Archive for February, 2007
Court Orders Bush Labor Department to Respond to Unions’ Safety Suit
The Bush administration’s Department of Labor is not going to be able to duck a suit filed by the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) over the department’s failure to finish a safety rule requiring employers to pay for workers’ personal protective equipment (PPE). Protective gear, such as specialized clothing, lifelines, face shields, gloves and other equipment, is used by an estimated 20 million workers to protect them from job hazards.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the Bush administration to respond to the suit, filed Jan. 3, within 30 days.
Message Spreading Across Country: Pass Employee Free Choice Act
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Rep. John Yarmuth sports a button showing his support for workers’ freedom to choose a union.
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Members of Congress across the country are hearing from thousands of working family activists that it’s time to end the unfair process that denies workers their freedom to join unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
Over the weekend, workers launched a week of action to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800). In nearly 100 cities, at news conferences, worker roundtables, rallies and other gatherings across the country, workers and union and community leaders are connecting with more than 130 members of Congress—thanking those who support the Employee Free Choice Act and demanding better from those who don’t.
Today, more than 25 events are scheduled, including roundtable discussions with workers who are trying to form unions in Rochester, Minn.; Muskogee, Okla.; Orange County, Calif.; Portland, Maine; and Honolulu. Click here to find an Employee Free Choice Act event near you.
In Louisville, Ky., yesterday, Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) joined 260 union members who were rallying in favor of the bill. Yarmuth, one of 233 co-sponsors of the legislation, says it is one of his top priorities.
Republicans STILL Fighting on Minimum Wage Increase
Nobody said it would be easy. And after 10 years without increasing the incredibly shrinking value of the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage, nobody really thought congressional Republicans would abandon their never-ending quest for business and corporate tax breaks.
Last week, the House passed a $1.3 billion package of business tax incentives and breaks designed to get stalled minimum wage legislation into a conference with the Senate. But that’s not business-friendly enough for Senate Republicans.
Employee Free Choice Act Would Make Jobs Safer for Arizona Construction Workers
Imagine you’re working in the attic of a new house under construction, putting in air conditioning ducts. It’s more than 100 degrees in the shade, and you’ve been at it for hours without a break. And you could easily fall and get hurt or, worse, die.
You need a drink of water, safety equipment and a union.
Mahelio Rico (see video) and his co-workers decided they’d had enough of melting in the Arizona desert sun, where they work for Chas Roberts, the largest, privately owned air conditioning contractor in the United States. Rico says:
Oh, it’s really hot. Sometimes temperature gets up 118 degrees in summer, and, I mean, it’s really hot. You’re up there in the attics working, and, I mean, it’s really bad.
So a few years ago Rico got interested in the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) union—and began getting his co-workers interested as well.
A Poetic Look at Need for Paid Sick Leave
Last week, we reported on Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Healthy Families Act that would require most employers to provide workers with seven days of paid sick leave per year to take care of themselves or a family member.
Today, almost half of all workers have no paid sick leave, and low-income workers are in even more dire straits–76 percent have no paid sick leave.
The story prompted AFL-CIO Now reader Dave Hurlburt of Pacifica, Calif., to submit the following poem: “One Sick Kin from Being Fired.”
Hurlburt, a member of Communications Workers of America Local 9410 and retired after 30 years as a communications technician for SBC, has long been an advocate for family friendly workplace policies, especially paid sick leave. He was a vocal advocate for San Francisco’s recent successful ballot measure that requires employers to provide paid sick leave.
Even though little more than half of workers today have paid sick leave, Hurlburt remembers when things were worse. In the early 1970s when he was working for Pacific Bell Telephone, his young son developed a 105-degree temperature, and Hurlburt rushed him to the hospital in the predawn hours and missed that day’s work.
I got written up for it and put on notice. My boss told me I should have been at work instead of taking my son to the hospital. He said, “That’s what you got a wife for.”
Activists Heat Up for Employee Free Choice Act Week of Action
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More than 175 union members rallied in the West Virginia Capitol in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
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As members of Congress return home for the Presidents Day recess, working families are launching a Week of Action to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
At news conferences, worker roundtables, rallies and other gatherings across the country, workers and union and community leaders will connect with more than 130 members of Congress—thanking those who support the Employee Free Choice Act and demanding better from those who don’t.
In nearly 100 cities, workers will let their lawmakers know it’s time to end the unfair process that denies workers their freedom to join unions and bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
Preparing for the Pandemic, Part 2: Practical Help Missing for Families, Communities
A deadly flu pandemic—avian or influenza—is “not a question of if, it’s a question of when,” says Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Yesterday, we examined the most recent voluntary workplace guidelines offered by OSHA in place of a thorough and enforceable workplace standard to protect workers, especially first responders and health care workers. Today, we look at the CDC’s community guidelines and what they mean to working families.
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About a week before OSHA’s workplace guidelines were announced, CDC unveiled its community guidelines to deal with a flu pandemic, along with a severity index—the more widespread the outbreak, the more drastic the measures.
STITCH Delegation to Learn Firsthand the Impact of CAFTA
Nearly one year after the passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), trade union women from the United States will have the opportunity to see first hand the trade deal’s impact on working conditions for women in Central America.
STITCH, a network of women unionists and activists in Central America and the United States, is sponsoring its annual STITCH Spring Delegation to Guatemala from May 26-June 3.
Preparing for the Pandemic, Part 1: Guidelines for ‘Inevitable’ Pandemic Put Workers at Risk
The threat of a deadly flu pandemic—influenza or avian—has been in the headlines and in people’s fears for the past several years. Those fears are justified. Just this month Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), called a pandemic “inevitable. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.”
But workplace and community health and safety experts say the preparation and planning offered so far by the Bush administration falls far short of protecting those most at risk—health care workers and first responders—and of providing solid and practical answers to help communities and families cope.
Several times during the past year, we’ve reported on the government’s incomplete and ineffective measures. (Click here, here, here and here.) The most recent reports, one from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the other from the CDC, continue the pattern. Today we take a look at OSHA’s guidelines for workers at risk. Tomorrow we will examine CDC’s recommendations on how communities should prepare.
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Health and safety experts say the first problem with OSHA’s pandemic flu guidelines, released Feb. 6, is that they are simply that—guidelines—when what is needed are enforceable workplace standards covering issues from infection and exposure control and prevention to personal protective equipment and training.
Bargaining Digest Weekly: Machinists Reach Tentative Agreement in Harley-Davidson Strike
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.
The Machinists (IAM) union and Harley-Davidson Inc. have reached a tentative agreement in a contract dispute that shut down production at the motorcycle maker’s plant in York, Pa., the union announced yesterday.
Members of IAM Local 175 in York will vote next week on the tentative settlement, the union said. Nearly 2,800 IAM members have been on strike since Feb. 2 at Harley’s largest U.S. facility, which produces its most popular touring bikes.
