although Occupy Tucson does puzzle over the efficacy of evicting homeless people from their tents in order to make their lives better, we applaud McClusky’s good intentions and pledge to join him on December 28 to raise contributions for the four organizations he has designated as recipients: The Tucson Community Food Bank, the Humane Society, Cold Wet Noses, and the Hermitage Shelter.

Occupy Tucson invites its supporters to engage in a friendly hometown rivalry. Help us answer the question: which group of Occupiers will gather more food? Foreclosure profiteer Shaun McClusky, or the 99 percent?

Occupy Tucson urges our supporters to bring donations to Veinte de Agosto Park or De Anza Park from 7am to 4pm on December 28. Occupy Tucson activists will have a visible presence nearby to greet community members and accept donations.

Occupy the holidays!

Political Action Supporting Postal Workers

Following the food drive, Occupy Tucson, Jobs with Justice, and their supporters will gather at Veinte de Agosto Park at 4:30 p.m. for a rally to keep the Tucson Mail Processing Plant, which is threatened with closure. The rally will be from 4:30 – 5:15, followed by a march to the Leo Rich Theater, in the Tucson Convention Center complex, where there will be a 6 p.m. public hearing about the proposed closure. Closure of the Cherrybell facility will not only mean the loss of 400 good-paying jobs, it will mean dramatically reduced mail service for Tucson.

From Jobs with Justice and Tucson Area Local American Postal Workers Union…

The Postmaster General is considering eliminating Tucson’s postal sorting station at Cherrybell Stravenue.

This would mean all mail would be routed through Phoenix, even if it is going elsewhere in Tucson. It would also mean the end of overnight service from Tucson.

This proposal would cost the community approximately 400 (union) jobs, hurt local businesses that rely on the postal service, and harm seniors who receive Social Security checks and medication by mail. It would also put the kybash on those last-minute runs to Cherrybell Station to meet those midnight deadlines!

Tucson is the 33rd largest metro area in the country.

Even though the USPS has agreed to hold off until 5/15/12 for any more closures studies are continuing as well as public hearings. This is our only chance to make an impact. Even if you don’t want to go to the microphone we need to fill 511 seats.

Written comments can also be submitted (by post, not email!) to: Management,Consumer and Industry Contact, Arizona
District, P.O. Box, 21628, Phoenix, Arizona 85036-1628. [Emphasis added.]

2010 Scrooge of the Year: Governor Jan Brewer

Governor Jan Brewer handily won the Tucson Jobs with Justice Scrooge of the Year Award on Saturday evening at the anual awards dinner.

Seven people were nominated for the 2010 Scrooge Award, but Repulbican politicians dominated the field with  five of the seven nominations. Tucsonans who nominated these would-be Scrooges– two teachers, a former politician, a union leader, and two new media representatives– presented impassioned, detailed, and often sarcastically humorous nominating speeches in front of a crowd of nearly 100 who attended. Here are a few highlights from the nominating speeches.

Brewer was nominated for signing SB1070, lying about beheadings in the desert, scapegoating immigrants to win her election, allowing lobbyists to run the government, championing cuts education and healthcare (while offering additional business tax cuts), defending her transplant patient death panel.

State Senator Russell Pearce was nominated for being the father of SB1070 and other offenses similar similar to Brewer’s but Pearce continues to blaze new trails into white supremacy, immigrant scapegoating. and Constitution-tweaking. While Brewer is seen as more of a dupe and a follower, Pearce is more of an evil doer.

Current Superintendent of Public Instruction and Attorney General-elect Tom Horne was nominated for overseeing the dismantling of public education in Arizona, for standing idly by while the Arizona Legislature repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets, and for spearheading the discriminatory anti-ethnic studies law that targets one program at one high school.

Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect John Huppenthal was nominated for being one of those Arizona Legislators who repeatedly hacked away at K-12 and university education budgets; as head of the state’s public education system, it is feared he will kill it.

US Senator Jon Kyl (the 2009 Scrooge of the Year) was nominated for being controlled by corporate lobbyists and saying “no” to any idea or legislation that was suggested by President Obama– regardless of whether it or not it was good for the country– No on healthcare reform, No on financial reform, No multiple times on extension of unemployment benefits, No on plans to help small businesses, No on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, No on the Dream Act, No on the New START treaty.

Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC) was nominated for trying to control Tucson and southern Arizona politics and governments through ballot initiatives and manipulation in order to benefit their wealthy corporatist members.

Sean McClusky was nominated for leading the charge against the proposed 1/2 cent city sales tax by promoting the “cut waste first” slogan; failure of that ballot initiative will result in cutting jobs.

As you can see, party-goers had a very strong slate of evil-doers to choose from for the Scrooge Award. Party tickets (which cost $10) counted for 10 votes, plus party attendees could “buy votes– just like in a regular election in order to stuff the ballot boxes” for favorite candidates. In the end, it wasn’t even close; Governor Brewer won the Scrooge of the Year Award, hands down.

Here are the tallies:

• Kyl: 41
• McClusky: 60
• Huppenthal: 66
• SALC: 93
• Horne: 135
• Pearce: 136
• Brewer: 207

Tucson’s Jobs with Justice (JwJ) group will host its annual Scrooge of the Year event on Saturday, December 11. Each year JwJ asks Arizona workers to nominate bad…errr… less than perfect… bosses for the distinction of Scrooge of the Year.

