Archive for March, 2007
Breaking: Legislation Introduced to Reverse Anti-Worker Labor Board Decisions
America’s workers have a real chance to reverse decisions by the Republican-controlled National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that opened the door for employers to take away union protections from millions of workers in nearly every profession.
Late today, Reps. Robert Andrews (D-N.J.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) introduced the Re-Empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradeworkers (RESPECT) Act to help workers regain their rightful place as partners in the workplace with employers.
The bill would reverse a Republican party-line NLRB vote in September 2006 to slash long-time federal labor law protections of workers’ freedom to form unions.
Court Slams Down Suit to Block Raise in Montana’s Minimum Wage
 |
|
It is just amazing how adamant some people—who probably make a pretty good living—are about not giving workers at the bottom of the wage ladder a chance to climb up a rung or two with a raise in the minimum wage.
Take Montana, where this week the state Supreme Court threw out a challenge to the state’s new minimum wage law that was approved by 73 percent of the voters last fall. That ballot initiative (I-151) raises the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 an hour—not enough to trade in the ol’ Chevy S-10 for a Lexus, but enough to help with the grocery bill or the rent.
Florida Retirees Push for Affordable Homes
Imagine retiring after 30 years on the job and moving to Florida to enjoy warm winters and long summers. Now imagine the house you bought when you retired five, 10 or 15 years ago is too big and the taxes are getting too high for you to pay on a fixed income. So you need to downsize, but you realize that if you sell your house you won’t be able to buy another home or condo, even if it’s smaller. Real estate prices have skyrocketed, especially in go-to states like Florida, and there is almost no affordable housing left there for seniors. The image of affluent retirees living in luxurious golf communities is far from the reality faced by most aging Floridians.Seniors are pretty much on their own when it comes to trying to find affordable housing, says Tony Fransetta, president of the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans.
‘BP’s Culture of Greed Murdered My Parents’
Eva Rowe lost both her parents two years ago tomorrow when an explosion ripped through BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery killing 15 and injuring 170. Her parents and the other workers were members of PACE International Union, which recently merged with the Steelworkers to become the United Steelworkers (USW). Today, Rowe urged Congress to change the laws of the land so that “no other person ever has to feel the pain I felt when I was told of my parents’ death.” Saying the blast “murdered” 15 people, Rowe told a House Education and Labor Committee hearing:
The true tragedy is that the deaths were needless and avoidable. I personally believe BP with its culture of greed murdered my parents, denying my brother and me the warmth of our parents’ smile forever.
Crisis in the Skies: FAA Policies Jeopardizing Passenger Safety
Here’s some scary information if you plan to get on a plane anytime soon. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has uncovered violations of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) order that two air traffic controllers work the midnight shift at air traffic facilities with a combined radar approach control and tower with radar facilities.
The OIG reviewed 62 of the nation’s 138 facilities in this category. Its report, issued March 17, found that “11.1 percent of the 23,002 total of midnight shifts” at the sampled facilities “were staffed with only one controller” during the one-year period surveyed.
Big Business + Bad Medicine = Health Care Crisis
 |
|
In a new study released this month, the Employee Benefit Research Institute reported that in 2005, 50 percent of workers were employed at companies that did not offer health benefits to any workers. Nearly 18 percent worked for employers that provided benefits to other employees, but they were not eligible themselves. Nearly one-third were offered benefits but chose not to participate for various reasons.
Employer-based groups now make up nearly 90 percent of the private health insurance market and offer coverage to more than 172 million workers, retirees and their families.
Big Business interests like the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), Business Roundtable, Financial Services Roundtable and others should help find a solution to the high cost of health care—and not be part of the problem.
Solution to Growing Wealth Gap: Stronger Workers’ Voices
 |
|
Workers in the United States are the most productive workers in the world and they work longer hours than workers in any other developed country. Yet, even though our economy generates more than $13 trillion in income, the economy is not delivering for workers.
Meanwhile, the gap between the richest in America and the rest of us has grown significantly over the past 25 years.
Senate Committee Looks at Health Care Crisis Facing Ground Zero Workers
William Gleason was a lieutenant in New York City’s Emergency Medical Service Command and a member of AFSCME District Council 37 on Sept. 11, 2001. He was one of the tens of thousands of workers and volunteers who answered the call for help and streamed to Ground Zero, the toxic, smoke-filled pile of rubble that once was the World Trade Center’s (WTC’s) twin towers until terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the buildings.
Now, forced to retire because of Ground Zero-related health reasons, Gleason, 46, is one of the many thousands of rescue and recovery workers and volunteers—firefighters, police officers, construction workers and others—who are paying a debilitating health care cost—especially in respiratory and pulmonary problems.
Workers Get Role in Safety Standards Two Years After Deadly Explosion
Two years ago this week, an explosion ripped through BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery killing 15 and injuring 170. The workers were members of PACE International Union, which recently merged with the Steelworkers to become the United Steelworkers (USW).
This week, in its final report on the March 23, 2005, explosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said what these workers have long advocated: their union should have a seat at the table to develop real health and safety rules. The CSB recommended that the USW develop safety standards with the American Petroleum Institute (API) for the refining and petrochemical industry.
CAFTA Fails to Protect Workers in Central America
When President Bush visited Guatemala last week, he talked about how free trade, especially the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), can spread opportunity, provide jobs and help lift people out of poverty.
But the Guatemala that Bush and his heavily guarded entourage did not see is the one that workers in that country know all too well—a nation where children and adults are forced to work in sweatshops for little pay and under terrible conditions, where workers’ rights are ignored or not enforced.
