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"The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people." Cesar Chavez |
:: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 ::
The Capitalist Pyramid Scheme - intexile's blog, Industrial Workers of the World
Today he hits me with this whopper (or perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it a Big Mac?). We're debating the recent split in the AFL-CIO, when he tells me that strong unions depend on workers being "good capitalists". Huh?!
According to his logic, if every worker could be "just like him", work hard, save their money, buy property, etc., they wouldn't have to worry about striking for a bigger share of the pie. The fact workers are organizing precisely because the employing class won't willingly give us the share of the pie we create in the first place just doesn't seem to register with him. When challenged on that point, he tried to tell me that "a lot of millionaires who own shares in the McDonalds corporation started out as ordinary rank & file workers"(!)------------------------------------------- posted 5:10 AM :: reference link ::
0 comments ::
MFD Poser Site Uncovered - ufcw.net Members For Democracy
Get it straight:
[*]You are not us.
[*]The legal drama known as UFCW v. MFD is not about copyright.
[*]Legal counsel hasn't told us jack because we don't have legal counsel.
[*]We are not serving notice to the UFCW about anything on your site.
[*]We have not decided to publish anything on your site.
[*]Most who visit www.ufcw.net do not go there strictly for news about the UFCW and -
[*]We would never use the lame-assed word 'peccadilloes' on our site."-------------------------------------------
:: Monday, August 08, 2005 ::District of Columbia widow gets $700,000 in ladder death - The State, SC
Versaladders are collapsible, four-part affairs that can be used as step ladders, straight ladders or scaffolding, depending on how they are folded. Their hinges lock into place. Advertisements say there is "no chance of accidental unlocking."
However, according to evidence in the case, the ladders can have a hinge defect that can cause them to collapse.-------------------------------------------
Disrupting State Feds and Labor Councils Can Trigger a Prolonged Labor Civil War - LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils have been ordered to prepare a report on the number of members in the disaffiliated unions within their jurisdiction, and the financial impact on their organizations caused by the disaffiliation. The Executive Council will meet in September to review the reports and decide on actions needed to strengthen the state and local labor bodies.
The unfortunate conflict between the Stern-Hoffa insurgent faction and the Sweeney loyalists over money and power has now degenerated into a situation where every state federation and central labor council will be so consumed with internal problems, they'll be unable to function effectively.
Let's hear from the leaders and members of the state federations and central labor councils what they think of the AFL-CIO expulsion orders. What happens if they comply? What happens if they don't? Are there alternatives? Surely, they are entitled to express their views on what happens to their organizations.-------------------------------------------
IBT Locals Must Notify International Before Raiding AFL-CIO Unions, Memo States - Teamsters for a Democratic Union
The Teamsters for a Democratic Union, in a July 29 statement, said the IBT memo 'appears to point in a dangerous direction. Instead of coming out squarely against raids, it provides a procedure to potentially initiate them, and even hints at a suggested reason: claim another union has a substandard contract.'
TDU, which has not taken an official position regarding disaffiliation, observed that 'what the Teamster raiding policy will be in practice remains to be seen. Hopefully, the IBT will quickly arrange no-raid agreements with all AFL-CIO unions. We need solidarity with other unions and other workers, regardless of where their leaders line up on the AFL-CIO split.'-------------------------------------------
:: Sunday, August 07, 2005 ::Counterfeit safety products can pose hazard to unsuspecting workers - by Andrew Wareing, Canadian Occupational Safety magazine
In most cases, 99.9 per cent of the products with CSA labels out there are legitimate,' says CSA spokesman Anthony Toderian. But more and more, as people become more aware of counterfeiting issues that have appeared in the last five years, we're seeing more and more (counterfeit) marks on everything from plumbing equipment to safety boots...we're seeing these things more and more and they present everything from a shock hazard to injuries and fatalities.
It (label counterfeiting) is a concern for CSA because it may undermine the confidence in our mark, so we have a zero-tolerance policy,' he says. If we come across a product that has a counterfeit sticker, we will pursue any legal actions at our disposal to prosecute anyone counterfeiting our mark.'-------------------------------------------
Construction Unions May Build Alternative Federation - By Nathan Newman, TPMCafe
John Sweeney has banned the building trades from allowing the Carpenters or other non-AFL unions from working within the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, but this may be just a recipe for further eroding AFL-CIO authority. Major construction unions are already discussing creating an alternative federation outside the AFL-CIO structure.-------------------------------------------
"Unite To Win" shutters blog - by Pearson, Communicate or Die
When the CTW website was launched, the first thing noted was it was your standard run of the mill crap. A bunch of old white guys telling us what they thought we wanted to hear. Boring is the kindest word i can think of.
Now we read on unitetowin they will no longer accept comments, their work is done. Can it be they have decided the 'cost' of open commentary is too risky? Are we at the point where they no longer need or care about what the 'little people' think or have to say? Was it fine to try and influence people before the split, but now they need to 'control' their message?
Are Stern's blogging days really over? Maybe not. update-------------------------------------------
With the Right Health and Safety Programs, Everybody Wins - Occupational Hazards
However, employee buy-in isn't enough for a successful health and safety initiative. According to an operations executive at one of the companies studied: "A focus on safety starts at the top or it doesn't start at all."
That's why many companies tie executive compensation to safety metrics. In one company, failure to produce daily initiatives for safety improvements could reduce compensation.-------------------------------------------
:: Saturday, August 06, 2005 ::A Welcome Return to Enforcing Labor Laws - by Robert Scheer, AlterNet
Ten years ago this week, I was awakened by a phone tip that California labor department inspectors were about to free scores of Thai slave workers from a garment factory in El Monte.
"Did you say slaves?" I asked my informant in disbelief, as I hurriedly dressed to go to the site. The Smithsonian Institution in 1998 made this case a part of its exhibit on U.S. sweatshops, calling it a low point in the sad history of U.S. exploitation of undocumented laborers.-------------------------------------------
Teamsters, Carpenters Get The Boot - Working Life Daily Blog
This is not shocking news--on July 29th, the head of the Building and Construction Trades Department, Ed Sullivan, sent a letter to all its affiliated councils in the U.S. and Canada in which he gives the heave-ho to the Teamsters and Carpenters.
It's not shocking in that everyone knew it was coming and it's consistent with John Sweeney's position about participation of disaffiliated unions in AFL-CIO bodies. But, it's part of the hardball approach being taken by the AFL-CIO leadership. I say hardball because the Carpenters had disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO in 2001 but no one had wanted to push them out of the BCTD. Over the past few years, a variety of resolutions and threats and negotiations volleyed back and forth between the Carpenters and AFL-CIO Executive Council about the Carpenters relationship with the BCTD. But, John Sweeney did say earlier this year that if the Carpenters didn't come back into the Federation by the July convention, they'd be kicked out of the BCTD.-------------------------------------------
Union Gap - by Tom Robbins, Village Voice
There are still other measures of success, said Larry Hanley, a labor activist from Staten Island, who is a vice president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. 'There's no question but that there's been a malaise in the ranks of labor that needs to be shaken up and to the extent [the new coalition members] are doing that, it's to the good,' he said. 'Regular union members are suddenly reading about the labor movement in the press, something they usually only read about with strikes or corruption cases. It is awakening an interest in labor and making people aware of our imminent demise, if we don't do something different.'-------------------------------------------
Windmills are coming to America - By LANCE GAY, Scripps Howard News Service
Buried in the energy bill Congress sent to the White House Friday is almost $3 billion in subsidies that supporters have earmarked to build thousands of electricity-generating windmills in the United States.-------------------------------------------
:: Friday, August 05, 2005 ::Canada claims win in softwood dispute - By Sandra Cordon, Canadian Press
Canada claimed a small moral victory Monday in the latest round of the longrunning, multibillion-dollar softwood lumber dispute with the United States. The World Trade Organization sided with Canada and ruled that the U.S. has failed to prove some of its claims that certain softwood lumber exports have been unfairly subsidized.
Those allegations of subsidies - long denied by Canada - are a key reason used by Washington to collect crippling duties now totalling almost $5 billion on softwood exports, severely wounding this country's industry.-------------------------------------------
How I Addressed the AFL-CIO Convention And Got a Standing Ovation by Delegates A Special Report by Harry Kelber
Sweeney’s introduction of me was hardly enthusiastic, as he emphasized to the delegates, at least twice, that I was being limited to three minutes. As soon as he had finished with his introduction, I began: “Brother Sweeney, I have a special gift for you, my autobiography, “My Sixty Years as a Labor Activist.” I held up the book , whose cover appeared on the convention’s screen. ( Sweeney: Thank you.) And here is the text of my speech.
Pictures from AFL-CIO in Chicago - LaborNet
Harry Kelber at Chicago LAC Rank & File Convention-------------------------------------------
via email
To: All Canada Locals, District and Regional Councils
From: U.B.C. General President candidate TOM LEWANDOWSKI
Subject: CANADIAN AUTONOMY
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
As the current administration continues to strive toward corporate unionism and the continuing of corporate style mergers, Canada is holding their own AND making gains in the area of worker's rights. Canada is directed by a different set of labor laws than those of the contiguous United States. The past few years have shown greater differences in attitudes toward labor between our neighbors to the North and the rest of North America.
We have seen Brothers and Sisters in British Columbia withdraw from the U.B.C. over differences in member's rights and how member's dues are spent. The time has come to grant the Locals and Regional Councils of Canada your autonomy. We need to look at having a different affiliation with you, our Brothers and Sisters North of the border.
