Archive for December, 2006
Iranian Union Leader Released from Jail
Cathy Feingold at the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center tells us that Mansour Osanloo, president of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Drivers Union (Vahed), was released again from jail this week.
His release after a month of solitary confinement in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison follows a tremendous solidarity campaign by union members in the United States and around the world.
Goodyear’s Plans to Move Jobs to China Adds to Nation’s Economic Woes
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| Goodyear strikers have leafleted customers at outlets around the nation to explain how Goodyear has backed away from its promises to workers. |
This is a crosspost from The Bonddad Blog. Click here for the full post.
Let’s see. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson went to China last week to get the Chinese government to voluntarily lower the value of its currency, the yuan.
He failed.
But to save face for the United States, China said it will buy four Westinghouse nuclear reactors—never mind worries that this nation is selling its competitive advantage one industry at a time.
Be Very Wary of Bush Support for Minimum Wage Increase
Is President Bush building the foundation to veto a minimum wage bill?
Today, he told reporters he supports raising the decade-old rate of $5.15 an hour to $7.25—but he wants to combine it with tax and regulatory relief for businesses.
Didn’t he hear the message from voters across the country who not only overwhelmingly passed minimum wage increases in six states, but also threw their support behind congressional candidates who pledged to boost the federal minimum wage. Voters sent packing many Republican incumbents who blocked wage-raise bills.
A Rollback of Enron-Era Reforms
Chris Huang from the AFL-CIO Office of Investment notes the recent backlash from Big Business trying to weaken post-Enron corporate reforms.
Even as the multibillion dollar accounting scandals of Enron and Worldcom slowly recede into the past, a new wave of corporate crime, such as backdating stock options, is unfolding. Yet Big Business is trying to roll back post-Enron reforms.
After 47 Coal Mine Deaths, Will Stickler Keep Safety Promise?
Twenty-six-year-old John Elliot is the 47th coal miner killed on the job this year—the deadliest year in the nation’s coal mines since 1995. The Newburg, W.Va., miner was killed when part of the roof collapsed Dec 17 at Dana Mining Co.’s Prime No. 1 Mine near Maidsville, W.Va.
The Associated Press reports that in the past three years the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has cited the Dana mine 27 times for roof violations.
The soaring coal mine death toll—including the Jan. 2 explosion that killed 12 workers at the Sago Mine—and President Bush’s stubborn fight to name a coal industry insider to lead MSHA put the public spotlight on the issue of coal mine safety for the first time in years.
Better Red Than Union—Communists Infiltrate Wal-Mart!
It’s just such a delicious thought. If only ol’ Sam Walton—the patriarch of the Wal-Mart empire—was still alive.
Picture this as some flunky Wal-Mart VP enters Walton’s office:
“Sir, do you want the good news or bad news first?”
“Hit me with the bad news!”
“We’ve been forced to recognize unions in some of our stores.”
“Ohmygawd! That’s awful. Tell me the good news.”
“We’ve given the Communist Party permission to set up chapters in some of those stores.”
Help Striking Goodyear Workers Get Through the Holidays
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| Steelworkers and their supporters in St. Paul, Minn., take part in a Goodyear Day of Action Dec. 16. | |
There is still time to take a break from your holiday shopping, present wrapping and menu planning to help make the holidays a little brighter for nearly 16,000 Goodyear workers and their families who have not seen a paycheck since early October.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. forced its workers—members of the United Steelworkers (USW)—on strike Oct. 5 with its contract demands to close its third plant in four years, export jobs to countries like China, where workers are paid 42 cents an hour, and gut health care for retirees.
Iraqi Unions Condemn Move to Give Oil Production to Foreign Multinationals
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center sends us word that Iraqi trade unions are alerting the public they fear the Iraqi government is handing over the nation’s oil production to foreign multinationals.
Leaders of Iraq’s five trade union federations are condemning plans by the Iraqi government to hand over control to what they say is most of their nation’s oil production to foreign multinational corporations.
16 Years After U.N. Migrant Treaty Adopted, U.S. Has Not Signed
Some 120 million migrants are at work around the world, leaving their homelands in search of jobs to support themselves and their families back home. But many millions of these construction, domestic, contract, garment and other workers are exploited—or even worse, trafficked into virtual slavery through sweatshop labor, domestic servitude and other exploitative work conditions.
Sixteen years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an international treaty upholding migrant workers’ rights to at least minimal protections.
After FAA Cuts, How Safe Are Our Skies?
Over the past few years, the Bush administration’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) repeatedly has cut staffing at air traffic control towers and decreased the amount of time between work shifts, forcing controllers to work even when they have not had sufficient rest. Over the Labor Day weekend, the FAA unilaterally imposed a contract on air traffic controllers that the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) union says poses real and potentially dangerous consequences for the safety of airline passengers and crews.
In a special report, Gannett News Service looks at the implications of these FAA moves for passenger safety.
