Channel: Corporate Greed
Workers Memorial Materials Available Online Now
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Each year, thousands of workers are killed on the job and millions more are injured or become ill because of their jobs.
This April 28, workers in the United States and around the world will honor those killed and injured on the job and call for improved workplace safety on Workers Memorial Day.
Last year, there were 12,000 ceremonies, from memorial services to marches and rallies, in 118 countries. This year, workers, union activists and religious and community leaders and elected officials are expected to take part in a similar number of events.
Crandall Canyon Owner Must Face Capitol Hill Lawmakers
Looks like Crandall Canyon co-owner Robert Murray can't hide from Capitol Hill any longer. Crandall Canyon is the Utah mine where six coal miners and three rescuers were killed last August. The bodies of the six miners have never been recovered.
The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee last week subpoenaed Murray after he turned down several earlier offers from the committee to voluntarily testify. As committee spokesman, Tom Kiley says:
We had asked to sit down and speak with Mr. Murray on several occasions, but those requests have been rebuffed.
What if Deadly Dust Explosions Were Airplane Crashes?
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If a certain kind of plane kept falling out of the sky, killing and maiming hundreds of passengers, the public would be outraged if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ignored the advice of aviation experts calling for new safety standards.
Surely the outrage would boil over if the FAA instead told industry: “Hey are some voluntary safety guidelines. See what you can do, OK?”
That’s a ludicrous scenario the federal government and the aviation industry would never allow to happen in real life, writes longtime workplace safety advocate Les Leopold. However, substitute dust explosions for crashing airplanes and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for the FAA—and that is the reality in our nation today, he says.
Colombian President Uribe Confirms U.S. Unions’ Fears
Last week, a delegation of AFL-CIO union leaders undertook a two-day, fact-finding trip to meet with leaders of major Colombian unions to hear firsthand the dangers and challenges faced by Colombian trade unionists. They also met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, telling him the U.S. union movement cannot support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until real progress is made to protect the lives and rights of trade union members.
United Steelworkers (USW) associate general counsel Dan Kovalik traveled with AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Emerita Linda Chavez-Thompson and Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen. In this cross-posting from Huffington Post, Kovalik says that during the meeting with the three, Uribe claimed that some of the murdered trade unionists were actually guerrillas who had infiltrated the union movement and thus were fair game for the military. Kovalik says those discredited claims are a chilling reminder of why just a handful of these killers have ever been brought to justice.
Last week, the AFL-CIO sent a delegation of trade unionists, including representatives of the United Steelworkers, on a fact-finding mission to Colombia, South America—the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. Approximately 2,300 unionists have been killed in Colombia since 1991, including 470 since the current president, Alvaro Uribe, took office in 2002. Five have been killed already this year.
Steelworker Members Rally to Safeguard Consumers Against Toxic Toys
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Members of the United Steelworkers (USW), together with community and consumer activists in several cities, told their U.S. senators it's time to "Stop Sweetheart Trade Deals" that have led to a flood of toxic and dangerous imports.
The Valentine Day's demonstrations were part of the USW's "Protect Our Kids—Stop Toxic Imports" campaign. The actions follows the National Day of Action in January to stop the import of toxic toys and other products.
Last year, some 1.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine toys, along with more than 6 million other toys, were recalled because of high levels of lead. Other toxic imports that have come to light in recent months include lipstick, toothpaste, seafood, children’s lunch boxes and pet food.
Slaves, Sharecroppers, Now Immigrants
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This is a cross post from the Firedoglake blog.
There are many reasons economic immigrants come to this nation—driven out of their home countries by bad trade deals that fail to consider the impact on workers or because they are fleeing unfettered corporate greed that seeks out impoverished nations to pay the lowest possible wages. Last week in this spot, I took a look at why border crossings start in the boardroom.
Once in the United States, immigrants are ripe for employer exploitation—and many U.S. employers don’t hesitate to do so.
Verizon Business Pulls Down American Flag of War Veteran
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Kevin Byrne, Voice@Work field mobilization/communications specialist, describes a move by Verizon Business that most of us would call un-American.
When a majority of Verizon Business technicians throughout New England and New York formed unions with the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Communications Workers of America (CWA), the company refused to recognize their union. Instead, management began a fierce anti-union campaign. But the animosity of Verizon Business moved to the absurd after the company removed an American flag from the cubicle of Terry Skiest, who recently returned from his third tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Skiest, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, recently returned from his third tour of duty in the Middle East and has proudly flown his unit's American flag over the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan. (See a video of Skiest here, and then tell Verizon Business to put the flag back up on Skiest's wall.)
New Mexico Developer Tax Breaks Take Greed to New Level
When state officials in New Mexico two years ago revived and expanded a dormant program to give tax breaks to developers to encourage investment in the poor areas of the inner cities, they opened the door to a scandalous abuse of tax dollars. Several studies have documented that big-box retailers like Wal-Mart have made tax deals but not kept up their side of the agreement to create jobs and invest in the community. But what is happening in New Mexico takes the greed to another level. In an article in this month’s Planning & Environmental Law magazine, Greg LeRoy, director of Good Jobs First, points out how greedy developers use a controversial tax subsidy plan, known as TIF, to make huge profits without giving much, if anything, back to their communities. Click here to read the entire article.
TIF stands for tax increment financing and here's how it works. The city and the developer strike a deal that allows the two sides to split part of the increased property taxes and business revenue tax that results from the development, sometimes for as long as 15–40 years. So rather than using the new tax money to pay for vital city services, the city ends up giving money to the developer.
A Look at Injury and Death on the Job Tonight in ‘Dangerous Business’
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It may be Super Tuesday, but there's a lot more than primary returns on TV tonight: PBS stations are offering a fascinating and harrowing look at how a corporate agenda that included slashing jobs and ever-increasing production in pursuit of profits made an already dangerous industry even more deadly.
At 9 p.m. EDT (check local listings), PBS will re-air "Dangerous Business," the FRONTLINE and The New York Times joint investigation of McWane Corp.'s iron pipe foundries. From 1995 through 2003, more than 4,500 workers were injured and nine killed on the job at McWane Corp. foundries. The company amassed more health and safety violations than its six major competitors combined.
Romney’s Firm Refuses to Protect Farm Workers from Sweatshop Conditions
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) founded Bain Capital in 1984. In December 2002, Bain Capital joined with two other buyout firms to purchase Burger King for $1.5 billion. To date, Bain Capital and its partners have nearly tripled their original out-of-pocket investment. Bain Capital and its partner firms own roughly 43 percent of Burger King and control six seats on the company’s board. During his tenure at Bain Capital, he stayed on the sidelines as the firm slashed jobs at the office supply manufacturer "in marked contrast to his recent pledges to beleaguered autoworkers in Michigan and textile workers in South Carolina to " 'fight to save every job.' "
During the same time, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community organization in Immokalee, Fla., organized the Campaign for Fair Food, calling on major buyers of Florida tomatoes to take responsibility for the chronic poverty and horrific labor abuses faced by tomato workers. (Click here to view photos of farm workers in the fields for 10 to 12 hours a day and the broken-down trailers they return home to each night.)