And what would that relationship be? Canada would be an AFFILIATED but SEPARATE entity that has your own officers and collects and spends your own monies. You would be a SEPARATE BUT EQUAL union of carpenters, millwrights, industrial, shop and other represented workers. This is restoring the original ideals of our founder Peter J. McGuire. He was dedicated to the principles of everyone belonging to a union and everyone having self-direction. With the differences between Canadian and U.S. labor laws it is time to let YOU have the self-direction and self-determination that you DESERVE. To continue on the course that we are on today would simply set up more opportunities for disharmony and fracture within the U.B.C.
TOM LEWANDOWSKI says, "this pledge is consistent with our goal to restore the member's rights and to restore Local Union sovereignty. It is paramount that we are successful in keeping this pledge. We must do this in order to maintain credibility with the public, and the most important people, the dues-paying members, and even our employers. The RESTORE THE VOTE slate will strive to make this happen!"
In Solidarity,
Brother TOM LEWANDOWSKI
www.ubcforlew.com
Contact MEMBERS TO ELECT LEW at: 815-985-4573 or
Email: lewgo.1@netzero.net-------------------------------------------
What's Left? Freedom to Dream? - By Dave Lindorff, ILCA Online
A new ruling by the NLRB strips workers of the right to hang out and talk with fellow workers even during coffee breaks or off the job entirely. Welcome to the new feudalism.
The continued packing of federal courts at all levels with judges who have a pinched view of civil liberties--particularly First Amendment freedoms--is getting considerable public and media attention, but a perhaps even more serous attack on basic freedom is going largely unnoticed: the growing tyranny of the workplace.-------------------------------------------
:: Thursday, August 04, 2005 ::Fall Protection: Traps that Workers Can't Avoid - by J. Nigel Ellis, McGraw-Hill Construction, ENR
Workers often are blamed for their own fatal falls because there always seems to be a rule that they didn't follow. The victims alive or dead are a convenient target because they can't effectively answer back. Now there is evidence showing that, no matter how careful you are, falls are inevitable with some exposures or hazards. I call these hazards Human Fall Traps, or HFTs, and they typically produce serious injury and death.-------------------------------------------
Coalition of the Corrupt Blows Up Bogus Labour Movement - By Wanda Marie Pasz, http://www.ufcw.net
Stern and Hansen don't get it. With union membership at 8% and dropping, their movement now looks suspiciously like a fringe group. The fruits of the failure of their brand of fascistic unionism stare millions of workers in the face each working day. Their chest-beating and empty rhetoric impresses no one except their well paid and self-interested staffers. The new generation of workers that they seek to organize has no connection to the bogus labour movement that they helped create. A bunch of guys who look - and sound - like sales managers aren't going to inspire activism. Their disregard for democracy, in an era when many are concerned about the erosion of democracy and democratic institutions in our society, will sink them.-------------------------------------------
Scenes and Silver Linings from Labor's Crack-Up - by JoAnn Wypijewski, CounterPunch
The resolution that was slated to make it to the floor called for withdrawal 'as soon as possible'. This angered the driving forces within institutional labor against the war, US Labor Against the War and Pride at Work, who argued that it was essentially the Bush position. After a flurry of organized interventions they got the final resolution to be introduced calling for American troops to be withdrawn 'rapidly'. It seemed a small thing, this semantic victory, until you consider the historic magnitude. From the floor, no one spoke against the resolution: not the building trades; not Tom Buffenbarger of the Machinists, who after 9/11 called for 'vengeance', not justice; not the American Federation of Teachers, which has typically held high the flame of intervention. Speaking for the resolution, Henry Nicholas, president of AFSCME's 1199P, told the story of his son, who has been deployed to Iraq four times already.
'My son is a nervous wreck right now, but he's on the list to go back. We need to say that America's sons and daughters have to come home now', he said. And then concluded: 'In my 45 years in the labor movement, this is my proudest moment being a union member, because this is the first time we had the courage to stand up and say, Enough is enough.'-------------------------------------------
Governor's Rules to Protect Workers From Intense Heat - By Robert Sallday and Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO -- Standing with the family of a farmworker killed by heatstroke in a Central Valley field, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced that his administration would issue emergency orders requiring rest breaks and shade for laborers in the piercing valley heat.
The regulations mark the first significant rules protecting California farmworkers, construction crews, roofers, landscapers and others from heat-related illness and death.-------------------------------------------
:: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 ::Deadly side to B.C. building boom - CBC British Columbia
The number of workers killed on the job is up dramatically in B.C., with 58 people dying in workplace accidents so far this year. That's an increase of nearly 50 per cent over the same time last year.
The province in the midst of a major building boom with about $62 billion in major construction planned over the next decade.
And some critics say the government is not doing enough to ensure workplaces are safe – and that cutbacks at the Workers' Compensation Board mean that inspectors don't always know what's going on.
"Inspections are down about 18 per cent," says Wayne Peppard of the B.C. Building Trades Council. "Even the written penalties are down 60 per cent. It's extremely dangerous."
But on-the-job accidents and deaths don't happen just on construction sites. In the last month, workers have died in a cement mixer, a wood chipper and most recently – when a garbage truck crashed into a pedestrian overpass.
Peppard says it's only the tip of iceberg because some employers are pushing their employees not to file accident reports.
"They're keeping them off the job and not reporting the incidents at certain times," he says.
He also notes that many jobsite accidents occur in the underground economy, which now comprises as much as 50 per cent of the residential construction business.
While the WCB agrees it has cutback over recent years, it says it still has more inspectors per capita than any other large jurisdiction in the country.
"We've hired 12 more inspectors this year, and they're just starting to get out in the field now," says spokesperson Scott McCloy.-------------------------------------------
Turning Point for Organized Labor / Labor needs a strong voice in politics - E. J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post Writers Group
The ironies keep adding up: Sweeney was president of the Service Employees International, the same union Stern has just led out of the labor federation along with the Teamsters. Stern's cachet now, like Sweeney's then, is based in large part on the SEIU's success: It invested more than most unions in organizing, and it grew fast. Ten years ago, Sweeney was the new guard replacing the old. Today, Stern is the insurrectionist against Sweeney's establishment.-------------------------------------------
10 Questions for Andrew Stern - By JOSEPH R. SZCZESNY, TIME Magazine
WHEN DID YOU FIRST JOIN A UNION, AND WHY?
I first joined in 1973 because they were serving pizza.-------------------------------------------
The legal connection - Where are all the Bill C-45 prosecutions? - Author: Cheryl A. Edwards, Canadian Occupational Safety magazine
First, pressure from trade unions and workplace safety advocates for criminal prosecutions will continue to mount. The political clout of organized labour played an important part in the enactment of Bill C-45. The United Steel Workers of America, who represented the workers at the Westray mine, actively lobbied the federal government to enact new criminal provisions to motivate organizations and senior management to take a greater role in protecting worker safety. It is not unrealistic to expect that organized labour will be equally active in attempting to convince prosecutors to bring more criminal prosecutions for behaviour which has led to workplace accidents.
Indeed, in the United States, the United Steel Workers, along with the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, are engaged in an ongoing campaign to pressure local prosecutors to bring criminal prosecutions against corporations that consistently and flagrantly violate occupational health and safety laws. Pressure south of the border has been mounting for years for more criminal OSHA prosecutions and more stringent criminal penalties. The United Steel Workers in Canada states on its website that the 'next challenge' with respect to Bill C-45 is to 'ensure that the law is properly enforced'.-------------------------------------------
:: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 ::A Wolff's house (partly) of straw - by Mary Beth Breckenridge, Akron Beacon Journal
Another question that's commonly raised about straw-bale construction is whether the straw will burn easily, but Wolff and Hoberecht say it has a better fire rating than conventional 2-by-4 construction. While care has to be taken with loose straw in the construction process, the tightly packed, plaster-covered bales are unlikely to burn. "It's like trying to burn a phone book,'' Hoberecht said.-------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO in Turmoil As Big Unions Bolt - By Sherie Winston in Chicago, McGraw-Hill Construction | ENR
The mood of the delegates and others on the convention floor was 'disappointed' and 'very concerned,' says Joe Hunt, president of the ironworkers' union. 'They're angry,' says laborers' chief Terry O'Sullivan. 'It's just a bad situation. We need now more than ever to unify,' says Mike Sullivan, president of the sheetmetal workers' union. Nevertheless, Sullivan does not expect any of the 13 remaining construction unions in BCTD to refuse to work with the teamsters and carpenters on union projects. 'That can't happen' if union construction wants to be competitive, he insists.
Carpenters' union President Doug McCarron was not in Chicago, but said in a telephone interview: 'We want to work as close as we can with the building trades.' He considers it ironic that BCTD will now uphold the AFL-CIO constitution, prohibiting membership in the building trades without federation affiliation. 'They let me back in once before,' he notes. 'They have to make their own decision, [but] it should be in the best interest of the building trades, not in the best interest of the AFL-CIO,' asserts McCarron.-------------------------------------------
This is Class War - Contributed by: eugene, Vive Le Canada
It is time for the Labour Movement in Canada to grow a backbone and JUST SAY NO! to working with or obeying Labour Relations Boards and their rulings.
In Alberta we have recently had rulings against unions, including a ruling on Finning which found that when it outsources its work to the rat union CLAC plant that this did not violate Labour Relations law. The fact that Jim Dinning who hopes to replace Ralph as Premier of Alberta is on the Finning Board probably influenced this decision against the IAM whose members are having their jobs contracted out.
