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    "The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people."
    Cesar Chavez




    :: Saturday, April 30, 2005 ::

    A wake-up call by MICHAEL URBANSKI, Fort McMurray Today
    Hundreds of union protesters shut down downtown Fort McMurray Thursday evening, rallying against allowing foreign workers to work on oilsands construction sites.

    Chanting slogans and waving dozens of banners with union emblems, supporters and union leaders urged the Alberta government to revoke designation eight -- a special regulation that allows industry to hire out-of-country workers.

    "The oilsands belong to the Canadian people, not to the oil companies," said Rob Kinsey, business manager with the plumbers and pipefitters union local 488, to the cheering crowd.
  • posted 11:37 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    What Happened to Our Unions? Labor’s Militant Voice
    The UBC and its president, Doug McCarron, are perfect examples of how the union leadership suppresses the potentially strongest members. These are the members who understand that unionism means a united struggle against the employers and are willing to take risks and make sacrifices in order to do so. It is exactly these members have been pretty well locked out of any decision-making role. The official leadership does all it can to discourage and demoralize these members at every turn of events and at every union meeting. If a group of members is motivated to come to meetings in order to get the union to fight for better conditions, they are given the run around and told repeatedly why this is impossible. If a member takes the time to call his or her business rep to complain about conditions on the job, they never know if their name will be turned in to the boss and they will be fired. If a member seeks to file a grievance, at every step of the way the business reps will try to discourage that member from fighting it through to the finish, no matter how strong their case is. In many areas, there is a near open black list against the most active and principled union members. And if all else fails, the most active members are offered jobs with the union establishment in an attempt to buy them off and silence them. In one instance, where even this didn't work, McCarron and his Executive Board had a member and local officer officially expelled from the union for "disobedience to authority".
  • posted 11:35 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Labour's Online Bookstore LabourStart
    Labour's Online Bookstore, a LabourStart project, now has just under 100 books in its online catalog. For the first time, you can see these titles broken down by category. We have 9 children's books, for example. We have no fewer than 32 books on U.S. labour history. We've even got a special section with books about Wal-Mart.
  • posted 11:34 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Friday, April 29, 2005 ::
    Workers Memorial Day In The News compiled by Jordan Barab, Confined Space
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    Mobilize to Reclaim May Day, Advance the Fight for Independent Labor Political Action! International Action Center
    BRING BACK MAY DAY -- May Day grew out of the struggle of working people in this country more than 100 years ago for an 8-hour workday with full day's pay. All over the world, working and poor people march on May Day to send the message that workers are united. Let's bring that unity and fighting spirit back.
  • posted 12:15 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Labor Group Tries to Address Dissent By PETE YOST, Associated Press
    AFL-CIO President John Sweeney is seeking re-election in July and a new report by the labor federation says too few unions are investing 30 percent or more of their overall budgets on organizing.

    Dissidents including Hoffa, who runs one of the nation's largest unions, want to cut the AFL-CIO's budget, proposing reductions in dues paid to the federation for unions that commit more resources to organizing. The initiative will be voted on at the AFL-CIO's national convention in July.
  • posted 12:11 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Trades Declare War On Nonunion Training By Sherie Winston, Engineering News-Record
    "The ABC programs do not work," BCTD President Edward C. Sullivan told more than 2,500 delegates from the 15 construction unions on April 18 at the department’s annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C.

    The unions are calling for an immediate investigation into poor performing programs and a requirement that they maintain a certain graduation rate by craft. "We have repeatedly urged the Dept. of Labor to take action, with no response," Sullivan said. "If we can’t do it at the federal level, we will get it done in the state courts," he added. Sullivan later told ENR that it was likely that building trade councils or other state-level union groups would pursue legal action to block ABC’s apprentice programs. Local unions are "keyed up" on this issue, he said.
  • posted 12:08 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Thursday, April 28, 2005 ::
    Workers' Memorial Day - 2005 Hazards Magazine, UK
    Worldwide millions die each year as a result of workplace hazards. Most don't die of mystery ailments, or in tragic 'accidents'. They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn't that important a priority. The global trade union movement wants employers to be accountable for workers' health and safety.
  • posted 11:32 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    National Day of Mourning clc-ctc.ca
    On April 28th, 2005, workers across the country will mourn the loss of life and injury to their brothers and sisters due to occupational accidents and illness. Our theme this year is "Save lives, enforce health and safety legislation".

    In 1991 the Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-223, An Act Respecting a Day of Mourning for Persons Killed or Injured in the Workplace.

    Since 1984, more than 17,000 Canadian workers have been killed on the job.

    More than 18,000,000 workers have been injured.

    The figures on work place deaths in Canada from 2003, show that 953 Canadians lost their lives from work place causes. This is the highest annual figure in the 21 years since the Day of Mourning began.
  • posted 11:30 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Union Cries Foul in Wal-Mart Sign Fight By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times
    The image planned for the anti-Wal-Mart billboard was unusual - a fire-breathing Godzilla standing next to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge - and the language was strong: 'The Wal-Monster will destroy Staten Island businesses and devastate our quality of life.'

    But New Yorkers may never see the billboard, which was supposed to go up on the island, because Clear Channel, the giant radio network that also runs an outdoor advertising company, has rejected it, saying its image and language are too inflammatory.
  • posted 11:27 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Campaign to unionize Wal-Mart 'waking up' By TIMOTHY SPENCE, Hearst News Service
    Organized labor - led by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) - is using a similar approach against Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. The company, with sales of $284 billion last year, has embittered unions for years by blocking efforts to organize its more than 1.2 million North American workers, including shutting down a store in Canada where employees were pressing for union representation and closing all its meat-packing operations when 11 butchers in Texas voted to unionize.
  • posted 11:25 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 ::
    Workers Memorial Day AFL-CIO
    Here are some materials and information to help you participate in Workers Memorial Day
  • posted 12:20 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Workers Memorial Day April 28 IBEW
    President Edwin D. Hill encourages local unions to join or initiate local commemorations of Workers Memorial Day. He says, 'Our very founder, Henry Miller, was killed in an industrial accident. Our union grew as it addressed the frequent electrocutions of building trades workers at the turn of the century. A healthy and safe workplace should always be a prime focus of IBEW unionism.'
  • posted 12:15 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Workers' Memorial Day Trades Union Congress, UK
    Worker's Memorial Day is held on 28 April every year, all over the world workers and their representatives conduct events, demonstrations, vigils and a whole host of other activities to mark the day.

