more than three quarters of a million dollars in 1998-a year when the company lost money and was heading for bankruptcy, a year when Alejandro would have earned $2, 300. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, during the richest years in American history, employees of American corporations are living and working under medieval conditions, and if the barons of the WTO have anything to say about it, the exportation of jobs will only accelerate It's illegal in most countries for U.S. unions to organize. But U.S. unions can and do support unions and worker- ustice movements abroad. The United Auto Workers, for instance, is helping Manuel's organization compile data on repetitive-stress injuries. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers(UE) is supporting the formation of a new, independent federation of militant unions in Mexico. The Steelworkers Unions last year signed a formal alliance with a Uruguayan union to help it stand up to Titan International, which has tire factories in South America, Europe, India and the United States What goes around comes around When a member of the UE was fired by a wisconsin company during an organizing drive, the Japanese labor federation Zenroren, which has an alliance with the JE, was able to pressure the parent company in Japan to lean on its Wisconsin subsidiary to reinstate him. When Titan International tried to send employees from Uruguay to its Des Moines plant to break a strike, the Uruguayans refused Such global thinking is new for the American labor movement, which turned insular during the Cold War and timid in the face of Reaganism. But even the creaky old AFL-CIO is starting to rouse itself. In February, the federation took two steps in the direction of cross-border solidarity. First, the AFL- CIO reversed its fifteen-year-old support of tough immigration laws and the policy of criminalizing businesses that hire undocumented Mexicans "The world has changed a senior federation official said, announcing the AFL-CIO,'s new support for a general amnesty for millions of Mexicans illegally working in the United States and the people who hire them. Then AFL-CIO president John Sweeney embarrassed the Clinton administration by walking out on its effort to lower trade bar with China. Sweeney said he didn ' t trust the government to consider workers' interests in trade fiers policy. The AFL-CIO would never use these words, but the organizing principles of its future might be summed up as workers of the world, unite Los Estramboticos do indeed exist, and their CD is available on the Internet. a clip is available, too and they sound like. the ramones doing ska. I send the cd to david then give him a call. Alyssa has to call him in from the freezing sidewalk, where he's gone to enjoy a cigarette away from his baby daughter With the economy as strong as it is, David has found a new union job in a pot-and-pan factory, earning $12.50 an hour plus benefits. So he and Alyssa have started talking once again about buying a house, and he's window-shopping for guitars. But he knows the job is unlikely to last, that the factory will pull up stakes when it decides to make saucepans cheaper in Matamoros or Shanghai. Perhaps the most important change in David is that where once he shrugged in helpless resignation, now hes angry We have these nickel-grabbers, thats what I call then, he says. " They only care about what theyremore than three quarters of a million dollars in 1998 – a year when the company lost money and was heading for bankruptcy, a year when Alejandro would have earned $2,300. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, during the richest years in American history, employees of American corporations are living and working under medieval conditions, and if the barons of the WTO have anything to say about it, the exportation of jobs will only accelerate. It’s illegal in most countries for U.S. unions to organize. But U.S. unions can and do support unions and worker-justice movements abroad. The United Auto Workers, for instance, is helping Manuel’s organization compile data on repetitive-stress injuries. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) is supporting the formation of a new, independent federation of militant unions in Mexico. The Steelworkers Unions last year signed a formal alliance with a Uruguayan union to help it stand up to Titan International, which has tire factories in South America, Europe, India and the United States. What goes around comes around: When a member of the UE was fired by a Wisconsin company during an organizing drive, the Japanese labor federation Zenroren, which has an alliance with the UE, was able to pressure the parent company in Japan to lean on its Wisconsin subsidiary to reinstate him. When Titan International tried to send employees from Uruguay to its Des Moines plant to break a strike, the Uruguayans refused. Such global thinking is new for the American labor movement, which turned insular during the Cold War and timid in the face of Reaganism. But even the creaky old AFL-CIO is starting to rouse itself. In February, the federation took two steps in the direction of cross-border solidarity. First, the AFL￾CIO reversed its fifteen-year-old support of tough immigration laws and the policy of criminalizing businesses that hire undocumented Mexicans. “The world has changed,” a senior federation official said, announcing the AFL-CIO’s new support for a general amnesty for millions of Mexicans illegally working in the United States and the people who hire them. Then AFL-CIO president John Sweeney embarrassed the Clinton administration by walking out on its effort to lower trade barriers with China. Sweeney said he didn’t trust the government to consider workers’ interests in trade policy. The AFL-CIO would never use these words, but the organizing principles of its future might be summed up as “workers of the world, unite.” ********************* Los Estrambóticos do indeed exist, and their CD is available on the Internet. A clip is available, too, and they sound like…the Ramones doing ska. I send the CD to David, then give him a call. Alyssa has to call him in from the freezing sidewalk, where he’s gone to enjoy a cigarette away from his baby daughter. With the economy as strong as it is, David has found a new union job in a pot-and-pan factory, earning $12.50 an hour plus benefits. So he and Alyssa have started talking once again about buying a house, and he’s window-shopping for guitars. But he knows the job is unlikely to last, that the factory will pull up stakes when it decides to make saucepans cheaper in Matamoros or Shanghai. Perhaps the most important change in David is that where once he shrugged in helpless resignation, now he’s angry. “We have these nickel-grabbers, that’s what I call then,” he says. “They only care about what they’re