Archive for July, 2008
Cleaning Workers Hit One Out of the Park with AFSCME
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The workers who clean up Oriole Park at Camden Yards—home of the Baltimore Orioles—voted last week to join AFSCME. The workers reached out to the union after enduring abuse from supervisors and irregular calls for work—leading to a cut in hours for many longtime workers.
They also say management heavily pressured them to vote against the union. The 130 workers are employed by Chimes DC, which has a contract with the Maryland Stadium Authority (MSA) to provide workers to clean up the stadium after the Orioles’ 82 home games each year.
9,400 Philadelphia Workers Settle New Contract and More Bargaining News
Thousands of Philadelphia workers and Southwest Airlines attendants settle contracts, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
AFSCME, Philadelphia: Some 9,400 blue-collar workers and members of Philadelphia’s largest union, AFSCME District Council 33, agreed to a one-year contract that includes no raises but holds the line on health care costs.
Union Movement Rallies Around CWA, IBEW Members at Verizon
A series of “rolling” rallies is building solidarity for 70,000 Communications Workers of America members and 15,000 Electrical Workers whose contract with Verizon East expires Aug. 2. Local AFL-CIO labor councils and state federations have pitched their support to the Verizon workers in the Northeast.
Contact talks are under way, and earlier this month members of both unions voted to authorize a strike if a fair agreement isn’t reached. Says CWA President Larry Cohen:
We hope to achieve a fair settlement, but this demonstrates our members’ solid support for their bargaining teams and their own strong determination to achieve a fair settlement with Verizon.
Walking Through San Francisco Labor History
From the Marines Memorial Theatre to the Lusty Lady, San Francisco’s great unionized performance and art houses are getting visits today during a 13-site walking tour through labor history.
The “Bay Area Now 5″ annual exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is featuring the walking tour and gallery installation it calls “Syndicate.” Along the way, artist Jessica Tully will be installing sidewalk stencil images of union workers based on historic photos in front of major theaters and art museums throughout the city.
The sponsors say the walking tour “unearths the sometimes historic, sometimes mundane and sometimes downright sexy union organizing occurring at each venue.”
OSHA Issues $5 Million Fine in Sugar Dust Blast—But Refuses to Set Dust Safety Standard
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today issued 120 citations for safety violations at the Imperial Sugar Co. plant in Port Wentworth, Ga., where incredibly high levels of sugar dust fueled an explosion Feb. 7 that killed 13 workers.
Dozens of other workers suffered serious injuries, and three remain hospitalized, two in critical condition.
Almost all the safety violations related to the accumulation of sugar dust. Along with the citations, OSHA issued $5 million in fines for the violations at Port Wentworth. Also today, OSHA issued $3.7 million in fines for 91 similar violations at Imperial’s plant in Gramercy, La.
MSHA Cites Flawed Mining Plan in Crandall Canyon Disaster—Others Question Agency’s Role
While the Department of Labor continues its investigation into the role of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in last year’s Crandall Canyon mine disaster, including possible negligence, MSHA has released its own report on the collapse that killed six miners. Three rescue workers later were killed trying to reach the site in Utah.
The report by MSHA, part of the Labor Department, placed the blame for the collapse Aug. 6, 2007, squarely on the coal mine operator, Murray Energy Co., and the engineering company hired to develop the mining plan. The agency levied $1.6 million in fines against the mining company and $220,000 against the engineering firm.
House Bill Set to Block Bush’s Secret Chemical Exposure Rule
The Bush administration’s secret rule that could increase workers’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and toxins and make it more difficult for the next administration to enact new safety rules will meet a congressional roadblock next week when legislation to stop it is introduced.
With the Department of Labor trying to keep details of the proposal secret as it attempts to fast track it, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, this morning announced he will introduce legislation to force the administration to drop the plan.
Two More Crane Deaths
Two more people have been killed in crane-related accidents, while the Bush administration continues its four-year delay in issuing a new crane safety standard. Ironworker Josh Dawe, 33, died Wednesday at a construction site in Normal, Ill., when he was trapped by the collapse of a crane boon.
A 79-year-old man sitting in his car and watching a crane lift a new steeple onto his church in Oklahoma City was killed Thursday when the crane toppled and crushed the car. His 78-year-old wife, who was with him, was injured.
Workers Die; Bush Administration Idles. What About McCain and Obama?
Today adds to the toll of bad news about worker safety and health, and we’ll be posting several items on that topic. You’ll see that workers have been dying while the Bush administration sits on recommended standards to protect us from workplace hazards. But the administration is racing to implement a secretly written rule that could allow us to be exposed to higher levels of toxic substances at work and could prevent future administrations from protecting us at work.
You’ll see that under the Bush administration, federal workplace safety operations have been designed to protect corporations, not working men and women.
Minimum Wage Gets Second Boost After Decade of Roadblocks
Some 13 million low-wage U.S. workers got a pay raise today when the federal minimum wage rose from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour.
The pay hike was the second step of the three-step minimum wage increase Congress passed last year, the first such increase since 1997. The third step, to $7.25 an hour, comes a year from today.
For a decade, Republicans congressional leaders and the Bush administration blocked every effort to raise the $5.15 an hour rate for the nation’s lowest-paid workers. But new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate after the 2006 elections made passage possible.