    The day is also intended to serve as a rallying cry to "remember the dead, but fight like hell for the living".
  • posted 12:10 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Smoking on the line splits autoworkers By Sharon Terlep, The Detroit News
    The UAW -- from local leaders to its president -- has long protected employee rights to smoke in the workplace.
    UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, a former smoker, defends the practice and says workers are exposed to chemicals, oil mist and other materials just as much as second-hand smoke.
    Gettelfinger said the UAW does support smoking cessation and other health programs, but doesn't support a ban on smoking in assembly plants as a way to lower health care costs.
    'Auto plants are huge complexes and many workers on the jobs are in isolated areas, without a lot of people around them, where it doesn't cause a problem for anyone,' Gettelfinger said last week.
  • posted 12:07 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Aerospace crunch: Labor shortage chokes growth plans By Steve Wilhelm, Puget Sound Business Journal
    Out of the 9,137 members of the Machinists Local 751 that Boeing has laid off in the Puget Sound area, just 228 are qualified to run CNC machines, said union spokesperson Connie Kelliher. The balance include a number of blue-collar trades including plumbers, electricians, assemblers, even forklift drivers.

    The hot demand for skilled machinists outside The Boeing Co. is galling for Mark Blondin, president of Local 751, the union that represents most Boeing tradespeople. Boeing has been trimming away its own base of CNC operators at its Auburn facility as it shifts ongoing production of machined parts to its suppliers. This reflects a company shift to a policy of retaining just enough machinists to fill in production gaps and to develop new technologies.
  • posted 12:04 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 ::
    Union members choose CMAW BC Carpenters Union news
    Support for Canadian Union Increases to 97%

    BC Carpenters Union President Len Embree says Labour Board vote returns released this week show support for the union's Canadian Autonomy movement is increasing.

    'Right now membership endorsement is 97 per cent.' says Embree. 'This is up from the 83 per cent support shown when our members voted to move their union from American to Canadian control in 2003.'
  • posted 11:34 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    ‘Voodoo’ Allegations Stir Outrage Hardbeatnews.com, NY
    Several Haitian workers at a nursing home in Wakefield, Massachusetts were hopping mad over management's allegations that an employee used voodoo threats in a push to unionize.

    But workers say the claim is stereotypical and is being made simply because management did not want the workers to become a part of Service Employees International Union, Local 2020.
  • posted 11:28 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Seven lost lives lengthen sad tally By PETER HALL, Penn Live, PA
    For Bruce Paulus, of Allentown, who served with Stefano in the Marines, Workers Memorial Day sends a message to employers that safety should come before profit.

    "Look at that list. Don't let it happen in your plant, facility or place of employment," Paulus said.

    For union bricklayer Lou Polentes, of Bethlehem, who said he has lost colleagues to accidents, the ceremony is a way to keep danger in perspective.

    "It's important because we take every day living and working for granted. With everything we hear about on TV and in the paper -- accidents, 1,500 dead in Iraq -- it seems isolated. You don't realize it can affect you until you're high up on a scaffold and it collapses and your buddy's buried."
  • posted 11:24 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    It’s a Wobbly Year ZNet
    2005 marks the centennial of the founding of the most bold, radical, and egalitarian mass union in US history: the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies). Big Bill Haywood, "The Rebel Girl" Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Joe Hill, Free Speech fights, the Patterson and Lawrence strikes, "Solidarity Forever", and so much more: the legacy of the Wobblies is one of the most enduring things in the American radical tradition. Paul Buhle, a professor of American Civilization at Brown University and a leading scholar of American radical history, is co-author of the new Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World. In a recent interview with Left Hook co-editor Derek Seidman, Buhle answered some questions about the IWW, his new book, and the Traveling Wobbly show.
  • posted 11:22 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Non-union apprentice programs fail, study indicates By Mark Gruenberg, Workday Minnesota
    Apprenticeship training run by unions or their affiliated contractors had graduation rates of 58 percent for electrical apprentices, 52 percent for plumbers and 51 percent for operating engineers. Non-union programs in those crafts had graduation rates of one-half to one-third of the union rates.
  • posted 11:20 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Monday, April 25, 2005 ::
    BAY AREA / Chunks of bridge to be cut to check By Jim Zamora, San Francisco Chronicle
    Feds conduct most extensive tests on alleged faulty welds

    Caltrans said the sections of steel would be removed from one foundation pier where former employees alleged that faulty welds had been covered up intentionally. At the request of FBI investigators, Caltrans and federal officials would not say exactly how many portions would be removed or which of the four foundation piers still under construction would be involved in the process.

    The work is called 'destructive testing' because portions of the bridge foundation are removed.
  • posted 10:40 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Welders put a shine to new bridge By DAVID PATCH, Toledo Blade, OH
    Construction of the bridge's main line spans has been on hold since a Feb. 16, 2004, crane collapse that killed four workers and injured four others. Fru-Con expects to resume that part of the work within about two months using several other cranes.
  • posted 10:36 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    More Than 45 Bi-Partisan Members of Congress Call on Bush to End Harmful Canadian Lumber Duties, Honor NAFTA, WTO American Consumers for Affordable Homes
    'We appreciate the call to action made by these Members of Congress who share our concerns about the unfair impact of the duties on consumers, while U.S. special interests destabilize the lumber market for their own gain,' said Susan Petniunas, spokesperson for the American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH), an alliance that has been fighting for free trade and open lumber sales between the two countries.

    The Administration continues to turn a deaf ear on consumers and first- time homeowners in favor of lumber companies like International Paper, Potlatch, Plum Creek, Sierra Pacific, and Temple Inland, southern lumber producers, members of the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, an organization that has caused trade turmoil on this issue for lumber consumers for nearly 20 years, she noted.
  • posted 10:29 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Supreme Court to hear charter challenge to B.C. law NUPGE
    On trial is Bill 29 - the 2002 legislation that shredded legally negotiated collective agreements paving the way for an unprecedented privatization of health care services and the mass firing of more than 8,000 health care workers - mostly women.
  • posted 10:28 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Sunday, April 24, 2005 ::
    Deliver Us from Wal-Mart? Christianity Today Magazine
    Cheating Your Associates
    Low wages are one thing, unpaid overtime another. In Malachi 3:5 the Lord rebukes 'those who defraud laborers of their wages,' and those who have 'failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields' are denounced in James 5.
  • posted 11:40 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Lessons of green giants By Emil Guillermo, Stockton Record, CA
    So clip this column and read it as you wait in the long food lines to spend more than what the average asparagus worker made before the UFW was around.

    Then lift a spear to those who inspired Cesar Chavez: Filipino Americans Larry Itliong, Pete Velasco, Philip Vera Cruz. Andy Imutan. Transpees all. Unsung heroes of the Valley's labor movement.

    Green giants.
  • posted 11:38 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Ticketed Motorist Claims Rights Violation for Honking at Protest Berkeley Daily Planet
    Driving home close to midnight after an 11-hour workday last August, Carol Harris never expected to become embroiled in a free speech fight.

    But when the 51-year-old Oakland resident saw union protesters outside the Claremont Hotel holding up signs urging motorists to honk in support, she said she gave three quick beeps. The next thing she knew a Berkeley police officer had pulled her over on Tunnel Road and given her a $143 ticket for "Unreasonable use of horn."

