Archive for March, 2006
Exhibit on Coal Mines: Then and Now
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Photo journalist Earl Dotter, known for his award-winning work documenting the lives of working Americans, joined with the Appalachian Institute at Wheeling (W.Va.) Jesuit University, to produce a powerful new photo exhibit, "Our Future in Retrospect--Coal Miner Health in Appalachia." The exhibit is dedicated to the 21 coal miners killed on the job in West Virginia, Kentucky, Utah and Maryland this year. Click here for a list of those who perished.
The exhibit combines Dotter's present-day look at health and safety issues in America's coalfields with Russell W. Lee's 1946 documentary photography on the gamut of issues in coal communities: mining fatalities, miners' lung health, coalfield clinics, nutrition, water quality and housing.
I’ll See You in Prison
Robert Fox from the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America sends us this latest outrage.
Extremist Republicans are revealing their true colors in the debate over the status of undocumented workers in the United States. Rather than permit workers to become citizens or (the horror) raise wages, here is their dream for labor in the United States, as quoted in The New York Times today:
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, dismissed arguments made by President Bush and business leaders who say the United States needs a pool of foreign workers. He said businesses should be more creative in their efforts to find help and suggested that employers turn to the prison population to fill jobs in agriculture and elsewhere.
"Let the prisoners pick the fruits," Mr. Rohrabacher said. "We can do it without bringing in millions of foreigners."
In this scenario, large business sectors would presumably have a direct financial interest in locking up workers to gain access to an indentured class of prisoner-employees. Given Washington's lobbying culture and general standard of Government-by-Auction, you could count on corporate America to push the envelope quickly once such a plan was established.
Rohrabacher's appalling idea is a reminder of why it is so important to have immigration policies that allow everyone full citizenship rights and worker protections.
New Delphi Bankruptcy: Bad Faith, Bad for All Workers
Delphi Corp.'s announcement that it will ask a bankruptcy court to throw out its union contracts has killed any momentum in negotiations over a new deal and could lead to a long strike.
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Richard Shoemaker laid the issues on the line in a March 31 statement:
Delphi's misuse of the bankruptcy procedure to circumvent the collective bargaining process and slash jobs and wages and drastically reduce health care, retirement and other hard-won benefits or eliminate them altogether is a travesty and a concern for every American.
In the event the court rejects the UAW-Delphi contract and Delphi imposes the terms of its last proposal, it appears that it will be impossible to avoid a long strike.
By the Numbers: Blacks Still Lag Behind Whites
The pictures from New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, graphically showed the gaping hole between the haves and the have-nots in this country, especially those have-nots who are African American.
Now the newly released State of Black America 2006: The Opportunity Compact produced by the National Urban League tells the story in stark numbers.
Lots to Say
Here are some of the latest comments we've received at AFL-CIO Now.
Got news? Send it to us at: blognews@aflcio.org.
At Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Emily Napalo is among students who refuse to give up their struggle to ensure the university's low-wage workers are paid a living wage.
Together with members of the area's union community, students are rallying on campus today to insist management keep its promises to enable workers to form a union. Napalo sends us a release from the Georgetown Living Wage Coalition that sums up the situation:
After almost four years of struggling with Georgetown administrators over the issue of the living wage and working closely with campus wage-earning employees, the Living Wage Coalition had no choice but to take the drastic action of a hunger strike in spring 2005. After nine days on strike Georgetown University agreed to the "Just Employment Policy." Now, almost a year later, those promises have not been met: Georgetown workers are not receiving the wage and benefits promised to them, and the university has done nothing to ensure workers' right to organize a union through the card-check process.
Students are outraged that Georgetown, a Jesuit university, is not living up to its mission of social justice for those in need.
Another Bush Fox Heading for the Henhouse
The Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division is supposed to protect your most basic rights at work. Paul DeCamp, President Bush’s nominee to head up the agency, is a doozie.
Get this:
- As a private practice lawyer, DeCamp represented Wal-Mart in trying to prevent a class of 1.5 million women—the largest employment class action ever certified—from suing the company for discrimination in pay and promotions.
I’m Leavin’ It: Students and Farmworkers Take on a McDonald’s
Two student activists send us this report from the Student Labor Week of Action (SLAP).
Sean Sellers, with the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA), describes the alliance as a national network of youth and students organizing with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to eliminate sweatshops and modern-day slavery in the fields. From March 26–April 4, SFA activists will join a caravan of coalition farmworkers traveling from Immokalee, Florida to Chicago—home of McDonald's—to educate consumers about the labor conditions in McDonald’s tomato supply chain and to demand real rights for farmworkers. For more information on the “Real Rights Tour” and the April 1 mobilization in Chicago, including daily photos and updates from the road, click here.
Viva la Fiesta Dinnerware—An American Icon Still Union-Made in the USA
Joe Wells Jr., former CEO of Homer Laughlin China, died Monday at the age of 90. He left behind quite a legacy, which AFL-CIO speechwriter Paul Gordon dug into recently while researching the origins of union-made Fiesta dinnerware that has brightened the kitchens of America for decades. Here’s what Paul found about the company Wells helped run before his son Joe III took over:
Homer Laughlin China, a 134-year-old factory that straddles the West Virginia-Ohio border, is evidence that a company achieves superiority not only by the quality products it produces, but by respecting the employees who make them.
If you grew up with the Mickey Mouse Club on TV and a Schwinn bike in your garage, there's a good chance your kitchen cabinet also included Homer Laughlin China’s most famous product: Fiesta Dinnerware. Even if Fiesta Dinnerware doesn’t sound familiar, it’s likely you recognize its Art Deco style and the bright colors—tangerine, peacock, persimmon, plum and more. And Fiesta isn't just your average china. Do a Google search and you'll find it has more devoted followers than many presidential candidates. What's more, behind every Fiesta pitcher and plate and cup is a proud group of union workers and a company that has bucked job-exporting trends.
Oregon to Georgia—America’s Workers Sign on with Unions
Military contract workers in Georgia, state workers in New Jersey, auto technicians in Michigan and bakery workers in Oregon all won a union voice on the job in recent organizing victories.
Holding down the fort....At Fort Benning, Ga., 230 workers employed by ITT, a contractor at the U.S. Army base, voted to join the Columbus (Ga.) Metal Trades Council. Eighty small arms repair technicians are new members of the Machinists, while the remaining skilled trades workers are now members of the Electrical Workers, Operating Engineers and Sheet Metal Workers.
Michigan Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative Fizzles in Light of Day
He’s at it again. Former University of California regent Ward Connerly is spearheading a drive to pass a November ballot initiative in Michigan that would end equal opportunity and affirmative action in higher education, employment and contracting. Connerly also sponsored California's Proposition 209 (1996) and Washington State's Initiative 200 (1998), ballot initiatives that eradicated affirmative action in both states, and is campaigning for enactment of a similar initiative in Michigan.
But Michigan voters are not buying it. A new poll by EPIC-MIRA shows a dramatic shift in voters’ views after the actual language of the proposal was released. A statewide poll released March 10 shows support for the misnamed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) has dropped from three months ago before the actual wording came out. Today, 47 percent of voters oppose the measure, while 44 percent favor it. That’s a huge switch from December 2005 when 53 percent supported the anti-affirmative action plan and 32 percent were opposed.
