‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
Alpha Natural Resources Subsidiaries Sign UMWA Contract
Workers at two mines owned by subsidiaries of Alpha Natural Resources are receiving a $1 per hour pay raise immediately now that management signed the Mine Workers (UMWA) national collective bargaining agreement today. The agreement covers nearly 1,400 miners at the Cumberland and Emerald mines in Greene County, Pa., and will be retroactive to July 1.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said there are a few local issues that are different in the Alpha agreement, but that the pay, health care and pension benefits language is the same as in the national agreement.
“The miners at those mines have already overwhelming ratified this agreement, so there will not be another vote and the contract will take effect immediately,” Roberts said.
That means miners’ pay will be increased by $1 per hour immediately. That means their health care will be preserved with no cuts or added costs. That means that health care and pensions for current and future retirees is secured.
The company also agreed that if it reopened the idled Wabash mine in Illinois before the end of 2013, the UMWA would remain the collective bargaining representative for the miners there and this agreement would be in effect.
Mine Workers Ratify New Contract
Members of the Mine Workers (UMWA) overwhelmingly ratified a new five-and-a-half-year contract with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) in a nationwide vote Friday.
Under the contract, workers will receive a $6-an-hour raise over term, their largest pay increase in the union’s 121-year history, according to UMWA President Cecil Roberts. The raises will begin with a dollar-an-hour increase July 1 and another dollar-an-hour increase on Jan. 1, 2012. Then workers will receive one-dollar increases each year until 2016. The agreement retains health care benefits for active and retired miners with no cuts and preserves the pension plan. The contract also provides increased benefits for sickness, accident, vision and dental and better life insurance terms.
Willow Lake Mine Workers Vote for UMWA
The 444 workers at the Willow Lake Mine in Equality, Ill., voted last week to be represented by the Mine Workers (UMWA).
The mine is operated by Peabody Energy. Last year, a Willow Lake worker was killed in July after being struck by a shuttle car used to haul coal underground. Since late 2008 , Peabody Energy has been fined $230,000 for violations at the Willow Lake Mine.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts said:
These courageous miners sought us out in their struggle to gain a strong voice at work. We look forward to sitting down with the company to negotiate a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement as soon as possible.
Global Marches Demand Workers’ Rights in Mexico
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Across the United States and around the world, thousands of working people marched today to demand that Mexico’s government allow its workers to enjoy the freedom to form a union, to create safe workplaces and bargain for family-supporting wages. The marches are part of a global six-day week of action, which began Feb. 14, to call for an end to the intimidation and labor rights violations of workers in Mexico.
At a rally today in front of the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., some 150 union members marched and chanted in English and Spanish: “Defend Trade Union Rights in Mexico” and “Workers Stand Side by Side.”
You can send a message of solidarity with Mexican workers here through LabourStart, the global workers’ news service.
Five years ago this week, 65 miners were killed in an explosion at the Pasta de Conchos mine in Mexico. An independent panel of health and safety experts investigated the explosion and concluded it was the result of negligence by the mine’s owners, Grupo Mexico. To date, no one has been held accountable for the deaths.
Protestors Demand Chase Respect Workers, Homeowners
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Across the country late last week, hundreds of union members, religious leaders, community activists, farm workers and victims of bank home foreclosures protested at 200 JPMorgan Chase branches to demand the bank respect the basic human rights of people to have decent places to live and work.
Large banks such as Chase are flush with cash and protestors demanded the bank declare a one-year moratorium on home foreclosures. The Wall Street Journal reports that Chase has $19.5 billion worth of home loans in foreclosure—nearly 7.5 percent of its mortgage portfolio and more than any other big bank.
“Foreclosures are a plague on families and communities,” said the Rev. Charles Williams, a leader in Detroit’s anti-foreclosure coalition, People Before Banks.
It cannot be in any bank’s best interest to pursue a policy that leaves so many people and communities in ruins—and for a bank like Chase that professes to be a good citizen, tearing families and communities apart is morally indefensible.
Rescue of Chilean Miners a ‘Rare Blessing’
At 12:11 a.m., Florencio Avalos, the first of 33 miners trapped for 69 days in Chile’s San Jose mine, emerged to the embrace of his family and friends. And workers, especially those who work deep in the earth in mines, let out a cheer and a deep sigh of relief. The rescue effort to free the miners, who have been in the Atacama Desert mine since Aug. 5, is going like clockwork, according to the Associated Press.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a third-generation coal miner himself, watched the rescue at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C., last night. He said, “The miners endured tribulations that thankfully few will ever face, and are emerging as an inspiration to the world.”
It is a rare blessing when the earth gives back up those that it has trapped within. Watching these brave miners return to the embrace of their families is an indescribable joy.
And while this is a happy day, we also bow our heads and remember our fallen brothers and sisters who have not returned to us, and pray for a safe future for all those who toil underground.
UMWA Shows Support for Pulte Workers
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June Rostan, AFL-CIO lead organizer for the Pulte campaign, reports on the support delegates to the Mine Workers (UMWA) convention showed for the Building Justice Campaign.
The Mine Workers made time during its constitutional convention in Las Vegas last week to show its solidarity with the Building Justice Campaign, a collaboration of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and the AFL-CIO.
After UMWA President Cecil Roberts introduced them to the convention, IUPAT District Council 15 Business Manager John Smirk and IUPAT organizer Norma Uribe described the Building Justice campaign—a campaign that calls upon the giant homebuilder Pulte Homes to improve standards in residential construction. They told the delegates about the poor working conditions of employees of subcontractors working at Pulte Homes construction sites across the Southwest.
Greed Behind BP, Mine Disasters
United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard and Mine Workers (UMWA) Cecil Roberts take on the root of all evil behind the nation’s disasters in this crosspost from the Campaign for America.
As oil mucked the Gulf of Mexico and families mourned 11 dead rig workers, BP officials proclaimed that the corporation’s priority always was safety. This tracked the tack taken by Massey Energy, whose officials also declared safety was paramount after an explosion in the corporation’s Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers.
CEOs commonly make such incongruous assertions to protect profits after corporate-caused disasters. They’re driven by the same factor that is fundamental to the catastrophes—greed.
New Mine Safety Chief: The Change We Needed
Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Joe Main—by unanimous consent—as the new leader of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Main is a longtime advocate for safety and health in the mining industry. He worked 22 years as director of Occupational Health and Safety for the Mine Workers (UMWA). That’s a huge change from the Bush-era head of MSHA, coal-industry lobbyist Richard Stickler, who came under fire for failure to enforce mining safety laws.