    "It was my First Amendment right to honk," said Harris, who lists her occupation as a freelance worker. "I can empathize with what the protesters were doing. I had just finished being paid $11 an hour standing on my feet all day as an usher. And they don't give me health insurance either."
  • posted 11:36 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    In praise of less work time. By Buzz Hargrove, CAW - TCA CANADA
    Compared to Europeans, Canadians work longer hours, have fewer vacations, fewer public holidays, put in more overtime, work more 'unsocial' hours late at night and on weekends, have less time off to raise our children and generally retire later. In fact, Canadians work some of the longest hours in the industrialized world. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), Canadians work almost seven weeks more per year than French and German workers.
  • posted 11:34 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Saturday, April 23, 2005 ::
    No Hard Hats Worn Here By Tom Robbins, Village Voice
    At the R. Friends Cleaners & Services Corporation on Austin Street, the undercover organizers were asked few questions. They were told they should buy themselves work boots and show up at 2 Penn Plaza at 6 p.m. The pay was $7.50 an hour. 'Don't worry, easy job, very easy,' a clerk at the agency told them.

    It wasn't. The work involved pulling down ceilings and walls and ripping out bathrooms. It was hot, dusty, and dark. 'There were no lights,' said Montenegro. No hard hats were provided, and workers were given only flimsy paper masks and thin gloves. If you get cut, they were warned, bandage it up or go home. Some areas, the men said, were laced with toxic asbestos, which is supposed to be handled only by licensed workers. No water was provided, they said, or time allowed for breaks.
  • posted 11:48 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Carpenters Union Funneled More than $82,000 to Hirono During 2002 Gubernatorial Campaign Hawaii Reporter
    According to public records found at the Hawaii State Campaign Spending Commission, 21 affiliates of the Hawaii Carpenters Union -- based in 11 states and Washington D.C. -- donated at least $82,000 to Hirono's failed gubernatorial effort between Oct. 1, 2002 and Nov. 5, 2002. The General Election was Nov. 2, 2002.

    The state's legal campaign limit is $6,000 per organization per candidate during each 2-year election cycle.
  • posted 11:44 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Two Ontario Companies Fined for Workplace Safety Violations Occupational Hazards
    The worker then obtained a shovel to clean up the spilled resin. Some time later the worker was found by a co-worker under the upper of the two stacked bags. Although there were no eyewitnesses to the incident, it is believed the tear in the lower bag caused the resin to drain much like an hourglass and, as it drained, the heavy bag on top became unstable and fell a distance of about 4 feet onto the deceased worker, according to the ministry.
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    L.A.’s lowest-paid call time-out by STEVEN MIKULAN, LA Weekly
    The Teamsters and UFCW are locked in a bitter organizing campaign with 99 Cents Only-- the Teamsters seek to unionize the company's warehouse workers, while the UFCW, whose Southern California members lost a bruising, four-and-a-half-month supermarket lockout last year, hopes to organize the chain's store staff. The UFCW claims that the average wage at 99 Cent Only stores is $6.80 an hour without health benefits and that workers are forced to work overtime without pay. (A company spokesman denied the allegations.)

    "Only Wal-Mart is more anti-union than this company," Sandoval said. "[Management is] targeting our supporters. In one day 25 employees were terminated in the Commerce warehouse."
  • posted 11:40 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Friday, April 22, 2005 ::
    Safety Groups Push for Criminal Crackdown in Worker Death Cases Corporate Crime Reporter
    A national coalition of workplace safety advocates has launched a campaign for increased criminal prosecution of corporations responsible for workplace deaths.

    The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health has launched a "stop the corporate killers" campaign.

    The campaign will seek to pressure local prosecutors to bring criminal homicide prosecutions against corporations that flagrantly and consistently violate safety and health laws and whose actions result in worker deaths.
  • posted 11:44 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Workers Memorial Day AFL-CIO download materials
    The first Workers Memorial Day was observed in 1989. April 28 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the day of a similar remembrance in Canada. Every year, people in hundreds of communities and at worksites recognize workers who have been killed or injured on the job. Trade unionists around the world now mark April 28 as an International Day of Mourning.
  • posted 11:42 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    The 27th Annual Great Labor Arts Exchange June 19-21, 2005
    National Labor College
    10000 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20903

    Sponsored by the Labor Heritage Foundation & the National Labor College.
  • posted 11:37 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Thursday, April 21, 2005 ::
    Unions looking to find a role in planning By BILL VIRGIN, Seattle Post Intelligencer
    Unions are often called upon to be a part of grand regional coalitions to promote economic development -- but they often feel as though they're regarded as little more than a prop, to be shoved into the wings once the show is over and the audience is gone. 'Please stand here and smile and wave at the camera to prove we're all one big happy and united economic-development family. Just don't expect any accommodation when it comes to the issues of wages, benefits or layoffs.'
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    Jobs kill almost 1000 a year in Canada Straight Goods
    Unions prepare for April 28, the National Day of Mourning for workers killed and injured on the job.

    Ken Neumann, of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), praised the Westray Act. He wrote, in part:

    When police officers are killed, society recognizes the importance of preventing death at work. Those events are front-page news. The truth is, every worker who is killed doing their job deserves this kind of recognition and all our politicians should pledge to find ways to prevent it happening again.
  • posted 12:44 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Firefighters face 40 attacks a week PersonnelToday.com, UK
    There are 40 attacks on UK fire crews every week and the problem is getting worse, according to research carried out for the Fire Brigades Union.

    The Labour Research Department found that in some parts of the UK, fire crews are 'served a daily diet of bricks, bottles and missiles as they fight fires' and ambushes have been set for firefighters, the union claimed.

    The attacks include: scaffold poles being thrown through windscreens of fire engines; crews being attacked with concrete blocks, bricks and bottles; being shot at; spat at; equipment tampered with or stolen; direct physical assaults on fire crews; and equipment being urinated on.
  • posted 12:40 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 ::
    Bush Seeks to Bury Unions in Red Tape Labor Blog
    So where is the Bush administration cracking down hardest on financial auditing? Labor unions, of course.

    The crimes inspiring this crackdown?

  • Pointing to embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the presidents of the ironworkers union and Washington's teachers union, Labor Department officials say the number of audits fell too far in the 1990's and needs to be restored to previous levels.

  • Yes, that's it. The absolute worst examples of corruptions and it's equivalent to the change lost in the company couches at Enron and WorldCom.
  • posted 12:16 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Feds set to start welding scrutiny By Sean Holstege, Oakland Tribune
    Welders who remain on the Bay Bridge have said consistently since the day after reporters first called KFM in early March for comment on their allegations, that they saw an immediate shift in attention to quality and safety. They reported seeing high-level KFM managers and Cal-OSHA inspectors at their work site for the first time in two years and said they were given strict orders to weld by the book.
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    Building trade pledges more jobs for the girls Belfast Telegraph, UK
    'The construction industry is missing out on much-needed talent due to an out-dated image that's a real turn-off for women and those from ethnic minorities,' said Lesley Wallis, director of training operations at CITB Northern Ireland.

