Search Results for 'sago'
Legislation & Politics |
Sep 15 |
The Time Is Now for Health Care Reform, Safe Workplaces
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The nation’s health care system is broken and now is the time to act to gain real health care reform. With a vote on health care reform coming soon to Congress, delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention today passed two strong resolutions to provide quality affordable health care and another to ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
They also took immediate action on the floor to mobilize against the insurance industry that is profiting by denying health care to patients who need it and raising premiums.
Both AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) told the convention the Senate will vote on a health care bill in the next few weeks. After passing the resolutions, delegates signed pledges to work for real health care reform when they get back home. Many used their cell phones to call their locals to march on the major health insurers between Sept. 22 and Oct. 2. AFT President Randi Weingarten, who was presiding over the debate, called the chief lobbyist for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, her home local, while on the podium, and with the entire convention listening, convinced him to hold an action.
The mobilization is part of an AFL-CIO campaign to hold insurers accountable, Trumka said,
for denying care and shutting people out and using our members’ premium dollars.
Legislation & Politics |
Jun 5 |
Faith Leaders, Working Women Take Action to Support Employee Free Choice Act
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This morning, 20 religious leaders in Hammond, Ind., met with union members from the Northwest Indiana Federation of Labor to talk about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act and sign a letter to Sen. Evan Bayh asking him to support workers’ freedom to form unions.
Today’s breakfast is just a small part of a national effort on behalf of faith communities in support of the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Union members, religious leaders, Working America members and a wide range of allies have made their voices heard with prayer vigils and rallies at Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s offices all around Arkansas, including Little Rock, Fayetteville, Jonesboro, Texarkana and El Dorado. They’ve also held vigils in Indiana, including events in South Bend, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, as well as Omaha, Neb., and Missoula, Mont.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Nov 16 |
NLC’s National Workers Memorial Drive Seeks Funds
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On Workers Memorial Day this year, ground was broken at the National Labor College (NLC) for a National Workers Memorial to honor working men and women men killed on the job.
At the ceremony, Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts said:
This will be the only place in America where workers from all industries, all crafts, all walks of life who are killed on the job are memorialized. We build this memorial to honor and remember them and to remind us of the work that still remains to be done to make America’s workplaces as safe and healthy as possible.
Here’s the latest update from the NLC:
The National Workers Memorial arose from the hearts and minds of National Labor College students who wanted a place to remember their fallen brothers and sisters. They agreed it was important that such a place be built on the campus where union members from across the labor movement come to learn and strengthen the future of our movement. To begin construction, our goal is to raise $500,000.
Bush & Co. |
Aug 3 |
Death and the Bush Administration
Last week, a confluence of events reminded the U.S. public that it’s not just the food we eat that’s increasingly dangerous in our daily lives—inadequate safety on the job still is killing America’s working people.
The week ended with two more deaths from construction cranes, this time in Illinois. These fatalities came within days of four deaths due to a crane collapse in Houston—and raises to 18 the number of workers who died from crane-related deaths so far this year, according to an estimate by The Wall Street Journal, which doesn’t include bystander deaths.
In the States |
Jun 3 |
‘30 Days’ Goes Underground Tonight
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Here’s a last-minute viewing tip for tonight. Try a little coal mining.
Tune in to the premiere of the third season of FX’s “30 Days”, where series creator Morgan Spurlock returns home to West Virginia to work as a rookie coal miner—”redhat”—for 30 days.
The show airs at 10 p.m. EDT on the FX network.
Spurlock goes underground with Mine Workers (UMWA) and lives with a miner in Bolt, W.Va. He gains an understanding of the financial benefits that draw people to coal mining but also learns firsthand the dangerous conditions that miners must face every day.
Legislation & Politics |
Apr 24 |
‘Death on the Job’ Report: More Workers Killed, Fewer Employer Penalties
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More workers are being killed on the job, but employers who are found to have violated federal safety laws in fatality cases are paying as little as $750 in penalties for each death, according to the latest edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual report Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
Released today, the 17th edition of the national and state-by-state profiles on worker safety and health in the United States reveals that in 2006, 5,840 workers died from workplace injuries, compared with 5,734 in 2005. The figures show a continued and significant increase in fatalities among Latino and foreign-born workers. The year 2006 is the most recent year for which U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures are available.
Bush & Co., Legislation & Politics |
Jan 28 |
Safety Agency Never Assessed Thousands of Fines—Including Mine Where Worker Died
Since 2000, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) has failed to issue more than 4,000 fines for violations of mine safety laws—including a mine where a Kentucky coal miner died in 2005.
According to a report published yesterday in the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette, MSHA inspectors had issued citations for safety violations in all the cases, but the fines were never assessed within 18 months of the citations. The 18-month time limit was spelled out in a 1999 MSHA policy memo.
Agency officials acknowledged the failure to assess the fines. Richard Stickler, acting head of the agency, told the paper:
There is no doubt that there is a problem. Any violation that we write and don’t asses a penalty for, that’s a big problem.
Legislation & Politics |
Jan 16 |
House Passes Mine Safety Bill Bush Plans to Veto
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After listening to the pleas of the families of coal miners killed on the job, the expert advice of health and safety professionals and the strong testimony of union leaders, the U.S. House today voted to strengthen the nation’s mine safety laws.
But ignoring those same pleas, advice and testimony, the Bush administration says it will veto the latest attempt to keep more miners alive, safe and healthy.
By a 214–199 vote, the House approved H.R. 2768, the S-MINER Act that builds on the 2006 MINER Act that passed in the aftermath of the Sago, Aracoma and Darby coal mine disasters and was the first major mine safety legislation in decades. More coal miners—47—were killed on the job in 2006 than in any year since 1996. A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).
Bush & Co., Legislation & Politics |
Jan 11 |
Mine Safety Agency Mismanagement: No One Left to Write the Rules
The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA’s) foot-dragging on developing new mine safety rules mandated by the 2006 MINER Act and other legislation has caught up with it. Now, the agency is begging for help.
Already under fire for missing a Dec. 15 deadline to issue new rules for better trained mine rescue teams, MSHA has turned to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to plead for volunteers to help them meet upcoming rule-making deadlines, according to BNA’s Daily Labor Report (subscription required).
Bush & Co., Legislation & Politics |
Jan 7 |
Chao Misses Mine Safety Deadline. Bush Appoints Stickler—Again
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao missed the Dec. 15 deadline to issue new federal rules for better trained mine rescue teams at the nation’s coal mines. The Charleston Gazette reports:
The rules are still not finalized and are sitting at the White House, under review by the Office of Management and Budget.
In 2006, spurred by what would become the highest coal mine death toll since 1996—including the deaths of 19 coal miners at the Sago, Aracoma and Darby mines in West Virginia and Kentucky—Congress passed and President Bush signed the MINER Act that mandated several mine safety improvements, including rescue teams.