Truckers take on Teamsters - By Jeff Nagel, Black Press, Burnaby Newsleader, Canada
The Vancouver Container Truck Association (VCTA) is mounting its own legal defence of unionized truckers, accusing their union reps of failing to fight company efforts to force them back to work.
'The Teamsters have just rolled over and done nothing,' said Craig Paterson, lawyer for the VCTA.
The umbrella group represents about 750 non-union independent truckers and 250 unionized truckers who belong to either Teamsters local 31 or the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC).
Those unionized truckers are the targets of at least three Labour Relations Board (LRB) rulings directing them to work in accordance with the terms of their collective agreements.-------------------------------------------
'Deliberate Attempt To Cause Serious Injury' - Derry Journal, Ireland
"Last weekend someone sawed a scaffolding plank almost in half, then put it back on the scaffold, obviously with the intention that the first worker to stand on the plank would fall straight through it. This is not something that can be regarded in any way as a prank. This was a very clear and deliberate attempt to cause serious injury. The consequences of this could have been very serious."-------------------------------------------
:: Monday, August 01, 2005 ::Labor movement's future even more in doubt - By STEVEN THOMMA, Knight Ridder, Buffalo News
The labor rift 'should be a huge wake-up call for employers,' said Philip Rosen, who leads the labor practice group at Jackson Lewis LLP, a law firm representing companies in workplace cases. 'They really need to look at it and say: 'The fight is coming to my work site tomorrow.'-------------------------------------------
1917 The murder of Frank Little by Coal Company vigilantes - The Daily Bleed, August 1
Years later the writer Dashiell Hammett would recall his days in Butte as an armed mercenary being paid by the Pinkerton detective agency and the mine companies. One night, as he sat in a Butte bar, Hammett said he was approached by a mine company representative who offered him five-thousand dollars to kill Frank Little. Beating Wobblies with clubs was one thing. . . murder was another, and Hammett said he quit on the spot.-------------------------------------------
The AFL-CIO's Disintegration and Its Possible Implications - by Tim Kane, Ph.D., Heritage.org
The AFL-CIO disintegrated on Monday July 25, 2005—somewhat ironically, the 50th anniversary of its integration. Four member unions representing roughly one-quarter of AFL-CIO membership announced their departure from the federation. They are led by Teamsters president James Hoffa and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) head Andrew Stern, both of whom disagree with the strategies of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Many observers see this is the beginning of the end, but it may instead be an essential phase for the rebirth of American labor.-------------------------------------------
Reflections on the Birth of the Canadian Auto Workers - By Herman Rosenfeld, CAW, Labor Notes August 2005
This campaign was based upon the recent experience of the union in challenging wage controls and plant closures. It mobilized elected leaders in various workplaces to convince their co-workers that unions must remain independent of their employers; that concessions to employers only lead to more of the same, and that unions have to make gains, even in the toughest of times. Canadian Director and later CAW President Bob White's approach was summarized by the slogan, "You don't need a union to walk backwards."
The last straw was the GM strike of 1984, when UAW President Owen Bieber threatened to withhold strike funds from the Canadians if they rejected lump sums and profit-sharing. White led a successful strike which defeated GM but also held off the threats coming from UAW headquarters.
Soon after the GM strike, the Canadian District Council - an elected, rank-and-file body that had been meeting regularly since the 1930s - overwhelmingly accepted White's proposal to ask the UAW leadership to give the Canadians full autonomy. The proposal was rejected by the UAW International Executive Board and the Canadians moved to form our own union.-------------------------------------------
Beer strikers will get big forum - BY JAKE WAGMAN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Look closely, though, and signs of the strike's impact are beginning to ferment. Fans drinking lemonade and soda at the ballpark. Beer drinkers switching to cocktails. Taverns in the city, where bars are adorned with all sorts of eagle and Clydesdale-bearing giveaways, turning away orders for Budweiser.
Make no mistake about it - St. Louis has and will probably always be A-B's town. Even so, the city's labor roots are beginning to show, causing some conflicting emotions among beer drinkers.-------------------------------------------
:: Sunday, July 31, 2005 ::Work Safety in the U.K.: Fatalities Down, Falls from Heights the Biggest Killer - Occupational Hazards
Callaghan also expressed concern that this year's report shows that falls from height continue to be the most common workplace killer in Great Britain. Falls from height accounted for 24 percent of workplace deaths in 2004-2005 - one in four fatalities - although the number dropped from 68 the previous year to 53.
'This is a particular concern especially in the construction and services sectors,' Callaghan said. 'The new Work at Height Regulations require planning, competent people and selection of appropriate, maintained equipment - a common sense approach that shouldn't be beyond anyone.'
Being struck by a moving or falling object, and being struck by a moving vehicle, are the next most common causes of workplace fatalities.-------------------------------------------
Solidarity Forever? - by weldon berger, BTC News
The bottom line is that no matter the corruption and incompetence and inefficiencies that sometimes bedevil unions, every advance in the rights of workers has been good for this country. We need a strong middle class, and unions have been the springboard out of poverty and into if not affluence, at least security. Union insistence on decent working conditions and environmental protections has been the driving force behind many of the protections working Americans enjoy whether or not they're unionized; for every former hippie and Nader disciple in the environmental movement there's a steelworker or a meatpacker who has had just as much of an impact, whose demands for a safer environment inside the plant have helped create a safer one outside it as well.
Those are the people Democrats need to support, and if a few Democratic politicians lose their jobs and the swanky benefits that come with those jobs because Andy Stern is busy helping less well-paid workers keep their jobs and get benefits amounting to a fraction of what Congresscritters get, well, tough.-------------------------------------------
Cal/OSHA Submits Proposed Emergency Regulations on Heat Illness Prevention Business Wire
'With two months left in the heat season, it is imperative that action be taken immediately to protect those who work outside,' said DIR Director John Rea. 'Among the provisions of the regulations the real key is education for both employees and supervisors. The best way to battle heat illness is to avoid it in the first place, and proper education helps achieve that goal.'
The regulations will apply equally to all who work outdoors in conditions that induce heat stress -- from the farm worker to the roofer to the laborer paving the highway. 'The recent deaths of both a farm worker and a construction worker in the Central Valley serve to highlight the need for a regulation that protects all those who work outside,' added Rea.
California Proposes Heat Regulation - Confined Space
Heat illness cases are severely underreported and may be recorded as heart attack or kidney failure.-------------------------------------------
Women's Work: Female union members are gaining clout, but are still shut out of top labor positions - By Kari Lydersen, In These Times
In 2002, women made up 42 percent of union members, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, compared to 19 percent in 1962.
However, union leadership has changed very little to reflect this. Out of 56 unions in the AFL-CIO, only two - the Screen Actors Guild and American Nurses Association - are headed by women. Women are equally unrepresented in other top union jobs, making up less than a fifth of top leadership. And the potential flight of major unions from the AFL-CIO probably will do little to change this; though the chair of the Change to Win coalition is a woman, its leadership is composed mostly of white males.-------------------------------------------
America's labour federation | Losing its grip - Economist, UK
For the AFL-CIO, this is a bad blow. The federation was just marking its 50th anniversary at this week's convention. The irony was painfully apparent. In 1955, in New York, the American Federation of Labour and the Congress of Industrial Organisations merged after years of bickering; today that alliance has split apart, at a time when Social Security, an increased minimum wage and other things dear to the unions are under assault from Republicans in Washington. Union leaders report harassment, threats and even firings when they exercise their rights to organise.-------------------------------------------
:: Saturday, July 30, 2005 ::Tips for Making Bear Encounters More Bearable - Occupational Hazards
A bear attack at a mine in Canada's Northwest Territories last year prompted the Workers' Compensation Board of Canada's Northwest Territories and Nunavut to issue a warning earlier this year to all workers and employers about the hazards of bears.
Grizzly and black bears frequently are found near mine and exploration sites throughout most of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Polar bears normally are found near the coasts and the High Arctic.-------------------------------------------
Workers Independent News
Harry Kelber brings down the house urging respect for dissidents and mass mobilization at AFL-CIO convention - 07/29/05
Looking back on 72 years in the labor movement, 60 as an activist, Harry Kelber drew repeated applause from AFL-CIO delegates even as he criticized the AFL-CIO leadership. The 91 year old labor activist, writer and educator says employers will never destroy the U.S. labor movement as he urged respect for dissidents. Kelber advocates mass mobilization of rank and file union members for organizing. Kelber's speech provided by Doug Cunningham, Workers Independent News. (6.54 MB mp3)
(via email)
Date: Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:19 pm
Subject: Fw: CDUI Harry Kelber speech at AFLCIO
Check this short 9-minute audio tape of 91 year old Trade Union Activist, Harry Kelber, speak before the thousands of AFL-CO delegates, DESPITE, the attempts of Sweeney and his corporate lawyers from trying to prevent Harry's speech !
David J.
AFL-CIO agreement with Harry Kelber - 7.27.2005
Today I reached a compromise agreement in which I was given 3 minutes time to address the AFL-CIO convention in return for which I agreed to give up my candidacy for the Executive Council. I had conducted a campaign for the past two days in which I criticized the activities and policies of the AFL-CIO leadership. Now I will have 3 minutes in which I can express the views about union democracy which is lacking in the American labor movement which is in large part responsible for its decline.