    And she added: 'Like other industries construction is moving with the times and this campaign is an investment in its life-blood.'
  • posted 12:11 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 ::
    Skilled labor shortage looming By Jason Stein, Wisconsin State Journal
    Wisconsin's construction industry needs a projected 1,020 new carpenters a year, but only 340 carpentry graduates are coming out of the state's apprenticeship and tech college programs.
  • posted 11:39 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    State cancels Workers Memorial Day ceremony Workday Minnesota
    Other Workers Memorial Day events organized by unions will be held. Twin Cities unions will conduct two public ceremonies to honor workers killed or hurt on the job, and those who developed fatal illnesses at work.
  • posted 11:38 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Watchmakers ranks dwindle despite demand BY DAVID WILLIAMS, SCRIPPS HOWARD
    Chris Amen and Floyd Fiveash, both 50 ish, are watchmakers at Mednikow jewelry store. Which is to say, they are young men in a profession that seems to have been left behind by - irony of ironies - time itself. 'It's almost getting to be an epidemic,' said Amen of the national dearth of trained experts to repair and maintain timepieces that can cost from $3,000 to more than $100,000 and contain up to 400 parts, some small as specks of dust and thin as strands of hair.
  • posted 11:34 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Wanted: workers for Akron project Akron Beacon Journal, OH
    "Some people who are away from the classroom for some time need a refresher,'' said Dave Moran, business manager of IBEW Local 306 and president of the Tri-County Building and Construction Trades Council.

    State-funded school construction projects are exempt from prevailing or union-scale wages, which causes Moran to worry that outsiders will swoop in and do the work on the cheap.

    "You see people from out of the area coming in with less skilled workers, undercutting the system, doing the job and leaving town,'' Moran said. "I don't know how the community benefits from that.''
  • posted 11:32 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Ontario Premier asked to call inquiry into Wal-Mart covert activities UFCW Canada
    The premier of Ontario has been asked to call a public inquiry into the activities of Wal-Mart Canada and whether a covert campaign to bust a union at a Windsor Wal-Mart in the 1990's might have subverted the integrity of Ontario labour laws and even touched the office of then Premier, Mike Harris.

    The call comes following charges filed in March against Wal-Mart with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB), and in the wake of explosive new allegations that the former long time vice-chairman of Wal-Mart condoned a slush fund to finance anti-union activities.
  • posted 11:30 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Monday, April 18, 2005 ::
    Bridge bad-welds flap took on life of its own By Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
    Tipster complained of conditions, not work

    It turns out that the whistle-blower whose call to the FBI triggered the big investigation into alleged faulty welds on the new Bay Bridge hadn't even been calling about welds.

    In fact, apprentice welder Gustave Link, who phoned the FBI's public corruption hot line in February, more than a year after he quit his job, was only complaining about what he thought were dangerous working conditions at the bridge site -- issues that he says had fallen on the deaf ears of both construction managers and his union bosses.

    'If it wasn't for the FBI bringing it up, the issues of welding would have probably been buried in concrete,' Link, 38, told us last week after the story broke.
  • posted 11:30 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    UN agency condemns labour violations by British Columbia NUPGE
    Campbell Liberals have the worst record in North America; labour practices condemned nine times in two years by International Labour Organization

    The International Labour Organization (ILO), an agency of the United Nations, has again condemned the Liberal government of British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell for violating workers' human rights by contravening international labour standards that Canadian governments have committed to uphold.
  • posted 11:26 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Closure of First Unionised Wal-Mart Sends Chilling Signal By Paul Weinberg, ipsnews.net
    Wal-Mart managers also have a "psychographics" system where "the managers on a regular basis meet and try to determine the vulnerability of the store and the morale of (both) of the store and on an individual basis," Forman said.

    But Andrew Pelletier, the head of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart Canada, says that "A Manager's Toolbox to Remaining Union Free" is an internal document for U.S. operations "that we have never used in Canada."
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    Solidarity Forever: A Look at Wobbly Culture LaborArts IWW Exhibit
    The IWW gave working class rebellion its first soundtrack. Neither the organization's ideology nor tactics were completely new to the labor movement. What was new was the creation of an extensive body of music and poetry, which inspired and united a multicultural, American workforce. Sung at mass meetings, on the picket lines, and in the jails, Wobbly songs kindled a spirit of solidarity and strengthened the will to resist. Most importantly, IWW songs articulated the sentiments and aspirations of the working class in a way that a thousand well-argued pamphlets and manifestos never could.
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    :: Sunday, April 17, 2005 ::
    Unions protest Wal-Mart By Todd Seibt, MLive.com, MI
    Several speakers said Wal-Mart's low wages and poor benefits are undermining the standard of living for all Americans.

    'Give me a break - how many of these kids go to college on a Wal-Mart paycheck?' asked Mark Johnson, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 370, and president of the Flint Area Building Trades Council.

    He said protests are also being organized against a proposed Wal-Mart in Vienna Township.

    Another speaker, Gary Isham, business representative of Carpenters Local 706, said area residents are again engaged in an epic battle, one that echoes the 1936-37 Sit-Down Strike that led GM to recognize the right of its workers to organize.
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    Bridge welders' complaints fell through cracks By Jill Tucker, San Mateo County Times, CA
    Meanwhile, Cal-OSHA inspectors have been on the new eastern span job site every week or two for nearly a year but apparently never asked, looked or climbed down holes to see what equipment the workers were using.

    'The guys were on the site throughout, but did they ever specifically look at this complaint? No, I don't think so,' Fryer said.

    'Would it have been diligent for us to go and take a look? Yeah, I would say most likely. Did we? No.'
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    Coping with workplace psychos Jay MacDonald, Bankrate.com via Yahoo! Finance
    Lest you start feeling unduly squeamish in staff meetings, it's important to note that the bully in the next cube or the drama queen across the hall are not necessarily psychos. But the higher up the ladder you climb, the more you may encounter.

    Do psychos actually make it to the top?

    "I would have to say yes," says Babiak. "To quote 'Survivor': They can outwit, outplay and outlast everybody."

    So when you call the boss crazy, you just might be right.
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    :: Saturday, April 16, 2005 ::
    USWA, PACE FORMALLY MERGE ILCA Online
    The combined union has more than 850,000 active members in over 8,000 bargaining units in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, USWA and PACE said in a statement. AFL-CIO per capita dues payment figures gave USWA 337,777 members in 2004, the most recent data available. PACE had 234,335 and UAW had 615,206.

    The combined union, to be called the United Steel Workers for short, is dominant in paper, forestry products, steel, aluminum, tire and rubber, mining, glass, chemicals, petroleum and several other industries, they told a joint press conference.

