Labor Dept. ‘Friends’ Facebook to Help Job Seekers
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The U.S. Department of Labor is joining forces with Facebook and education and employer organizations to provide crucial employment resources to job seekers through the use of social networks.
A new Facebook Social Jobs Partnership page (click here) highlights available training programs, educational opportunities and job search resources. Also Facebook has made a commitment to drive traffic to the page through targeted online public service announcements that will appear to users in geographic areas experiencing high unemployment.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis says:
Linking American job seekers with the resources they need to get back to work is a top priority of the Obama administration and my department. By leveraging the power of the social Web, this initiative will provide immediate, meaningful and ready-to-use information for job seekers and employers, and a modern platform to better connect them.
Department of Labor Joins States in New Crackdown on Wage Violations
This is a cross-post from the Progressive States Network by Tim Judson.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis last week announced a new state-federal program to crack down on a form of payroll fraud that has run rampant over the past decade. Absent stronger enforcement of labor standards, employers are going to great lengths to cash in by defrauding their workers and leaving taxpayers with the bill. Just this week, a New York City construction firm has been accused of using front companies to dodge union contracts. The unions allege the company used low-wage workers to pocket $7 million in wages and benefits from 2007-2011.
Maine Republican Governor Erasing History of Working People
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Once again, Republicans are trying to erase the history of America’s working people. In Maine, Republican Gov. Paul LePage has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural depciting the state’s labor history from the Department of Labor. The 11-panel piece in part depicts a 1986 paper mill strike and “Rosie the Riveter” at Bath Iron Works. Judy Taylor, an artist based on Mount Desert, won a 2007 competition to create the mural to depict the “History of Labor in the State of Maine.”
Further, the names of conference rooms are being changed to make them more “business friendly.” One is called the “Perkins Room,” for Frances Perkins, the first female Secretary of Labor and promoter of New Deal policies that improved workers’ rights on the job. Perkins championed labor reforms after the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire that resulted in the deaths of 146 garment workers in New York City. This Friday is the 100th anniversary of that tragedy.
In a March 22 e-mail to staff, Maine’s acting commissioner of Labor Laura Boyett wrote:
We have received feedback that the administration building is not perceived as equally receptive to both businesses and workers – primarily because of the nature of the mural in the lobby and the names of our conference rooms.
Report: Unemployment Insurance Boosts Entire U.S. Economy
A new study shows that the economic impact of unemployment insurance (UI), especially for long-term jobless workers, has a huge positive effect on the economy, not only for the jobless, but by keeping millions of other workers on the job.
With Republican lawmakers balking at maintaining UI for millions of jobless workers out of work for more than six months in an economy that has nearly five job seekers for every opening, the new research bolsters the case for maintaining the programs.
If lawmakers don’t act by Nov. 30, 2 million jobless workers will be without help by the end of the year.
The study, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor, shows the UI program had an even more positive impact on the economy this time around than in previous recessions.
Among the key findings: Read the rest of this entry »
Fair Wage Program Ignites Fox News Hysteria
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It seems like Fox News, always on the ball, just discovered the “We Can Help” outreach initiative the Labor Department launched in early April to inform workers about their pay rights and put a stop to wage theft. Faux News is now ranting against the department’s efforts to enforce the nation’s wage and hour laws.
We Can Help is a multilingual campaign aimed at low-wage and vulnerable workers with a special focus on reaching employees in such industries as construction, janitorial work, hotel/motel services, food services and home health care. It also will address such topics as rights in the workplace and how to file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division to recover wages owed.
Employers Must Post Workers’ Rights Info
A just-published Department of Labor rule ensures that workers employed by contractors and subcontractors to the federal government will now know their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The new rule requires employers to post notices–where workers can see them–that list their rights, including the right to join unions. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the new rule will “provide workers with a clear understanding of their rights.”
Trumka says the action by the Obama administration’s Labor Department helps reverse the Bush era approach to workers
which put corporate interests before workers’ rights. Making sure that workers know their rights on the job will reduce harassment, intimidation and fear in the workplace. Informing workers of their rights will improve employee morale and contribute to positive labor-management relations. Read the rest of this entry »
New Labor Dept. Drive Sets to Stop Wage Theft
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In a 180-degreee turn from a Labor Department under the Bush administration that tried to gut overtime rules for millions of workers, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has unveiled a new campaign to inform workers about their pay rights and to put a stop to wage theft.
In Chicago last week before a group of union, community and faith activists, Solis said:
I have a message for those employers who break this nation’s labor laws and prey on vulnerable workers: It ends today. I’m here to tell you that your president, your secretary of labor and this department will not allow anyone to be denied his or her rightful pay—especially when so many in our nation are working long, hard and often dangerous hours.
After 8 Years of Bush Neglect, Job Safety Gets New Boost from Obama, Solis
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A little more than a year after taking office, the Obama administration and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis have taken significant steps to repair the damage to workplace safety and health left behind after eight years of the Bush administration.
With Workers Memorial Day (April 28) approaching, this is a good time to look at the progress made since the “the new sheriff” hit town. (Click here for fact sheets, fliers, posters, stickers and other Workers Memorial Day materials.)
As Esther Kaplan writes in the Nation:
During the Bush years, the Department of Labor became a cautionary tale about what happens when foxes are asked to guard the henhouse.
For eight years under the Bush Administration, corporate officials and management representatives headed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Bush’s first MSHA head, David Lauriski, was chief safety officer at Emery Mining’s Wilberg, Utah, mine in 1984 when an explosion killed 27 coal miners. The blast, says Kaplan, “was later attributed to numerous violations at the mine.” Read the rest of this entry »
Senate Confirms Smith as the Nation’s ‘Workers’ Lawyer’
By a 60-37 vote, the U.S. Senate this afternoon confirmed M. Patricia Smith as the solicitor of labor. The solicitor of labor oversees enforcement of the nation’s most important labor laws and sets enforcement priorities that have a major impact on workers and their lives.
The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) described the solicitor general’s job as “the workers’ lawyer.” During her confirmation hearing last year, Smith said she would bring to the job a “philosophy of proactive enforcement.” Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
At a time when working families are bearing the brunt of the economic recession and violations of workplace rights are rampant, Ms. Smith’s commitment to strong, fair and effective enforcement of our workplace laws is crucial.
The vote follows some nine months of Republican obstruction in an attempt to block Smith from the U.S. Department of Labor post as the nation’s top labor lawyer.
Solis Backs Employee Free Choice, Strong Enforcement of Wage, Safety Laws
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Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says workers face increasing obstacles when they try to form unions and “we need to restore their freedom to do so.” In testimony before the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee today, Solis looked back at the department’s actions in 2009 and forward to its 2010 agenda.
In reiterating the Obama administration’s support for the Employee Free Choice Act, Solis said:
I will work to ensure that workers’ rights will be protected. In order to Read the rest of this entry »