Harry-------------------------------------------
The state of the unions in America - By Bill Rabbitt, Woburn Advocate, MA
Thomas Jefferson once said that a little bit of revolution from time to time was a good thing. This week's call by James Hoffa and the Teamster's union to boycott the annual AFL-CIO convention probably would qualify rather nicely under his definition.-------------------------------------------
Organizing labor: It all starts at the grass roots - By BILL VIRGIN, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
It's all well and good for the leaders of the now-competing national labor federations to debate, in lofty tones and with sweeping statements, grand schemes for revitalizing the labor movement.
But they're not the ones who actually have to do the work of translating goals and strategies into tactics at the grass-roots, rank-and-file worker level.
Both the AFL-CIO and the new Change to Win Coalition (formerly known as Unite to Win) say labor needs to do more organizing and be more effective at it.
OK, fine. How do you do that?-------------------------------------------
Young workers have higher injury, fatality rates in the workplace. - Part two of a three-part series on Risks in the Workplace, by Joanne MacDonald, Straight Goods, Canada
Through his organization, Our Youth At Work, Ellis travels throughout Canada and internationally, speaking to students, parents, unions and business executives about the importance of young workers asking questions about safety on the job.
"Most accidents in most jobs occur in the first 30 days. That is the critical period for accidents occurring for young workers. Not many parents realize that's happening," says Ellis. "I assumed my own son would be looked after, be given orientation and training. I was wrong. I don't think I was any different from most parents in North America. We just haven't talked about our workplaces."
Ellis says changes need to occur at both the grassroots and executive levels so young workers will realize they have a right to refuse unsafe work.-------------------------------------------
:: Friday, July 29, 2005 ::Unions turn up heat on Telus - By Paul Marck, Edmonton Journal
In a rally at downtown Telus Plaza Wednesday, Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said 29 Alberta unions are meeting this week to come up with a plan to put pressure on Telus and support their striking and locked-out colleagues in the TWU.
'They're taking on the entire Alberta labour movement,' McGowan told a cheering, boisterous crowd of about 350 pickets on the seventh day of the dispute.-------------------------------------------
Labor's Big Split: Pain Before Gain - By Harold Meyerson, Washington Post
CHICAGO -- In the annals of labor leave-taking, it was neither as contentious as Mineworkers President John L. Lewis's departure from the 1935 AFL convention, when he decked the president of the Carpenters Union on his way out, nor as arrogantly dismissive as one of Lewis's later farewells, when he penned a note to AFL President William Green that read, simply: 'Green -- We disaffiliate -- Lewis.'-------------------------------------------
MSHA Makes The "Wrong Decision" To Blame Workers For Accidents - Confined Space
That management likes to blame worker behavior for accidents will come as no surprise to American workers. That this "blame the worker" theory is not consistent with the facts, that it doesn't get to the root causes of workplace incidents is also not a surprise to American workers.
So this new Mine Safety and Health Administration program comes as a great surprise to all of us.-------------------------------------------
Break in Teck Cominco strike - CBC British Columbia
The two sides in the strike that has shut down Trail's Teck Cominco smelter are back at the bargaining table for the first time since mediated talks broke down two weeks ago.
More than 1,200 United Steelworkers members have been off the job for the past 10 days.-------------------------------------------
:: Thursday, July 28, 2005 ::The Remarkable Harry Bridges - by Dick Meister, ZNet
His lifelong task, then, was to shift the wealth from those who owned it to those who created it.
Bridges began the task in earnest in 1934, leading his fellow longshoremen in a strike aimed at winning true collective bargaining rights from West Coast shipowners.
'The shipowners said no,' Bridges' biographer Charles Larrowe recalled, 'said it with tear gas, vigilantes and billy clubs wielded by cops who thought they were in the front line against a communist takeover. Up and down the coast, the waterfront was turned into a battlefield.'
Ten men were killed by police bullets during the three-month-long strike.
It was a high price, but in the end the longshoremen got what they had demanded -- effective union representation and an end to the notorious system of job allocation known as the 'shape-up.' Previously, jobs were parceled out by hiring bosses, frequently in exchange for bribes from the men who lined up on the docks every morning clamoring for work.
Their victory gave longshoremen the crucial right to have job assignments made by an elected union dispatcher at a union-controlled hiring hall, using a rotation system that spread the work evenly among them.-------------------------------------------
The House of Labor and the Future - The Nation | Blog | Editor's Cut
Dear Mr. Liberty,
Like you, I love liberty. One of the liberties I love is having the choice to be a union member, or not.
You, too, are a union member. You and your wife are a union. The United States of America is a union with 50 states working together for a common goal. Thats what a union is, a group of people working collectively for a common goal.
Good luck to you and yours.
Sincerely,
UnionWayne-------------------------------------------
Notes From the Telus Picket Line - editor3, Telecom Web
(TelecomWeb was able to access the voices-for-change Web site but attempts to access teluscabs.ca and telussluts.ca failed. According to VisualRoute, the diagnostic software being used by TelecomWeb, connections to teluscabs.ca are being refused by ISP and by Telus' fellow Canadian Shaw Communications. Voices-for-change is being hosted by Miami ISP Acceleratebiz.com. As this article was being written, the voices-for-change Web site began malfunctioning, but it's not immediately clear if that's because Telus had convinced Acceleratebiz to take action.)
What Constitutes Censorship?-------------------------------------------
Risk Assessment Helps Corporate Executives Avoid Dust Explosions - Emediawire
Once the domain of plant managers and facility engineers, the repercussions from a major dust explosion in an industrial facility now reverberate all the way up the chain of command to the very top executives - including the CEO. Despite the significant and very real risks of dust explosions, which include the initial blast, secondary fires, significant losses of process revenue and a host of other hidden costs, many corporate officers continue to play Russian Roulette by ignoring the issue altogether.-------------------------------------------
:: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 ::Teamsters' Withdrawal From AFL-CIO Means Building Trades Ouster - By Sherie Winston, ENR
The decision by the teamsters' union to leave the AFL-CIO means that the construction division of the 1.3-million-member union can no longer be affiliated with the labor federation's Building and Construction Trades Dept.
The AFL-CIO constitution requires federation membership for a union to participate in one of its departments.-------------------------------------------
Why History May be a Bad Guide to What's Happening this Week at the AFL-CIO Convention - By Jefferson Cowie, Associate Professor, Cornell University - History News Network
Seventy years ago this October, the American Federation of Labor met in Atlantic City to resolve two years of brewing 'discord, dissension, division, and disunion,' in the words of historian Irving Bernstein. The tension was palpable at the Chelsea Hotel in 1935, where the forces demanding a massive push to organize basic industry - steel, auto, rubber, electrical - squared off with the lords of craft unionism who sought to defend craft skill, status, and skin privilege that had become the hallmarks of the AFL. While the dissident advocates of industrial unionism had the arc of justice on their side, the defenders of the status quo could point to the graveyard of labor history, which was strewn with the failures of industrial unionism from the Knights of Labor through Eugene Debs's railway workers and onto the failed massive strike wave of 1919.-------------------------------------------
Training offered for Alberta oilfields - CBC Prince Edward Island
The P.E.I. carpenters union, with the support of the federal government, is offering a month-long training course for Islanders looking to work in the oilfields in Alberta.
Human Resources Development Canada is covering 80 per cent of the cost of the $1600 course for most of the students. Paul Chiasson, field representative with local 1338 carpenter's union, says by the end of the course the 30 men will be second-year scaffolding apprentices . This position has a wage of about $30 an hour and includes food and lodging.-------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO convention resources - by Eric M. Fink, The UnCapitalist Journal
There are several good online resources for those interested in following the saga of the AFL-CIO convention this week.
Blogger beats mainstream media on breaking AFL-CIO convention news Communicate or Die
Jonathan Tasini, a labor blogger and former president of the National Writer's Union, has been the first to press with breaking news from the AFL-CIO in convention. This is yet another example of how blogs and independent journalism are transforming the media landscape.-------------------------------------------
:: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 ::Red Wing puts best foot forward - Workday Minnesota
RED WING — The Red Wing Shoe Co. -– makers of legendary union-made work boots -– will continue the celebration of its 100th anniversary with a series of activities this week.
The most noticeable part of the celebration? The world’s largest boot – a replica of the 877 Work Boot that stands 16 feet high, is 20 feet long, and weighs 2,300 pounds.-------------------------------------------
The fractured state of these unions - BY DAVID MOBERG, Newsday
The AFL-CIO is a voluntary federation; individual unions can go their own way on most issues with impunity. Sweeney has followed a tradition - which fits well with his own low-key style - of seeking consensus among the 57 member unions and not forcing issues.
Ironically, many of the unions now backing Sweeney have resisted the program he has advocated. And to add to the irony, some of the unions on the other side are among the most general of unions - organizing anybody and everybody.-------------------------------------------
Steelworkers to represent log haulers in West Kootenays - Canada NewsWire
The United Steelworkers has withdrawn an application to the BC Labour Relations Board to certify log haulers in the province's West Kootenays region. In exchange for the withdrawal, stump-to- dump logging contractors employed by Pope and Talbot Inc. have agreed to recognize the union as the negotiator for members of the Arrow Lakes Trucking Association.