    "We're now the dominant private-sector union in 17 states. That'll change the dynamics at the AFL-CIO," Gerard said.
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    Carpenters union pickets school construction site NorthJersey.com, NJ
    Local members of the New Jersey Regional Council of Carpenters have formed an "informational" picket line behind Tenakill Middle School to protest that its members are not being used in the school district's construction project.
  • posted 11:42 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    A Union in Every Workplace Labor Blog
    Why you should read Charles Morris' The Blue Eagle At Work: Reclaiming Democratic Rights In The American Workplace

    Surveys show that almost 50% percent of American workers want to join a union. Yet just a bit more than 10% of those workers actually belong to one. Why?
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    USC engineers robotic mix placement McGraw-Hill Construction | ENR
    Under development by University of Southern California researchers is a contour crafting technology using robotics to place concrete without human labor. Led by Professor Khoshnevis of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the USC research team has devised a machine, guided by computerized drawings, that squirts plastic concrete in a toothpaste-like configuration through a nozzle, forming successive layers to create walls and domed roofs. Trowel-like attachments shape the concrete after extrusion. Jointly funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and Degussa Admixtures, the USC team hopes to build a concrete house later this year by means of contour crafting.
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    :: Friday, April 15, 2005 ::
    Behavioral Safety Out of Control and The KFM Flu Confined Space
    The Oakland Tribune has a series of articles about quality and safety problems with the new Bay Bridge construction project.

    The first article is about the immaculate safety record of KFM Joint Venture and their lead firm Kiewit Pacific Co and addresses a problem we've discussed many times before: behavioral safety programs, or the system of giving workers awards for not reporting injuries, and penalizing them for reporting unsafe conditions and accidents. The contractor is also being investigated by the FBI for alleged management attempts to conceal widespread welding defects and overall quality concerns on the bridge project.

    According to their records, the bridge project is five times safer than the average heavy construction project, 'even safer than your average flower shop.' But workers at the site say all is not as it seems.
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    Probe of Bad Welds Adds to Span’s Woes By J.T. Long, Engineering News-Record
    Footing Probe. Investigation has stopped work on last four foundations for new Bay Bridge's east span. Twenty-four of 28 are complete.

    By next month, a Kiewit Pacific Co.-led joint venture building the $6.2-billion east span of the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge will know whether an FBI investigation substantiates union allegations of a coverup of faulty welds on the structure. At least 15 current and former members of Pile Drivers’Local 34 have complained that up to one-third of 5,000 welds on the bridge’s skyway footings are defective. Authorities say Kiewit and its two joint venture partners could face fraud charges. Company executives claim the allegations "are without merit," and there are indications they may be related to labor disputes on the job.
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    Building Trades Releases Final Report On ABC's Flawed and Failing Apprenticeship Programs PR Newswire
    'For several years we have repeatedly urged the Department of Labor to take action concerning these programs with no response. We must conclude that even in the face of concrete facts, the Department of Labor has chosen to please its political friends rather than remedy a broken system. Building and Construction Trades unions take pride in the fact that we invest hundreds of millions of dollars annually to ensure the highest standards of skills training in every craft. It is deplorable that other programs are allowed to fall so far short,' stated Building Trades President Edward C. Sullivan.

    The complete report is on the Building and Construction Trades Department website: http://www.bctd.org.
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    How Internet Radio Can Change the World An Activist's Handbook by Eric Lee
    This book introduces the subject of internet radio, goes into the brief history of the technology (created by social change activists, originally), and then gives several brief reports from the front lines, including the Workers Independent News Service and Air America in the USA, Radio B92 in Yugoslavia, and FreeNK internet radio, created by North Korean dissidents. There's a full chapter on the experience of Radio LabourStart, as well as appendices spelling out to listen to -- and broadcast -- Internet Radio.
  • posted 11:11 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Thursday, April 14, 2005 ::
    Union reps rally to spike right-to-work bill Kansas City Star, MO
    Union supporters argue that right-to-work laws lead to lower wages for employees and fewer rights in the workplace. Advocates of unionism also contend that right-to-work laws essentially are passed to weaken a union's bargaining power with employers, since not all workers belong to the unit.
  • posted 12:39 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Urging Increased Activism, Steelworkers' Gerard Exhorts Convention Delegates to 'Become Missionaries of a Better Tomorrow' NEWS from USWA
    Citing a series of successes from the revitalization of the steel industry to passage of a Canadian law that makes corporate management criminally responsible for workers' safety on the job, United Steelworkers of America (USWA) President Leo W. Gerard told delegates to the union's 32nd Constitutional Convention that globalization will undermine these achievements unless union activists reach out to their members and communities to build a broad movement for social change.

    'We can't survive as an island of decent wages and benefits in a sea of misery,' Gerard told some 2,500 USWA delegates from the U.S. and Canada in his keynote address, because globalization is 'eating manufacturing alive.'
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    Labor Department Settles Lawsuit With Bronx, N.Y. Carpenters Union Local Over Misuse of Benefit Plan Assets DOL Media Release
    The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment requiring that the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 2682, Bronx, New York, pay $431,000 to the local’s benefit plans. The department sued the plan trustees for using plan assets to pay unreasonable expenses for services allegedly provided to the plans.
  • posted 12:34 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Join in the fight for women's pay equity By Diane Regan, AAUW
    On Tuesday, April 19, members of the Bowling Green branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) will join with women and men across the U.S. in a national day of action, Equal Pay Day. This day is important because it marks -- in terms of wage equity -- the length of time it takes the average female worker to make the wages earned by the average man by December 31 of the previous year.

    On a national level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, women are paid only $.76 for every $1.00 that a man is paid.
  • posted 12:30 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 ::
    Time to bring immigrant workers out of the shadows, labor leader says By Barb Kucera, Workday Minnesota
    "He was left under that tree to die like a dog," said Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). "The old spirit of slavery and indentured servants is still alive and well . . .

    "You don't know these people," Velasquez said of migrant workers. "They work in the shadow of American life."
  • posted 12:18 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    'Untold Stories' series highlights labor history Workday Minnesota
    Wal-Mart, the Wobblies and labor songs old and new are among topics featured in this year's 'Untold Stories,' a labor history series presented by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library and co-sponsored by several labor organizations.
  • posted 12:13 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Wanted: Outgoing women to work in Antarctica MSNBC.com
    Fancy something different? The British Antarctic Survey may have just the job.

    The organization is looking for female electricians, plumbers, carpenters, steel erectors, chefs and boat handlers to work for 6-18 months at its five research stations on and around the Antarctic.

    Information on www.antarctica.ac.uk/employment.
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    Pickets hit Pinnacle condo site By STAN BULLARD, Crain's Cleveland Business
    The rat balloon is back outside the Pinnacle Condominium construction site in downtown Cleveland.

    About 40 informational pickets from the Ohio and Cleveland Regional Vicinity Council of Carpenters and a tall inflatable rat reappeared outside the condo construction job at Lakeside Avenue and West Ninth Street. The picketers, as well as the rat, made a similar appearance last November.
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    :: Tuesday, April 12, 2005 ::
    Labatt using thugs to intimidate picketers in St. John's NUPGE
    The Labatt brewery, owned by Brazil-based InBev, is using heavy-handed security guards from outside the province to intimidate picketing workers in St. John's, says the Newfoundland Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE/NUPGE).

