Archive for November, 2006
Academic Freedom Alive and Well in Pennsylvania
Good news for everyone who values academic freedom: Pennsylvania just became the 21st state to reject government intervention in higher education’s teaching and learning process.
The Pennsylvania House Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education today rejected legislation to restrict what the state’s higher education faculty can teach and what their students can learn in the classroom.
Bush OSHA Tries to Scapegoat Scientist for Doing His Job
Officials in the Bush Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are trying to make a scapegoat of a longtime federal employee to deflect heat from the auto industry over an Internet safety bulletin about asbestos in brakes, according to a report in the The Baltimore Sun.
Sun reporter Andrew Schneider reports that OSHA officials are threatening to suspend Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist, for what they say was his failure to study the full scope of scientific evidence on the dangers of asbestos in a safety and health bulletin. The AFGE, which represents Wainless, says the scientist, who has worked at OSHA for 32 years, did gather the arguments for and against publishing the safety bulletin to justify his conclusions. The union has presented documents that show he had given all this material to his boss 15 months ago!
AFL-CIO Calls on Bush to Shut Down School of Americas
Amy Masciola of the AFL-CIO Organizing Department sends us this blog about the annual vigil and protest at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.
Union supporters and organizers are routinely killed throughout Latin America and many of them are victims of graduates from the School of the Americas (SOA) operated by the U.S. Department of Defense at Fort Benning, Ga., according to investigations by several human rights groups.
Goodyear Strikers Take Struggle to a Store Near You
Striking Goodyear workers took their struggle for justice to the front doors of the tire makers’ stores this past weekend.
The 15,000 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) were forced out on strike after the company refused to budge on its demands to close a manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, and to cut back on retiree benefits.
Over the weekend, the USW kicked off an international effort to educate the public about the ongoing labor dispute at 15 North American Goodyear plants.
Striking workers and their supporters rallied and handed out informational fliers at Goodyear stores in 14 cities in the United States and Canada, including Akron, Ohio, and Toronto, headquarters for the company’s U.S. and Canadian operations. Talks between the two sides broke off Friday, and no new talks are scheduled.
AFSCME Katrina Feature Wins Labor Communicators’ Top Prize
International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) Media Coordinator Alec Dubro took part in ILCA’s annual meeting at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., and describes some of the top winners among labor communicators.
Jon Melegrito walked off with the top prize, the Max Steinbock Award, awarded during the ILCA Media Awards Luncheon on Friday. Melegrito, a staff writer at AFSCME, spent weeks in the Gulf Coast area after Hurricane Katrina and published “Victimized by Water, Wind & Politicians” in the November/December issue of the AFSCME magazine Public Employee.
No Short Fix for the Nation’s Economic Woes
As pollster Geoff Garin writes in a current guest column for the AFL-CIO: Economic issues were an important part of the story behind the political earthquake that took place Nov. 7.
Along with the war in Iraq and the Republican culture of corruption, the economy played a critical role in the key battleground states that decided the election, according to the progressive advocacy organization, NDN. An NDN exit poll asked voters in key swing states about Iraq and the economy and found
in each swing state, more voters thought the economy was either “extremely important” or “very important” in their decision over who to vote for their senator.
| Economy | Iraq | |
| Missouri | 83% | 62% |
| Montana | 82% | 65% |
| Ohio | 83% | 66% |
| Pennsylvania | 81% | 68% |
| Virginia | 82% | 69% |
Economy vs. Iraq in Key Senate Races—NDN
With a working family majority in Congress this January, we have a chance to start addressing bread and butter issues. But it’s taken six years of fiscal mismanagement by the Bush administration to get this nation into this economic morass—and no quick fix will get us out.
Bargaining Digest Weekly
The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 800 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
US Airways’ hostile takeover bid for Delta continues to draw fire from unions because Delta would add to the already complex US Airways mix of America West workers who have not been integrated into the new company or the seniority system. The US Airways offer for Delta also raises serious questions on how the merged company would handle pensions. Workers at US Airways gave up their defined-benefit pensions for 401(k) type plans the last time US Airways was in bankruptcy. At Delta, the Air Line Pilots (ALPA) froze their defined-benefit pension and replaced it with a 401(k) plan, but the nonunion employees maintained their defined-benefit plans and the company continues to fund them fully. In fact, bankrupt Delta has not taken advantage of the longer-term funding opportunities provided by the Pension Protection Act that passed last year and continues to pay into the plans at the higher rate.
Harry Bridges: One Man, Larger than Life
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Harry Bridges, the larger-than-life founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), long has deserved a popular treatment that enables the story of this gutsy organizer to be told in union halls and community gathering places across the nation.
In a tribute to the fiery union leader who made his name on the San Francisco docks after emigrating from his native Australia, Ian Ruskin gives Bridges his due. Ruskin starred as Bridges in a one-man performance Friday at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C.
The show, “From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks,” was sponsored by the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), which is holding its annual meeting here. The creation of The Harry Bridges Project, spearheaded by Ruskin from his fascination with the great labor organizer, “Wharf Rats” is a traveling performance affordable for many union events.
Bush Administration’s Nominations for Federal Courts Play to Extremist Base
To most people, bipartisanship means working together, finding common ground, putting aside differences.
But in another strange twist to the Bush administration’s definition of bipartisanship, President George W. Bush this week renominated a controversial group of judicial candidates who have previously failed to win Senate confirmation for important federal judgeships. Senate Democrats, civil rights, environmental, women’s and legal groups all oppose the failed nominees, who are part of a larger package of judicial nominees Bush sent to the lame duck Senate.
Milwaukee Iron Stays in Milwaukee
Long-time Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders call their machines “Milwaukee Iron.” At a time when manufacturing workers are losing their jobs to offshore factories or nonunion shops, members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2-209 know that Milwaukee Iron is going to stay in Milwaukee after they approved a memorandum of agreement to their contract with Harley-Davidson.
