Search Results for 'mine safety'
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 9 |
Mass. AFL-CIO Futures Convention Spotlights Young Workers
John Drinkwater, organizing and mobilization coordinator for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, sends us this report on how the state federation is helping build the future by tapping into the skills of today’s young workers.
Continuing its ongoing mission to develop young union leaders in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s Third Annual Futures Convention elected a new Futures representative to a serve on the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Executive Council and head the Futures Program for the coming year.
This year, delegates at the Feb. 5 and 6 convention voted among a group of three candidates nominated by their fellow delegates and chose Daniel Manning of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2325 as their new rep. Ben Sherman of Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 and Christopher Deane of Iron Workers Local 7 also ran for the Futures seat.
Manning will be the third young union member to hold the one-year term Futures seat, taking over for Allison-Doherty-LaCasse, a member of the Boston Teachers Union/AFT who served for the past year and led the Futures program through its successful second year. Jeremy McKeen, a member of the Lynn Teachers Union/AFT, served as the first Futures Representative in 2008.
Legislation & Politics |
Feb 1 |
Senate Breaks Blockade on Labor Solicitor Nominee
The Senate just now voted (60-32) to end debate on the nomination of M. Patricia Smith, clearing her way for confirmation as solicitor of labor and breaking the stranglehold Republicans had put on her to be the nation’s top labor lawyer.
President Obama nominated Smith, currently New York state’s labor commissioner, nine months ago, but Republican obstructionist tactics blocked a vote on the nomination.
The solicitor of labor oversees enforcement of the nation’s most important labor laws and sets enforcement priorities. During her confirmation hearing last year, Smith said she would bring to the job a “philosophy of proactive enforcement.”
That would be quite a change from the previous administration, writes Pat Garafolo in Think Progress Wonk Room.
Under the Bush administration’s corporate-friendly Labor Department, the solicitor’s office sat on its hands and failed to enforce even the most flagrant labor violations.
Legislation & Politics, Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 1 |
Time to End Republican Blockade of Labor Nominee
Nine months ago, President Obama nominated New York State Labor Commissioner Patricia M. Smith to be solicitor of labor. Since then, Republican obstructionist tactics have blocked a vote on the nomination.
Today, the Senate is finally scheduled to vote on Smith’s nomination. But Republicans will attempt to block the vote with a filibuster that will take a 60-vote cloture motion to overcome.
In a letter to Senate members, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director William Samuel says:
At a time when workers are bearing the brunt of the economic recession and violations of workplace rights are rampant, the Labor Department needs a solicitor with Ms. Smith’s commitment to strong, fair, and effective enforcement of our workplace laws. We urge you to support Ms. Smith for this critically important position, and to vote for cloture.
Economy, In the States, Legislation & Politics |
Jan 28 |
AFL-CIO Unveils 2010 State Jobs Agenda
Last night in his State of the Union message, President Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to help put millions of Americans back to work. But the U.S. Congress is not the only lawmaking body that can fuel job creation. State legislatures have important roles to play.
The AFL -CIO has developed a State Jobs Agenda that union and community allies and working family lawmakers can use as a guideline in developing legislation and policies to protect and create jobs, address budget issues and protect the safety net.
The agenda offers dozens of innovative and effective ways to develop job-centric laws and policy that put working families first.
Legislation & Politics |
Jan 20 |
TSA Nominee Southers Withdraws, Citing ‘Partisan Climate’ That Risks U.S. Security
Erroll Southers, the choice of President Obama to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and whose nomination was held hostage by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) because DeMint opposes allowing TSA workers the freedom to form a union, withdrew his name from consideration today.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama pledged to make bargaining rights for TSA workers a priority. In 2003, President George W. Bush took bargaining rights away from transportation security officers (TSOs) and other workers at the TSA in one of the first shots in his war on America’s workers.
DeMint has even made the ludicrous claim that if TSOs were allowed to unionize, national security would be put at risk and terrorist attacks on the United States could increase.
Legislation & Politics |
Jan 6 |
Better Enforcement = Fewer Mine Deaths
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Mining deaths fell to an all-time low last year, and two of the key reasons, says the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), are stronger enforcement of mine safety laws and the tougher mine safety rules passed in 2006 after a series of explosions, fires and other deadly incidents.
MSHA figures show 18 coal miners were killed on the job in 2009 and 16 workers in metal/nonmetal mines were killed—a drop from 2008’s total of 53 deaths. Says Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis:
No one should have to die for a job. Our nation’s miners, like all workers, deserve jobs that allow them to provide for themselves and their families. No job is truly good unless it is safe.
Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, says while the number of mine deaths were at a record low, they still “represent a tragic loss to the families and friends of the 34 victims.”
Legislation & Politics |
Dec 3 |
Labor Department Launches Major Attack on Black Lung
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The Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) today launched a major initiative to end new cases of black lung among the nation’s coal miners. MSHA’s initiative includes more focused enforcement, targeted education and training, rulemaking and collaboration with stakeholders.
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), cases of black lung are increasing among coal miners. Even younger miners are showing evidence of advanced and debilitating lung disease from excessive dust exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 10,000 miners have died from black lung over the past decade
“The Department of Labor is absolutely committed to ending black lung disease,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a video message today at the launch of the initiative in Beckley, W.Va.
Legislation & Politics |
Dec 2 |
Job Summit Tomorrow: What Do We Need to Create Jobs?
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Tomorrow, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other national leaders will meet with President Barack Obama at the White House jobs summit, where they’ll start a much-needed conversation about what to do for the 26 million workers who are unemployed or underemployed.
Across the country, union members and Working America members are joining the conversation by holding roundtable discussions in Ohio, New Mexico and Minnesota on the jobs crisis and the need for quick action.
Trumka will be joined by union leaders, academics, corporate heads and elected officials from across the country. They’ll work to identify what we can do to create jobs and start turning our economy around. The summit will run from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST.
Corporate Greed, Legislation & Politics |
Nov 16 |
Employers Pressure Doctors, Workers to Stay Mum on Workplace Injuries
More than two-thirds of injured or sick workers in a recent survey feared employer discipline or even losing their jobs if their injuries were reported, a new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed today.
The GAO surveyed more than 1,000 occupational health practitioners and found:
- More than two-thirds observed worker fear for reporting an injury or illness.
- A third said they were pressured by employers to provide insufficient treatments to workers to hide or downplay work-related injuries or illnesses.
- More than half of practitioners said they were pressured by an employer to downplay an injury or illness so it wouldn’t be reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s official log that tracks workplace injuries and illnesses.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the GAO report confirms what rank-and-file workers, local union safety activists and workplace safety professionals have long said:
Employer policies and practices that discourage the reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses are widespread and are undermining the safety and health of America’s workers….These destructive and discriminatory practices must be stopped.
Corporate Greed, Economy |
Nov 6 |
Wall Street at Front of Line for Swine Flu Vaccine
Just when you think you can’t be shocked by Wall Street outrages, we hear Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other Wall Streeters are getting supplies of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine, while school kids, pregnant women and the chronically ill are being turned away at clinics around the country because there is a shortage of the vaccine.
NBC reported that Goldman Sachs received the same amount of swine flu vaccine as Lennox Hill Hospital that serves a huge population of low- and middle-income New York families.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center received 200 of the 27,400 doses that it requested for its workers, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The Associated Press reports that while Citigroup received 1,200 doses and Morgan Stanley 1,000,
manager Linda O’Hanlon at Uptown Pediatrics in Manhattan said her office has received 500 doses so far—not enough for a practice with almost 7,000 patients.
“We have about 800 appointments” set up for patients who want to get vaccinated, she said.