    'These hired thugs have roughed up picketers and destroyed their belongings,' says NAPE spokesperson Chris Henley.
  • posted 12:50 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    America To Congress: Get Involved in Workplace Safety! By Jordan Barab, Confined Space
    I can think of a few good questions for the next poll, if any of you have any friends or spouses who do polling. For example:

    1. What is a fair penalty for killing an employee in a workplace that they employer knew was hazardous?
    a) $70,000 (the current OSHA penalty for a 'willful' violation
    b) $1 million
    c) $1 million and a 10-year jail term
    d) $3,000 if they promise not to do it again.
  • posted 12:26 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Unlikely allies rally for road construction funding BY BRIAN MACKEY, Lincoln Courier, IL
    On a makeshift dais in front of an Abraham Lincoln statue were an unusual coalition of administration officials, labor leaders and business advocates. Mike Zahn, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 965, kicked off the rally.

    'As I was working my way through the crowd to get up here today, I ran into laborers talking to Chamber of Commerce members ... I ran into carpenters talking to pavement contractors ... I ran into Teamsters talking with members of the Municipal League,' Zahn said.
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    Wake-Up Wal-Mart: Always High Costs UFCW
    Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the world with over $10 billion in profits. Yet, Wal-Mart lowers our wages, ships our jobs overseas, and shifts their health care costs onto American taxpayers. We believe it's time for Wal-Mart to Wake Up.

    The Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign is a grassroots movement of Americans who believe by joining together in common purpose we can change Wal-Mart and build a better America. Sign up and take action NOW!
  • posted 12:23 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Monday, April 11, 2005 ::
    Sweeney Is Silent on Ties to War Hawks Who Are Promoting Bush’s Global Agenda LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
    The news blackout is enforced even within the labor movement. AFL-CIO publications and policy statements by the Executive Council have consistently ignored the anti-war movement and its advocates among members of its affiliated unions. U.S. Labor Against the War reports a list of unions, representing better than a third of the entire AFL-CIO membership, that have passed resolutions calling for an end to the American-led occupation in Iraq and the return home of our soldiers. Yet this is not considered newsworthy by the AFL-CIO’s official magazine, America@Work and other union publications.
  • posted 12:25 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Bay Bridge injury record is questioned By Jill Tucker and Sean Holstege, Oakland Tribune
    About 20 former and current welders say the contractor's nearly perfect safety record masks a work site dominated by fear of retaliation for reporting injuries. That public record also fails to reveal the cash bonuses given to crews posting clean safety records - a policy that national safety experts say creates peer pressure to conceal injuries.

    With that system of safety bonuses and injury suspensions, the nearly perfect injury rates reported by contractor KFM Joint Venture are 'hard to believe, and require verification,' said Bob Whitmore, OSHA's chief of recordkeeping in Washington, D.C.

    Bay Bridge workers interviewed say the contractor's safety record is whitewashed and goes hand in hand with management attempts to conceal widespread welding defects and overall quality concerns - outlined in Wednesday's Oakland Tribune and the subject of an FBI investigation.
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    Worker dismissals fuel feud By Jim McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
    The Operating Engineers Local 95 and Service Employees International Union Local 3 were protesting the dismissal of two building maintenance workers following the March 24 sale of the Frick Building.

    But the unions weren't just critical of the landmark building's buyer, a limited partnership led by Rugby Realty of New Jersey, which also owns the Gulf Tower. They also were upset with a third union, the Carpenters, whose members replaced the dismissed Local 95 members.
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    Fourth worker killed in Mixing Bowl effort The Free Lance-Star, VA
    In June 2002, a 24-year-old North Carolina man working for Cress Welding, a subcontractor of Shirley Contracting, fell 100 feet into a drainage ditch when his safety harness snapped. In May 2002, a Lane Construction worker fell to his death from a scaffold onto the CSX train tracks. And in October 2001, a Shirley Contracting employee was crushed by a large tractor's shovel scoop.
  • posted 12:10 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Sunday, April 10, 2005 ::
    Coughlin Says Cash Helped Wal-Mart By Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
    Ousted Executive Cites Expense of Anti-Union Activity

    "We are deeply disturbed by these allegations of Wal-Mart's anti-union activity," Bill McDonough, executive vice president of the UFCW, said in a statement. "These are serious criminal offenses and cast Wal-Mart's systematic anti-worker activities on a much more sinister level."
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    Carpenters Looking for Wall Finishing Work in N.Y Engineering News-Record
    The carpenters' union is looking to pick up work finishing interior walls in New York and the painters' union isn't happy about it.

    Carpenters' General President Douglas J. McCarron authorized the chartering of a New York State local with statewide jurisdiction for drywall finishing, according to a letter from McCarron to John Fuchs, executive secretary-treasurer of the Empire State Regional Council of Carpenters. The letter, dated March 25, says that chartering Local 52 is in the 'best interests' of the carpenters union and its members.
  • posted 12:52 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Saturday, April 09, 2005 ::
    Judge Tells Local To Stay Off Walls Engineering News-Record
    A federal judge has ordered what he says is a New York City cement masons’ local "created by gangsters, for gangsters" to stay out of wall finishing work that falls within the jurisdiction of a painters’ union local. In the days following the order, a few contractors have completed contracts with the painters’ local, a sign that the mob’s influence may be broken, say painters’ union officials.
  • posted 12:50 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Union Seeks Wal-Mart Files About Payments By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, New York Times
    The United Food and Commercial Workers Union called on Wal-Mart Stores yesterday to release all documents connected with accusations that its former vice chairman, Tom Coughlin, had obtained improper expense account reimbursements to finance secret anti-union activities.
  • posted 12:46 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    What Happened to the American Dream? Center for American Progress
    The New York Times recently reported that the average CEO made nearly $10 million last year. That's the average salary for CEOs at 179 large companies. The average worker, on the other hand, earns just under $30,000 per year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means that CEOs now take home upwards of 250 times the average worker's wage.

    What is it about the American labor market that produces such massive inequality?
  • posted 12:40 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Friday, April 08, 2005 ::
    Union high on Jets' stadium plan By Niall Stanage, Irish Echo, NY
    An Irish-dominated local union is one of the forces most fervently in support of the stadium. Local 608 is the biggest carpenters' local in the U.S., with about 7,600 members. Although its ethnic makeup has become more diverse in recent years, it retains the strong Irish character that has marked it out throughout its history. Eight of its 10 executive officers bear Irish surnames; its Web site is dominated by three colors: green, white and gold.

    The union is in favor of the stadium for one very simple reason -- jobs. The huge project would be likely to employ hundreds of the union's members.
  • posted 1:09 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Workers' Memorial Day 2005 Downloadable Materials Teamster.org
    Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living
    Good Jobs. Safe Jobs. Protect Workers Now.
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    Workers may swap bedsheets for pickets By Judy Silber, Contra Costa Times, CA
    Through a Spanish translator, he said that supervisors verbally abuse employees. There is also constant pressure to go faster, with supervisors whistling and snapping their fingers behind employees as they work. In the wintertime, the plant is too cold, and in the summer it is too hot, especially in the wash room where steam overheats the room, he said. Palomino, who makes $9.98 per hour, and has worked at the plant for four years, also complained of a cramped lunch room.