Steelworkers' Local 1-405, based in Cranbrook, will represent the truckers, who haul to a Pope and Talbot log dump in the Arrow Lakes. The association represents 24 trucking companies, operating more than 30 trucks.-------------------------------------------
Woman Says Retirees Rescued Her After Carpenter Rip-Off - NBC4.TV, CA
But the happy ending to the story came, she said, when she was rescued by an unlikely-looking group of heroes: Uli Koenig, age 63; Matt When, age 65; Karl Strohm, age 67; Bill Tafoya, age 70; Angel Cardoza, age 73; and their determined leader, Baldwin Keenan.
'In my book, they are all heroes,' Diable said. 'They are fabulous men.'
The group makes up the Retiree Club 108.
'In many ways, I say, we built Orange County,' Keenan said.
All the members are retired carpenters, former members of Orange County Carpenters Union Local 803. Between them they have more than 210 years experience sawing, drilling, building.
Baldwin said that what the first contractor did to Diable's home 'was unconscionable.'-------------------------------------------
:: Monday, July 25, 2005 ::Science Under Siege - Peace, Earth & Justice News
Another common practice these days is "seeding the scientific literature" with bogus results, to create doubt and confusion. In recent years, corporations have seeded the literature with false findings related to tobacco, lead, mercury, asbestos, vinyl chloride, chromium, nickel, benzene, beryllium and others. They cook the numbers, publish misleading articles in obscure journals, and then cite their own work to create confusion and doubt.
This strategy has brought the federal government to its knees. The case of beryllium is illuminating. Beryllium is a strong, light metal used in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors. Beryllium dust is a potent lung toxicant and carcinogen.-------------------------------------------
Showdown in Chicago - By JoAnn Wypijewski, CounterPunch
Is This Really an 'Insurgency ' to Shake Up the Labor Movement?
Hansen is intimate with the status quo, his reputation stamped in the mid-1980s when he was the UFCW leadership's tool in destroying the strike and ultimately the union of meatpackers with Local P-9 at the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota. "P-9" is one of those markers in labor history, emblem of both the courageous spirit of rank-and-file workers and the machinations of treacherous union leadership. Hansen, who'd plotted with strikebreakers, was made the trustee from which position he expelled the workers' elected leaders, offered unconditional surrender to the company, and saw to it that none of the strikers ever returned to work.
His most notorious action was sandblasting a 16x80 foot mural that 100 workers had painted on a labor center wall, doing it himself with the other trustees after the Austin building trades refused, and erasing first the painted faces of the workers and then the slogan "Solidarity".-------------------------------------------
'Safety Meeting' Actually an Immigration Sting - HR.BLR.com
The Bureau also took flak from organized labor. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson called the phony OSHA meeting 'unconscionable.'
'Not only do such tactics scare workers away, making it less likely that workplace dangers will be exposed, but these tactics don't comply with the government's own policies,' Chavez-Thompson said.
Injuries rise, but Hispanic workers shun safety classes - The Casper Star-Tribune-------------------------------------------
Future not so friendly -Telus blocks union website - By SORCHA MCGINNIS, EDMONTON SUN
Telus has blocked access to a union-run website, claiming it posted confidential information and was attempting to harass and intimidate workers by publishing their pictures.
The Voices for Change site, operated by members of the Telecommunications Workers Union, has been effectively closed to all customers with telus.net or telus.com accounts.
Internet users who subscribe to other service providers can still browse the site.
=====
note: TELUS customers can pass this proxy URL to TWU members they know who uses TELUS as their ISP: http://vfc.proxy.pfak.org/
=====
Telus cuts subscriber access to pro-union website - CBC News-------------------------------------------
:: Sunday, July 24, 2005 ::Tips for Coping with Heat Stress - University of California
AB 805, a bill pending in the California Legislature, would add specific heat-illness prevention and response requirements to employers' existing obligations for workplace safety. This month, after more than three inactive years, a Cal/OSHA advisory committee resumed its consideration of a new industrial regulation that would help prevent heat illness and injury in the workplace.
[SIDEBAR #2]
8. The single best way to reduce your heat stress risks while working is to steadily replenish the water you lose as sweat. Drinking small amounts frequently, such as 6 to 8 ounces every 15 minutes, is more effective than large amounts less often.
9. Relying on thirst as a signal to drink is dangerous. Most people do not feel thirsty until their fluid loss reaches 2 percent of body weight and is already affecting them.
More references about heat stress are available on the Web site: http://are.berkeley.edu/heat/
Cal/OSHA Provides Safety Tips for Working in Unusually High Temperatures-------------------------------------------
Teamsters Depart Chicago to Continue Efforts to Strengthen Labor Movement - PRNewswire
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced today that the Union and its delegates will not attend the AFL-CIO convention, along with three other Change To Win Coalition unions, SEIU, UFCW, and UNITE HERE.
'Workers in this country need a fighting labor movement,' said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. 'The AFL-CIO leadership has decided that they will use procedural tactics to keep our reform proposals from being heard. I refuse to waste our delegates' time for an exercise in futility. Our delegates will now return to their local unions to continue building a new labor movement.'-------------------------------------------
UFCW Statement: ‘Our Vision is Clear - Our Resolve Firm - The Time is Now to Bring New Hope to Working People’ - U.S. Newswire
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, along with three Change to Win coalition partners - the Service Workers, Laborers, UNITE/HERE, and Teamsters - will not participate in the AFL-CIO Convention that begins tomorrow.
'We are taking this historic step with our coalition partners to build a 21st century worker movement for a new generation of workers,' said UFCW President Joe Hansen. 'Unions built the American middle class. We are taking this action to revitalize the labor movement to build worker power.-------------------------------------------
United Farm Workers Joins Change to Win Camp - By Nathan Newman, TPMCafe
The other irony of the move is to have the UFW and the Teamsters, once mortal enemies in the agricultural fields, teaming up in such close cooperation.
As a last minute propaganda coup, this counts as at least a 9 for the Change to Win folks.-------------------------------------------
City, unions should improve minority hiring - editorial by Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star
Last week, City Council member Jim Glover said Cauthen again had pledged to pump up oversight of minority hiring programs.
"Promises are good to hear," Glover said. "But the only thing that's going to work is when you can drive by these sites and see minorities involved."
Great point. So on Tuesday I took a half-hour walk around the downtown arena, entertainment district and H&R Block sites.
Of the 48 workers I could clearly see, only two were black.
Oh, and all 48 were men.-------------------------------------------
Trail digs in: LABOUR DISPUTE - Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun
Tempers flared this week after Teck Cominco obtained a court order forcing pickets to allow more than 60 non-union workers stranded behind picket lines to leave the smelter site in company vehicles. Frustrated strikers hurled profanity-laced insults at the management employees as they left the property under the watchful eyes of two RCMP officers.-------------------------------------------
:: Saturday, July 23, 2005 ::Toxic Hazards In Prison Recycling Programs? - By Anna Werner, CBS 5
So why would those workers, both staff and inmates, need protection? Their job is to break down TVs and computer monitors and do it safely. Inside every monitor is a cocktail of toxic heavy metals -- cadmium, beryllium, and lead. But CBS 5 Investigates has uncovered troubling questions about whether those workers are really being protected at Atwater and other federal prisons around the country.-------------------------------------------
The Future of Labor - An OpEd by Gerald W. McEntee, Sweeney Solidarity Team
If the current debate over the future of unions results in a fractured labor movement, there will be some clear winners and losers. The winners will be President Bush, anti-worker politicians and Big Business. The losers will be America's workers.
The labor movement was founded to improve the lives of all working people and our strength has been our solidarity. Workers and their unions were the engine of change that gave this country the minimum wage law; a 40-hour workweek; child labor laws; collective bargaining rights that allow workers to negotiate their salary, hours and retirement funds; Social Security; the Civil Rights Act and much more.-------------------------------------------
Death of 14-year-old puts spotlight on lax Alberta labour laws - Web posted by NUPGE
Edmonton - The death of a 14-year-old boy at a Wetaskiwin construction site has once again put the spotlight on Alberta's generally lax health and safety standards and slave-like minimum wage laws.
Eric Dyment was crushed to death July 16 by a machine while working for a contractor at the privately-operated Reynolds Museum in Westaskiwin. He was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Officials say the boy was underage and working in an area he should not have been. An investigation is underway.-------------------------------------------
Wal-Mart intimidation tactics will fail in British Columbia - Web posted by NUPGE
Vancouver - Wal-Mart employees in British Columbia continue to seek union representation, despite the narrow defeat of a union certification drive last week. The vote by Tire and Lube Express employees at seven Wal-Mart Stores was 28 in favor of a union to 32 against.
note: Bully on the Run graphic-------------------------------------------
:: Friday, July 22, 2005 ::Fourth union OKs exit strategy - By William Glanz, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The Teamsters yesterday became the fourth union to give its president approval to leave the AFL-CIO unless the labor federation makes sweeping changes in the way it organizes new members.
The decision came five days before the start of the federation's convention in Chicago, where John J. Sweeney is likely to win re-election as president but lose some of the labor movement's biggest members.-------------------------------------------
Respond to proposals Steelworkers tell Teck Cominco on Day 2 of strike - Canada NewsWire
Doug Jones, president of Local 480, which represents some 1,140 smelter workers, says the union is ready and willing to return as soon as possible to the bargaining table to hear Teck Cominco's response to the union's proposals.