Individual employees or employee groups are free to nominate bosses for the honor of being label a Scrooge. The short nomination speeches– when employees pitch their boss’ “qualifications” for Scrooge of the Year– proved to entertaining and sometimes a bit sad last year. After the presentations, the audience votes for the most deserving Scrooge among the field of bosses.

Arizona Senator Jon Kyl (Source: Project Vote Smart)

Personally, I think Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who won the 2009 Scrooge of the Year Award, should win again this year. Let’s look at Jon’s performance in 2010: voted against extending unemployment benefits; voted against financial reform and health care reform; lobbied for exclusion of many women’s health benefits in the healthcare reform legislation; continues to fight for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, while stalling the New START Treaty. (Need I go on? After all, this is just a short list off the top of my head.)

In addition to the entertainment value of watching employees openly crack on their bosses, the evening includes dinner, refreshments, and music for a $10 donation to JwJ. The event will begin at 6 p.m. on December 11 and will be held in the Goddard Hall at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4831 E. 22nd Street. Jobs with Justice coalitions around the country work for justice on the job and in communities. It was founded in 1987 with “the vision of lifting up workers’ rights struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice.” For more information about the local group, check this link.

>Thousands of people marched through Tucson’s south side to Armory Park to commemorate May Day and show their support for human rights and immigration reform.

The multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural crowd of an estimated 7000 marchers snaked through neighborhoods chanting and waving homemade signs. The crowd, which was approximately 30% non-Hispanic, was so large that it was impossible to see the beginning or the end until it dispersed at Armory Park to hear speeches and music.

Although May Day Marches have commemorated workers’ rights for more than a century, they have evolved into celebrations of human rights in recent years. With the passage of Arizona’s new strict anti-illegal immigrant bill a week ago, May Day Marches across the country focused on civil rights for everyone in the US–regardless of status. The march in Los Angeles was the largest.

Several speakers, including Dolores Huerta, Congressman Raul Grijalva, and singer Linda Ronstadt addressed the marchers in both Spanish and English.

Huerta, who organized migrant farm workers in the 1960s with Cesar Chavez, urged the audience to forget petty differences and work together for comprehensive immigration reform– now. A life-long activitist, Huerta told everyone not to leave Arizona but to stay and vote Governor Jan Brewer and her cronies out of office.

Grijalva, who came under attack for his call for a boycott of Arizona due to SB1070, said that when reporters asked him who they would see at May Day March, he replied that they would see America– a diversified country.

Across the street from the May Day rally, a small but noisy, all-white group of SB1070 supporters gathered. From behind the police line, they tried to provoke the May Day Marchers by flipping the bird and jeering, but their voices were drowned out by the Aztec drummers and dancers.

Pictures speak louder than words. Please check out the attached slide show and the KVOA video.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column. To see the slide show and great video coverage from KVOA, click on the link.

Worldwide, May 1 is celebrated as International Workers’ Day. Originally, the workers’ holiday commemorated the struggle for an eight-hour work day in 1856 and later, marked the anniversary of the Haymarket affair in 1886. The Haymarket affair, also know as the Haymarket massacre, began as a rally in support of striking workers and ended in violence with the deaths of workers and police.

In Tucson, the May Day March not only promotes workers’ rights, a living wage, and fair workplace practices but also the rights for other oppressed people, including immigrants.

Immigrant workers–legal and illegal–often work under substandard conditions in the fields, factories, and kitchens of America. It’s understandable that their struggle would become part of this demonstration of worker solidarity. After the passage of the anti-illegal immigrant bill SB1070, this year’s May Day March will most likely be large and boisterous.

The May Day March will begin Saturday morning at 9 a.m. at El Casino Ballroom and end with a rally at 11 a.m. in Armory Park. For details, check the Derechos Humanos website.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column.

>Wednesday, March 31 is the 83rd anniversary of union organizer Cesar Chavez’s birthday. Beginning on Friday and continuing through next week, there will be commemorative events in Tucson to honor Chavez’s legacy.

The week of celebration began last night with a reception for Dolores Huerta (above) at Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop.

In 1962, Huerta and Chavez were co-founders of the National Farm Workers Association. Together, they organized farm workers and fought for better wages and working conditions across California and the southwest.

At 79, Huerta is still a fiery activist. Last night, she encouraged workers, artists, students, activists, and other progressive-thinking individuals to work together for civil rights, social justice, reform, and political power. After her short speech she urged attendees of all ages to get involved in the political process, support progressive candidates, and vote. At Huerta’s invitation, Vince Rabago, candidate for Arizona attorney general, and John Bernal, LD27 candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives, joined her on stage for brief campaign speeches.

Today, Huerta will appear at the rally following the 10th Annual Cesar Chavez March, which goes from Pueblo High School to the Rudy Garcia Park on the south side of Tucson. The march, which begins at 9 a.m., goes east on 44th St. and south on 6th Ave. Click here for the parade route and more information about music and festivities at the park.

If you want to learn more about Chavez, Huerta, and the farm workers’ movement, tune in to KXCI on March 31. Community radio KXCI 91.3 FM will have Cesar Chavez Day programming from 3 pm – midnight on his birthday.

Huerta’s message of solidarity is particularly poignant today when immigration reform has been put on the back burner by some weak-kneed politicians, while other politicians are whipping up hatred for anyone who is different.

Both Chavez and Huerta have established foundations (linked here) to continue their struggle.

This article was originally published in my Progressive Examiner column.