    'Maybe it's not important for some people what we want,' Palomino said, 'but we feel that we deserve to have a better contract, better health insurance and to be treated with respect and dignity.'
  • posted 12:56 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Thursday, April 07, 2005 ::
    Lawmakers demand probe of Bay Bridge Oakland Tribune
    If the allegations prove true, he said, those responsible - from workers to elected officials - must be held accountable 'criminally, civilly and politically.' He noted that the medieval English had a good way of dealing with such situations: 'They'd put people's heads on pikes.'
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    Gov. inks law redefining independent construction contractors By Sean O'Hara, New Mexico Business Weekly
    The legislation, drafted by the Albuquerque-based Mountain West Regional Council of Carpenters, mandates that the state clearly define and establish standards for the construction industry to identify when a worker is an independent contractor and not an employee.

    The MWRCC says an independent contractor should be a person who assumes financial responsibility for errors, possesses commercial advertising or business cards, and that he or she has the authority to hire and fire employees to perform the labor or services.
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    "Working people take aim at hated government in British Columbia" By Roger Annis - Socialist Voice, Seven Oaks Magazine
    The most exploited workers in the province—youth, and agricultural workers—have also felt the wrath of the Liberals. Changes to the province’s labor code strip away protection to agricultural workers in many areas such as hours of work and payment for statutory holidays and overtime. A new slave-labor minimum wage for youth allows employers to pay $6 per hour to workers with less than 500 hours of verifiable lifetime work experience. (The full minimum wage is $8.)
  • posted 1:04 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 ::
    FBI probes Bay Bridge welding By Sean Holstege and Jill Tucker, Oakland Tribune
    Workers' allegations raise questions about safety of new construction

    The new Bay Bridge is riddled with defective welds, 15 welders told the Oakland Tribune in a nine-month investigation - allegations that could lead to criminal fraud charges.

    The welders' claims have prompted an FBI investigation. In the worst case, the federal probe could lead to tearing apart the new bridge to see if it is structurally sound or needs to be rebuilt.

    The FBI began investigating allegations in February that welders were 'encouraged or instructed to save time by producing substandard welds,' said FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Mershon of the bureau's San Francisco division.
  • posted 12:58 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    A Substitute for Organizing? What Mergers Make Sense? by Kim Moody, Labor Notes
    Since one reason for merging is often administrative efficiency in the face of declining resources, there is a tendency to want to merge small locals into larger ones and to create geographically vast mega-locals that diminish membership involvement and control. This has been the trend in SEIU, UFCW, and the Carpenters.

    The idea of professionally administered mega-locals is appealing to many union leaders, but is bound to undermine the one place where union democracy often flourishes: the local union.

    The welcomed debate over the future shape and directions of labor in the U.S. needs to brought down to the ranks. But the debate also needs to be broadened beyond a few organizational recipes. Density and industrial focus are central. But so are member mobilization and involvement and so is the winning over of the communities in which the unorganized and the organized live.
  • posted 12:52 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Labor War in Illinois By Harold Meyerson, American Prospect
    Ironically, Illinois is one place where AFSCME and the SEIU have often enjoyed a decent relationship, where both unions are known for having progressive leaders and a good deal of organizing smarts (it’s no accident that both backed Blagojevich). Even more ironically, many of the SEIU’s greatest successes -- most certainly, in organizing child-care and home-care workers -- are the result of its learning to play politics in the manner of AFSCME, which has long used its election-day clout to elect governors who’d recognize public-sector unions. In the past decade, under Stern’s leadership, the SEIU has played the politics-to-organize card expertly, and nowhere more so than in Illinois.
  • posted 12:48 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 ::
    Highways are top killer in report of on-the-job deaths in Oregon By BRENT HUNSBERGER, OregonLive.com
    Last year's count is up from 41 in 2003 and well above the record low of 34 in 2001. But it remains below the 55 claims accepted on average each year during the 1990s, state officials said. The total for 2004 includes five deaths related to asbestos exposures occurring in previous years, one of them 40 years ago -- an unusual number for one year, state officials said.

    The count might be higher, but some of the most at-risk workers aren't covered by the state system, including railroaders, longshoremen, taxi drivers, most fishermen, and even some police officers and firefighters.
  • posted 12:43 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Union busting by proxy in Brewer Bangor Daily News, ME
    The company manager 'grabbed my lapel and flipped it over. He said he was looking for a union pin. Then he asked me if I had voted for the union.' Upper management reportedly requested a 'naughty and nice list' of union and nonunion. Then 28 workers got fired and only five got 'rehired,' the rest - many with 10 to 12 years on the job - were put out on the street with no severance pay, no insurance, nothing.
  • posted 12:42 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Framing a Staircase by John Spier, Fine Homebuilding
    34 steps to building cut-stringer stairs

    Stair construction can intimidate even the most seasoned carpenters and there are lots of ways to build stairs. But regardless of the method you choose, every set of stairs requires the same basic approach to get from one floor to another safely, comfortably, and legally.
  • posted 12:40 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Company president anything but 'Bummed' about firm's growth AP Wire
    OWENSBORO, Ky. - Few people know that a company named Rent-a-Bum Tech Crew exists.
  • posted 12:38 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Monday, April 04, 2005 ::
    AFL-CIO’s 50-Year Organizing Record Under Meany, Kirkland and Sweeney LaborTalk by Harry Kelber
    When the American Federation of Labor (AFL) merged with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1955, the combined organization had 16 million members, compared with about 13 million members 50 years later.

    At that time, roughly one in three workers in the country belonged to a trade union; today, the figure is one in eight, and in the private sector, fewer than one in twelve.

    The merger, it was expected, would end the fratricidal warfare within the House of Labor and usher in a new era of labor’s growth. So what happened? Why the continuing decline of the AFL-CIO in numbers and economic power?
  • posted 1:45 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Report: Repetitive Motion Injuries Are Still No. 1 Workplace Injury Occupational Hazards
    Not only are repetitive motion injuries extremely common, they cause workers to stay away from work longer than injuries that appear to be far graver, such as falls or amputations.

    For example, the survey uncovered the following patterns:

    * Among major disabling injuries and illnesses, carpal tunnel syndrome caused the highest median days away from work (32 days) followed by fractures and amputations (30 days).
    * Among the most frequent events or exposures, repetitive motion, such as grasping tools, scanning groceries and typing, resulted in the longest absences from work -- a median of 22 days.
    * Falls to a lower level caused the next longest absences from work, with a median of 15 days.
  • posted 1:43 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Investigators finally get to look inside BP plant By TOM FOWLER, Houston Chronicle
    Witnesses have told the Houston Chronicle they continued to work without respirators last week and this week just yards from the barricades that surrounded the blast zone.