'We'd like to know what Teck Cominco has got to say,' said Jones. 'The company's chief negotiator, Human Resources Manager Dave Delong, phoned the union to leave a message for our area supervisor to 'go back to Alberta...we're not talking'. Now the company is telling the media they are ready to talk. Teck Cominco is sending out mixed messages, and we find that irresponsible.'-------------------------------------------
Power to the Pictures - review by David Moberg, In These Times
The Wobblies--nobody knows exactly how they got the nickname--were founded in a 'continental congress of the working class,' involving such leading lights of the American left as Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, Mother Jones and socialist leader Daniel DeLeon. An alternative to the craft-oriented and often discriminatory AFL, the Wobblies argued for One Big Union of all workers, organized by industries, who would use direct action on the job to fight not only for better conditions but for direct control of the economy by workers themselves.-------------------------------------------
The Horrors -- and Promise -- of 1892 - Dick Meister, ILCA
Those shots fired in 1892 were the opening shots of one of the most violent and most significant of the battles that altered for all time the relationship between working people and their employers.
The Homestead strikers lost. But their struggle -- their very loss -- inspired workers everywhere to demand and to eventually win the vital right to a true voice in determining their conditions of employment.
The strikers belonged to what was in 1892 the country's most powerful union, the 25,000-member Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. But Carnegie Steel had become probably the country's most powerful corporation, so dominant in the steel industry it no longer felt a need to bargain with the union.-------------------------------------------
:: Thursday, July 21, 2005 ::Scaffold hero - BY ADAM LISBERG, New York Daily News
A construction worker with strong arms and an indomitable will clenched a rope with all his might yesterday to keep a dangling colleague from falling 80 feet after a scaffold collapsed on the upper West Side.-------------------------------------------
American Labor Facing Civil War - By Michael Zuckerman, CBS News
The 58 affiliates of the AFL-CIO will descend on Chicago's Navy Pier at the end of July to elect the federation's leadership and consider the proposals for reform.
The first order of business is a proposed change to the delegate structure of the convention to accurately represent the membership of unions such as SEIU. The Change to Win Coalition represents 35 percent of AFL-CIO membership, but only has 9 percent of the delegates to the convention.
If changes are not made, many of the Change to Win Coalition unions will have a hard time staying in the AFL-CIO and Stern's executive board will meet on the final day of the convention to determine its future course.-------------------------------------------
Immigration Agents, Posing as OSHA Trainers, Arrest Workers - Occupational Hazards
Of the situation in North Carolina, Rebecca Smith of the National Employment Law Project noted, "This is the worst kind of deception at a time when we know a Mexican worker dies on the job every day of the year in the United States."
Protest sting operation in Goldsboro NC - Maryknoll Magazine, NY
OSHA had no knowledge of the Immigration Bureau’s plans. It has protested the Bureau’s misuse of its name and reputation.
The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed it was protecting us from terrorism and that “ruses” are part of its standard way of operating.
Interfaith Worker Justice has requested a meeting with ICE, is mobilizing its affiliate groups to contact local ICE officials and is organizing outreach to national media outlets.-------------------------------------------
URGENT ACTION ALERTS
BC Carpenters Union urges members to support the HEU-Sodexho and TWU-Telus union campaigns-------------------------------------------
:: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 ::Exception to the "going and coming" rule: operating premises - Workers Comp Insider
By way of introduction, the going and coming rule has to do with employees traveling to and from work. Generally, any injuries that an employee would suffer while traveling to and from work would not be compensable. There are several exceptions to this rule and the case of Warrior Coal Company LLC v. Stoud (pdf) offers an illustration of one such exception.-------------------------------------------
Workers of the world... disunite! - Christian Science Monitor, via ILCA Online
Competition among unions leads not only to the creation of better options for the already organized rank and file, but also to the organization of new industries as unions animated by the rivalry generate enthusiasm among the unorganized. Employees participating in union representation elections have been far more likely to vote for union representation over 'no union' when the election involves more than one union vying for workers. Rivalry has also forced down initiation fees and union dues. When unions compete, workers win.
The 1955 merger of the AFL and the CIO all but eliminated competition among unions. For nearly 50 years, the AFL-CIO has operated like a one-party state. There can be no more fitting way to celebrate the anniversary of labor's unification than to end it.-------------------------------------------
New softwood deal must produce certainty for Canada says CEP - Canada NewsWire
Any agreement between Canada and the U.S. covering softwood lumber must take precedence over U.S. trade law and a separate bi-national panel should be created to settle disputes in the future rather than relying on existing mechanisms.
Those are two of several proposals submitted to government negotiators from Canada's largest union of forest sector workers, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada which has 162,000 members, including some 60,000 in the forest sector.-------------------------------------------
Wal-Mart hires Justice Scalia's son for whistle-blower suits - by Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Wal-Mart's decision to retain Scalia has drawn fire from groups critical of the chain, such as Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart.
'Only in Wal-Mart's America can they think it's right to hire Eugene Scalia to defend them against the same whistle-blower law he was supposed to help enforce at the Department of Labor,' said Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for Wake Up Wal-Mart. The group is closely linked to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has tried to organize Wal-Mart's nonunion labor force.
Scalia defended his role, saying, 'I don't see anything unusual in a company seeking out the expertise of somebody who became familiar with the requirements of a new law, while serving as a federal law enforcement official.'-------------------------------------------
:: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 ::2,548 bottles of beer found at union office - by Judith Lavoie, Victoria Times Colonist
"I have never seen that much alcohol in any union hall and I have seen a lot of union halls," said Steve Hunt, Steelworkers western regional director after a marathon investigation into corruption and sexual harassment at the local wrapped up Thursday.
"I have no idea why it was there, but we are possibly going to take it back to the liquor store and get the money back to the local union," Hunt said.
The troubled union local, which was part of the Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada until the two unions merged last year, has about 5,000 members, including 700 health-care workers on southern Vancouver Island.-------------------------------------------
Steelworkers on strike against Teck Cominco in Trail BC - Canada NewsWire
Steelworkers in two local unions at the Teck Cominco Ltd. smelter operation set up picket lines as of 5 a.m. PDT Tuesday (July 19).-------------------------------------------
Debate about the future of the AFL-CIO heats up on the Internet - Submitted by Steve Dondley, Communicate or Die
With the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago just ten days away, more powerful AFL-CIO leaders are moving their debate away from microphones, cameras, and board rooms and placing them onto the Internet. SEIU's Executive Vice President, Tom Woodruff, entered the fray today with this scathing riposte to IAM President Tom Buffenbarger's July 5th memo on SEIU's 'Change to Win' blog. This comes on top of a recent entry by Steelworkers' President Tom Gerard on labor blogger Jonathan Tasini's site that I mentioned earlier today.
========
Leo Gerard, Steelworkers President, engages in a blog-based debate - Submitted by Steve Dondley, Communicate or Die
Steelworkers President, Leo Gerard, has entered into a debate with labor blogger Jonathan Tasini. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only instance of an International president taking part in a public forum/blog debate. Of course, SEIU's Stern has his own blog but I've never seen him actually debate anyone there.
Working Life Website-------------------------------------------
Job Safety - by Dick Meister, ZNet
Pay attention, damnit: More than 6,000 Americans are killed on the job every year. More than three million are injured, at least half of them seriously. Another 60,000 die from cancer, lung and heart ailments and other diseases caused by exposure to toxic substances on the job.
Think of it: That's an average of at least 16 workers killed and 17,000 injured on each and every day of each and every year, another 164 dying daily from job-related illness.-------------------------------------------
:: Monday, July 18, 2005 ::Carpenters end jurisdiction pacts - The Building Tradesman Back Issues Index
McCarron sent a similar letter to Sheet Metal Workers President Michael Sullivan, canceling an agreement over defining which craft installs suspended metal ceilings with components including grills, diffusers, and air handling slats. Sullivan called it a 'bad message to send to owners.'
Hunt said in a letter to the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) - which has a huge interest in seeing that job harmony is maintained among trade unions - that the Sheet Metal Workers' agreements with the Carpenters, 'while not perfect, have done much to weld our two crafts into a cooperative, efficient team, providing our contractors and customers with a workforce tailored to their needs.'
The 'last thing' corporate owners need, Hunt said, 'is the removal of agreements that provide harmony on the job.' He added that the Carpenters' 'attempt to grab market share without considering the impact on our customers is inconsistent' with the mission of the labor-owner-committee established by CURT.-------------------------------------------
This Would Be A Very Painful Divorce - By Aaron Bernstein, BusinessWeek
For example, Sweeney has told the AFL-CIO's Building & Construction Trades Dept. to kick out the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, which left the AFL-CIO in 2001 over displeasure with Sweeney's leadership and recently joined Stern's coalition. Sweeney has tried to force the quasi-autonomous department to dump the Carpenters several times but has been rebuffed. Why? The Carpenters often are the lead union on construction projects, so other building-trades unions could lose work for their members if they kick that union out. Now, in an attempt to intimidate coalition unions, Sweeney has given the department what he says is a firm deadline -- right after his reelection -- to oust the Carpenters.-------------------------------------------
Soaring cost of materials boosts construction prices - By Alana Roberts, In Business Las Vegas
'With unemployment being at its lowest level, our biggest challenge for contractors is to find qualified help,' Stormoen said. 'A lot of people show up with a five gallon bucket and a hammer and call themselves qualified.'
Holloway said that non-union wages have risen faster than union wages.
'Over the last few years there's been more wage growth in non-union than union,' Holloway said. '(For union workers) it's been more incremental, and generally they're paid more and generally the benefits are better. More employers are forced to provide better benefits and better wages because of the shortage of workers.'-------------------------------------------
:: Sunday, July 17, 2005 ::Heat stroke deaths renew calls for worker safety - AP, Monterey County Herald, CA
The second farmworker in a year has died of heat exposure in triple-digit temperatures, sparking renewed calls from labor leaders for worker safety regulations in extreme heat.
Witnesses said Salud Zamudio Rodriguez, 42, was picking bell peppers in Arvin south of Bakersfield in 105-degree heat Wednesday when he complained of feeling ill, according to Lupe Martinez, a vice president of the United Farm Workers of America.-------------------------------------------
Labor and Religion Reunite - By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times
Struggling to regain power and prestige for the sagging labor movement, the AFL-CIO has hired more than three dozen aspiring ministers, imams, priests and rabbis to spread the gospel of union organizing across the nation this summer.
The program seeks to recreate the historic partnership between faith and labor, an alliance that for nearly a century gave union leaders an aura of moral authority - and their cause the stamp of divine righteousness.-------------------------------------------
Small miracle found in rubble - TRACY CONNOR, New York Daily News
ANATOMY OF A COLLAPSE
Here's how the upper West Side building collapse unfolded, according to authorities, witnesses and people connected to the site:
1. Demolition of the one-story former supermarket begins Saturday.
2. A Bobcat bulldozer with a jackhammer attachment is placed on the roof. About 9:25 a.m. yesterday, the roof and front wall of the building shell collapse - the wall falling outward toward the sidewalk.
3. A steel beam in the building roof - which was supposed to support the Bobcat - somehow gave way.
4. Debris rained down, crushing scaffolding and a bus shelter, and injuring five pedestrians, including a 7-month-old girl. A portion of the building's rear wall also fell.-------------------------------------------
Another Anti-Union Tactic: Google AdWords - Communicate or Die
Anyone reading the story was just one click away from anti-union propaganda. This is the first time I have seen Google AdWords used in this way. This is a new communication tactic that union editors and communications directors need to know about as they calculate on-line media strategies.-------------------------------------------
:: Saturday, July 16, 2005 ::Exec Council Incumbents Are All in Hiding, But Still Expect to Get Re-Elected - LaborTalk By Harry Kelber
Only 11 days are left before the start of the AFL-CIO convention, and we still haven't heard a word from the 51 incumbents on the Executive Council. In fact, they haven't announced they're running for re-election. They just assume that if they remain silent, convention delegates will give them all another four years in office, just as they did in four previous elections.
To prevent that from happening, I decided to seek a seat on the Executive Council, forcing the AFL-CIO to conduct an election with a printed ballot and secret voting. I believe that my credentials for serving on the Council are superior to most of those who have occupied that office. And I will be happy to debate any Council member on the issues affecting labor's future.-------------------------------------------
Debating Labor's Future: A Forum - By Janice Fine, The Nation
The forum that follows is intended to give readers an opportunity to hear directly from six of the most prominent union leaders engaged in this debate: AFL-CIO's Sweeney; SEIU's Stern; John Wilhelm, hospitality president of UNITE HERE; AFSCME president Gerald McEntee; CWA executive vice president Larry Cohen; and Teamsters president James Hoffa. Each was interviewed separately by telephone. Transcripts of the interviews were edited for space and clarity.-------------------------------------------
Teck Cominco threatens to shut Trail smelter if union strikes: notice served - CBC News, Canada
Teck Cominco Ltd. has drawn a line in the sand, saying it will shut down its lead and zinc smelting operations in Trail if unionized employees follow through on a strike threat.
The United Steelworkers of America stepped across that line Friday, serving 72-hour strike notice which could leave more than 1,300 people on the picket line as early as Tuesday.-------------------------------------------
Construction firms finding more jobs than workers - By Claudio Mendonça, Miami Today
Mr. Trucks said the average salary for non-union construction is $19 an hour as opposed to $24 for union workers, and most contractor work in South Florida is non-union.
But Coscan Construction President Michael Neal says South Florida is facing not a labor shortage but a glut of projects. In reality, he said, the problem contractors face is an increase in labor costs generated by contractors 'stealing' employees from their competitors.
'What is happening now is that company A is picking employees from company B by paying higher salaries, therefore creating a dramatic rise in labor costs,' he said.-------------------------------------------
:: Friday, July 15, 2005 ::Stop The Union Busting! It Is Time To Take Back Our Unions - Labor Action Coalition
The time is sorely overdue for the members to let the AFL-CIO know that we are fed up with their corporate unionism. We will also be demonstrating at the opening of the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago on Monday, July 25, 2005 at the Drake Hotel to demand a democratic and fighting working class movement, one led by our unions with true leaders and our own political party. We also demand direct election of all officials and an end to support to the sell-out political parties of the bosses.-------------------------------------------
What If the Labor Movement Dies? - by Jack Lessenberry, Detroit Metro Times
Labor has, in fact, been in deep trouble for many years. The old joke is that our labor leaders are totally ready to deal with the problems of 1936. That's possibly a little unfair, but not much.
When World War II ended, more than a third of all workers - 35 percent - were union members. That has withered dramatically. Today, only about 12.4 percent belong to unions - a figure inflated by public employees.
Look at it this way: In the private sector, unions now are failing to organize a whopping 92 percent of all workers. There are more than a million fewer union members in the land than in 1955, the year the AFL-CIO was created, even though the work force is nearly three times as large.-------------------------------------------
Goodyear Workers Seek Safety Scoop - Yahoo News (press release)
'Our goal is zero OSHA recordables,' said Miller. 'Since Marysville is a conveyor belt plant, we've adopted a slogan - Convey the Message: No One Gets Hurt.'
He hopes that every spoonful of frozen dessert reminds associates that they are expected to return home safely at the end of each workday and take the safety mindset with them to practice with their families.-------------------------------------------
:: Thursday, July 14, 2005 ::Working Can Be Dangerous - By Joanne MacDonald, Straight Goods
Statistics from the International of Fire Fighters (IAFF) also show that since 1970, more than 160 professional firefighters have died in the line of duty in Canada.
'It's not a safe job, so you try and be a safe worker to the extent that you can,' says Kennedy, adding that firefighters run the risk of sustaining physical and/or mental traumas.
He says members feel 'almost vulnerable' when they return to the job after being injured.
'We tend to go around thinking that we have a shield of armour and we can't get injured. So when it does happen, it can be disturbing for the individual,' he says. 'Some guys come back from an injury and even though they've passed the physical requirements, they do wonder if they can expect to perform the same way they did before.'-------------------------------------------
AGC: union trades may 'expedite extinction' with ongoing battles - The Building Tradesman
Union disunity is starting to raise red flags with construction employers.
Building Trades Department President Edward Sullivan said he is 'hopeful that the Carpenters will re-affiliate with the AFL-CIO by the July Convention. The choice is up to UBC President McCarron. Members of our Governing Board of Presidents believe that President McCarron would best serve his members by continuing to be a participant in building a stronger national labor movement.'
He added, 'we have met with President McCarron numerous times to express our concern for the thousands of UBC locals and members who would be adversely affected by his decision to leave the AFL-CIO. Many of the reforms President McCarron has advocated for have already or are in the process of being resolved.
'That is why both AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Presidents of the Building Trades have and continue to strongly encourage him to choose re-affiliation.'-------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney launches re-election site - Submitted by Steve Dondley, Communicate or Die
John Sweeney has launched a web site for his re-election bid at http://www.sweeneysolidarityteam.org. If there's one good thing that is coming out of the looming AFL-CIO split, it's a heightened awareness that the Internet can't be ignored as a communication tool.
Now if only we could add Sweeney to our Trophy Room. Unfortunately, everything on the site from Sweeney is issued as a 'press release.' How 20th century.-------------------------------------------
:: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 ::Monday, Monday, Can't trust that day? Report says it's as safe as any other - The Building Tradesman
There is a popular conception that most construction fatalities occur on Mondays and Fridays - but the statistics don't bear this out.
Monday and Wednesday had an almost identical number of fatal construction events, 148 and 146, respectively, and Friday had the fewest number of fatal events, 96, when weekends are excluded.
Because the total number of construction hours worked each day is not known, 'it is not possible to conclude that any one day is more or less hazardous than another,' said the report, released in March by the University of Tennessee
The two-hour periods before and after the noon hour contained the most fatal events - 151 and 157, respectively - but it is not possible to calculate hourly event rates.-------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO "Work in Progress" July 11 - via email
BUSH THE COVER BOY--It's not unusual for President Bush to appear on magazine covers. But his appearance on the cover of the June 15 edition of "Government Executive" magazine with the huge red headline "Union Buster" was unique. The cover story--in a magazine that describes itself as an "authoritative business publication for mid- to senior-level federal managers"--reported that workers' rights under the long-standing federal labor relations system are "being crushed by the weight of personnel reform." It covered the attacks on workers' rights and collective bargaining in the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Visit http://www.govexec.com and click on back issues to view the story.
Hard Labor - Government Executive: Vol. 37 No.10 (6/15/05)
The traditional federal labor relations system is being crushed under the weight of personnel reform.-------------------------------------------
AFL-CIO Working to Minimize Defections - By WILL LESTER, AP
Sweeney is already laying off about 100 employees, and if he went along with the coalition proposal to rebate more money, the AFL-CIO would have to shut down its Washington headquarters.
'It's the largest, strongest trade union center on the planet,' McEntee said. 'To make a move that would essentially cripple it is a bad move.'-------------------------------------------
Honda dealer accused of trying to break union / New owners hired cheaper workers - Janine DeFao, San Francisco Chronicle
It may not have reached Wal-Mart proportions, but a labor battle is brewing in labor-friendly Berkeley, presided over by a giant inflatable rat.