    BP officials said the barricades were used to define the outer limits of the exclusion zone where there were concerns about the hazards such as benzene and asbestos.

    'Since fumes do not respect barricades or yellow tape, the barricades and yellow tape are placed at the outer limit of potential risk, as that can most prudently be estimated,' BP said in a written statement. 'By definition, areas outside the barricaded area are deemed to be safe.'
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    Bosses’ profit drive behind Texas City refinery blast The Militant, NY
    The oil barons keep their refineries operating around the clock for 18 months to five years before taking equipment down for repairs. This unit of the BP operation hadn’t been shut down for maintenance in about two years. “The shutdown periods are kept as brief as possible,” according to the March 26 New York Times, “especially in the past few years when the difference between the cost of crude oil and the value of gasoline and other products has been large, making profits strong.” The day after the deadly disaster, oil prices spiked to $54.84 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
  • posted 1:37 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    :: Sunday, April 03, 2005 ::
    The worst jobs in history Posted by Julie Ferguson, Workers Comp Insider
    The site is an offshoot of a popular series that ran on British TV, and it makes for an amusing look back. But the harsh reality behind the history is indeed grim. Unfortunately, you don’t have to look to Anglo-Saxon or medieval days to find such terrible work conditions -- many horrifyingly dangerous conditions still exist today right in our own backyards.
  • posted 2:52 PM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::
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    Safety violations cost construction company dearly CBC North
    INUVIK, N.W.T. - Ninety North's lawyer said the company was working in a booming building market and could ill-afford to fire workers who did not comply with safety rules.

    Judge Schmaltz said, boom or no boom, Ninety North sacrificed worker safety to meeting construction deadlines and make money.

    She said it was playing Russian roulette with the lives of its workers.

    Ninety North has its own safety manual, but it seems to be largely ignored.

    No one knew it existed until halfway through the sentencing hearing.
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    Passing the Hammer - Trades council, like the city it serves, changing faces By Jay Fitzgerald, Boston Herald
    With Nigro at the helm, the Building Trades Council has grown to 40,000 members from 28,000, thanks to aggressive recruitment, passage of union-only legislation for some projects and, last but not least, huge construction projects that have kept thousands at work in recent years.

    Among them: the Big Dig, the Deer Island sewage-treatment plant, the new convention center in South Boston, the FleetCenter and multiple projects at Logan International Airport.
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    Master Craftsmen By LEVI PULKKINEN, Skagit Valley Herald, WA
    While interest in part-time woodworking may be growing, both Choquette and Laue said they're concerned that the number of professional woodworkers is waning.

    Laue said he's concerned that few young people show an interest in woodworking as a profession. He said he wonders who will replace established woodworkers as they begin to retire.

    'The number (of woodworkers) is dwindling,' Laue said. 'The young people just aren't willing to learn the trade.'
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    :: Saturday, April 02, 2005 ::
    My Union President Went to Vegas… and All I Got Was This Strange Debate by Matt Noyes, Labor Notes
    The clearest conflict expressed in Las Vegas, the one that, we are told, led to raised voices and nasty language, was an old-style jurisdictional beef between leaders of SEIU and AFSCME, who both want to pick up a large unit of child care workers in Illinois.

    Where does that leave rank-and-file union members and workers? Even in its odd, fun-house-mirror way, the AFL-CIO debate raises a good question: what kind of movement do we want?
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    Anti-smoking program gives unions a tool to help members quit Workday Minnesota
    For example, the union guide spells out how cigarette smoke and workplace toxins can combine to create a 'multiplier effect,' making each other more dangerous to workers who smoke.

    That's the kind of information union members in an industrial setting should know, said Doug Williams, an international representative for IUE-CWA Local 1140.

    The union guide also describes how tobacco companies' marketing strategies aim at working-class consumers, especially those who already smoke. The four occupations with the highest rates of smoking are transportation and material moving, waiters and waitresses, laborers, and construction trades, research shows.
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    N.J. home builders hammered by SCI Newark Star Ledger, NJ
    Marty Schwartz, president of the Essex County Building and Construction Trades Council, said unions probably would not be averse to licensing carpenters and masons, because they already stress education.

    'People who don't go through an apprenticeship program like our members do basically learn from the person who is working next to them,' Schwartz said. 'If the person next to them doesn't have the skills, that gets passed on.'

    He conceded, however, that the higher cost of union work generally has meant residential builders do not belong to unions. Charlotte Gaal, the SCI's deputy director, said the investigation found subcontractors for some of the state's biggest builders hiring day laborers or other unskilled craftsmen.
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    :: Friday, April 01, 2005 ::
    Brother Tries to Save Warhol's Home By Mike Crissey, AP
    A bare light bulb hangs on two wires from a rafter of the roofless, ramshackle porch. A rusted scaffold was left standing on the porch apparently abandoned in the middle of the job. The windows are caked with dirt, some are broken and boarded up.
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    Scaffolding Company Owners Plead Guilty to $2.9 Million Under-the-Table Payroll Fraud, Reports U.S. Attorney PRNewswire
    BOSTON, A husband and wife who operated a construction scaffolding company have pled guilty to charges that they paid employees 'under-the-table' in order to evade millions of dollars in payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance premiums and union health and welfare benefits.
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    Trade sanctions against U.S. in works By STEVEN CHASE, The Globe and Mail
    Should Washington ever funnel to U.S. producers the $4-billion (U.S.) in softwood duties it has so far collected from Canadian firms, Ottawa will be authorized by the WTO to slap much larger sanctions on U.S. goods.

    Canada and other countries hate the Byrd Amendment in part because they believe it encourages U.S. industry to launch anti-dumping and anti-subsidy complaints against foreigners in hopes of getting duties applied and then receiving the proceeds under Byrd.
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    Contractors killed in BP blast not part of union "family" By MARK LISHERON, Oxford Press, OH
    Many of the contract workers themselves walked away from requests for interviews. One young worker ordering a beer at the Texas Tavern near the BP plant and wearing the dingy tan jumpsuit that identifies a contract worker, said he expected that contract workers have already been blamed by union members for an explosion that so far has no identifiable cause.

    If not direct blame, there remains a deep suspicion of the contract work force at oil refineries, Pete Aguilar says. Aguilar ought to know. A union pipefitter for Amoco and, later, BP when the companies merged, Aguilar retired and then returned two years ago as a contract worker, first for Altair Strickland and currently for Industrial Air Tool.

    'I knew they were going to have a fire there sooner or later,' Aguilar says. 'They do the turnarounds too fast, with too many people nowadays. A lot of the guys they hire aren't from around here. When I was there we used to have certain ways of doing the work.'
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    Refineries provide, cradle to grave: Texas City's best pay, biggest hazards are at petrochemical plants BY KAREN BROOKS, The Dallas Morning News
    In this part of Texas, they know danger comes with the job. It is a cruel irony in Texas City that the petrochemical industry that employs a larger share of the population and provides them with a rich tax base also is involved in the very events that sometimes scare, injure or kill them.
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