Mechanics and other striking service workers have been picketing Berkeley Honda on Shattuck Avenue downtown since June 15, claiming the new owners of the former Jim Doten Honda are trying to bust their union.-------------------------------------------
:: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 ::OSHA's Absence Frustrates Construction Committee - Occupational Hazards
If 90 percent of life is just showing up, OSHA rulemaking officials ignored this axiom of popular wisdom when they failed to make an appearance at the most recent meeting of the Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH).
The committee's noise and silica work groups, meeting in Washington last month, asked for an update from OSHA's directorate of standards and guidance on rulemaking for these two hazards, but no OSHA official attended the work group meetings.-------------------------------------------
Machinists to merge with rail workers - By RIP WATSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS
The merger is an example of unions stretching their membership across industries, said Robert Bruno, a labor relations professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He also said the move could block other unions, such as the Teamsters, from trying to add more rail union members.
"We're joined by our common heritage as rail unions founded more than a century ago and by our growth over the years to include workers throughout the transportation industry," Buffenbarger said in a statement posted on the IAM's Web site.-------------------------------------------
Labor officials blast tactic used in arrests at air base - AP, Myrtle Beach Sun News, SC
Allen McNeely, head of the state Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health division, said the workers were lured into the arrest by a flier announcing a mandatory Occupational Safety and Health Administration meeting.
McNeely said one of the contractors who employed the immigrants faxed him a copy of the flier, which told all contract workers to attend an OSHA briefing at the base theater and promised free coffee and doughnuts.
Stupid and Deadly: Undocumented Workers Lured into Arrest With Promise of Safety Training commentary by Jordan Barab, Confined Space
"Federal immigration officials say they have the right to round up illegal immigrants in any manner they see fit -- even if it means impersonating Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials."-------------------------------------------
Uh-Oh, Canada? - TheLedger, FL
When pressed for other cities he'd been to in Canada, he named none specifically. When pressed further, he said he'd visited the area 'back toward Indiana' where he was stationed in the Army, but added it was 'well, obviously above Indiana.'
CBC News also recently noted that Wilkins, 58, was given a standing ovation by the South Carolina Assembly, where he has served for 25 years, the last 10 years as speaker. The report said Wilkins told the crowd he had been nominated 'to serve as United States ambassador to Canada, our friend and neighbor to the north.'-------------------------------------------
1,000 days, no injuries - By Jeff Bollier, Oshkosh Northwestern
Georgia-Pacific’s Midwest region is the safest in the organization based on reportable injuries. Of the 15 plants in the region, Oshkosh ranked first with no injuries since Oct. 15, 2002, Corpus said.
That year, the plant suffered a string of several injuries that caught the corporate office’s attention and created the effort to make safety the top priority, Operations Manager John Arpin said.-------------------------------------------
:: Monday, July 11, 2005 ::Arizona Miner's Union Insists Strike is About Unfair Labor Practices - Source: The Arizona Daily Star
Union members have been adamant in declaring that the strike by 1,500 workers against Tucson-based Asarco LLC is over unfair labor practices and not contract disputes -- an important distinction that the National Labor Relations Board ultimately makes.
While an economic strike deals with contract disputes, an unfair-labor-practice strike deals with violations that occur before, during or after contract negotiations. If substantiated, such labor violations can require an employer not only to return to the bargaining table but also to guarantee that striking workers cannot be replaced.-------------------------------------------
Carpenters Union nailing Dem chief - Arizona Republic
Carpenters Union Local 1506 stages demonstrations across the Valley every day. You've probably seen the banners that shout 'Labor Dispute - Shame On (company name).' Protesters hand out fliers with a cartoon of a rat chewing a U.S. flag.
The real beef is with contractors, but the union often names the company that hired the contractors as a way to make a bigger splash.-------------------------------------------
Stretch of tunnel called full of defects - By Sean P. Murphy, The Boston Globe
An inspection by Big Dig officials has found a 1,500-foot stretch of the tunnel near the North End to be the most problem-plagued area of the project, with weaknesses in the tunnel walls that exceed even those in the section of tunnel that erupted in a gushing leak last September.
The North End stretch of the tunnel is so pocked with construction defects -- weaknesses in the walls -- that project officials have brought in a new engineering firm to conduct an independent evaluation.-------------------------------------------
Steelworkers heading into mediation with strike mandate at Teck Cominco - Canada NewsWire
'The strong strike vote means we are not prepared to accept rollbacks - plain and simple,' he said. 'Concessions are not acceptable and we expect to get wage and benefit increases - especially in pensions.'
Steelworkers Staff Representative Steve Dewell said he hopes the company 'will come to its senses' before strike action may be necessary.-------------------------------------------
Framer's Death Not the Fault of General Contractor Or Owner - ENR McGraw-Hill
Smith's family sued H&W and the church, arguing that they negligently exercised authority and control over the construction, causing Smith's death. Under Utah law, an employer of an independent contractor is not liable for physical harm to the contractor's employee, unless the employer retains affirmative control over the method or manner in which the contractor does the work. The plaintiffs argued that this relates broadly to all carpentry activities, while the defendants argued that this meant control only over the manner of framing the wall that fell on Smith.-------------------------------------------
:: Sunday, July 10, 2005 ::Scaffolding, Fall Prevention Top the List of Construction Violations in New York, Study Finds - Occupational Hazards
Joel Shufro, executive director of NYCOSH, a non-profit safety and health educational organization pointed to the study's finding that 1,586 of 5,312 OSHA construction safety violations - nearly one-third - were for violations of the scaffolding and fall prevention standards as a reason to keep the scaffold law.
'Construction is one of the most dangerous industries and working at heights is one of the most dangerous aspects of construction,' Shufro said. 'OSHA inspection data shows that contractors violate fall prevention regulations on a routine basis. More than 25 construction workers in New York state die in falls each year. Labor Law 240 provides construction contractors with a strong incentive to follow safety regulations and develop programs to prevent falls. Without it, the death toll would certainly be even higher.'-------------------------------------------
Carpenters Local 1005 faces takeover by union - By Steve Walsh, Gary Post Tribune, IN
Throughout the day Carpenters members walked past a line of sheriff's deputies, who stood outside the meeting room.
Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez is a childhood friend of Hernandez. Local 1005 gave the sheriff upwards of $29,000 for his 2002 run for office, through a political action committee controlled by Hernandez.
Lake County Police Chief Gary Martin said the 10 Lake County Sheriff deputies on hand for the hearing were being were used for security. All of the officers were off-duty.
They were hired by a private security firm in New York that was hired by the International Brotherhood of Carpenters for the event. The firm called the Sheriff's Department in Crown Point.-------------------------------------------
Kelber Offers New Media Plan to Fill Void, As AFL-CIO Drops Its Monthly Magazine - Press Release
Harry Kelber, a distinguished labor journalist and editor, has proposed a new media plan to help union organizers reach out to the millions of workers who say they would like to join a union. His plan comes at a time when the AFL-CIO has scrapped its official monthly publication, America@Work, and, given the federation’s budgetary restraints, is making no effort to replace it.
Commenting on the refusal of the AFL-CIO to establish a national media strategy, with a weekly, professional-level newspaper, as well as radio and television programs, Kelber asks: "If you can't talk to non-union workers, how are you going to organize them?"-------------------------------------------
Michigan labor leader sees unions in crisis - By Jack Lessenberry, Toledo Blade, OH
'Some union leaders, frankly, are just fiddling while Rome burns - making personal attacks and talking about everything else but the future of workers,' Mr. Stern writes in a posting on his web site, www.unitetowinblog.org.
Comments on the web site make it seem more than likely that secession already has come in all but name. The other unions that seem likely to take a walk include the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Unite Here, which was formed last year via a merger of the hotel and restaurant and textile workers unions.
The latest to follow was the Carpenters Union. 'If they have the carpenters, there is a threat that the other building and construction workers may follow,' Mr. Gaffney said bleakly.-------------------------------------------
Work Hard, Die Young - compiled by Jordan Barab, Confined Space
Despite the recent outreach efforts by OSHA and worker safety groups to teen workers, it's summertime, and the dying is easy.
New youth labour laws draw local criticism - Hinton Parklander, Alberta, Canada
Even unions are chipping in with an opinion on this issue.
"Putting young kids into the job site is a recipe for trouble," said Alberta CUPE president D'Arcy Lanovaz. "At a time when every WCB (worker compensation board) across the country is doing whatever possible to reduce accidents by young workers, the Alberta government is taking the opposite approach and putting, more and younger workers into potentially dangerous situations."
He said the move will likely increase work place accidents. He added that Saskatchewan youth under the age of 16 are banned from working anywhere.
"Once again, Alberta is moving in the opposite direction from the rest of the country," he said.-------------------------------------------
Unions May Direct Banners Stating "Labor Dispute" At Customers Of Neutral Businesses - Mondaq News Alerts
The Ninth Circuit affirmed denial of the injunction, holding: (1) because the banners did not obstruct retailers' entrances and union members did not patrol the area or initiate interaction with the public, the union's conduct did not constitute traditionally proscribed ambulatory secondary picketing, and (2) the phrase 'Labor Dispute' on the banners was not fraudulent, because the dispute, although primarily between the union and the companies, also involved retailers who did business with the companies.-------------------------------------------
