Don’t Forget Haiti’s Workers
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Despite reports of improved conditions in Port-au-Prince, two weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti, workers still lack basic shelter, food, water and medicine, reports Cathy Feingold, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Feingold met with union leaders in Haiti last week and says:
…the majority of union leaders and members are sleeping outside their homes because many completely collapsed or became unstable as a result of structural damage. Direct access to international humanitarian aid remains challenging; so many workers and their unions depend on the support received from the global labor movement.
You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here. You can read Feingold’s full report here.
Hey, Corporate America, You Broke It, Now Help Fix It
Yesterday, President Obama released the details of his fiscal year 2011 budget. To help pay for the job-creation programs to put Americans back to work, Obama proposes ending the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
We extend middle-class tax cuts in this budget, we will not continue costly tax cuts for oil companies, investment fund managers, and those making over $250,000 a year. We just can’t afford it.
The budget also includes a new initiative to crack down on businesses that misclassify their employees as independent contractors in order to evade their responsibilities as employers—also known as evading taxes, among other dodges employers get away with as part of their independent contractor scam.
It’s only fair, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Wall Street and the super rich—who have benefited for years from the Bush economic policies—should pay their far share of the bill to rebuild the economy that they destroyed.
Click here to read his entire statement on the budget.
Union Members Mobilizing to Help Haiti
The union movement is mobilizing its members to provide assistance and calling for a massive global relief effort. You can help Haitian workers in distress by donating to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. Click here to make a donation and here to learn more about how the center is working to help Haitian workers.
The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the union movement, also suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti: Partners in Health (click here to donate) and Doctors Without Borders (click here).
Fire Fighters Take Action on Haitian Disaster
The death toll from yesterday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti reportedly is reaching into the hundreds of thousands, and union members continue to respond to the crisis as they did in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the recent tsunamis.
Search and rescue teams from Fairfax County, Va., and Los Angeles County, Calif., made up of members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) locals 2068 and 1014, are preparing to head to Haiti to aid in the rescue efforts. Other teams are likely to follow.
You can help workers in distress by donating to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. Click here to make a donation and here to learn more about how the center is working to help Haitian workers.
New Season for Union Member Adventures in ‘Escape to the Wild’
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Illinois Firefighter (IAFF) Greg Curry’s elk-hunting adventure in some of Colorado’s most breathtaking countryside kicks off the fourth season of ”Escape to the Wild” on VERUS Country. The season premiere of the show, which takes union members on once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing adventures, will air Sunday, Jan. 3, at 9:30 a.m. EST.
The show is a union-sponsored television series of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). “Escape to the Wild” is supported by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), a joint venture of the TRCP and 21 unions to promote conservation and access for hunters and anglers.
While the show chronicles each union member’s outdoor adventure, it also gives viewers a look into the lives of the winners—their struggles, their triumphs and their commitment to their union, families and the outdoors.
Social Media: New Tools Aid in Organizing
They’re tweeting in Northern California about the Employee Free Choice Act, sharing about health care reform on Facebook in Montana and posting organizing messages on My Space for workers in York, Pa.
Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information.
Steve Selby, an Electrical Workers (IBEW) organizer in York, Pa., knows the value of social media. He urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than standing outside the office and handing out a flier with different information each day, Selby taught himself how to set up a MySpace account. He handed out one flier directing workers to his MySpace page, where he shared information the workers needed to know.
Your Local Fire Department Now Doubles as Health Care Provider
In 2008, fire departments around the country responded to 15.8 million medicals calls, a 213 percent increase over the 5 million medical runs record in 1980. The combining of cities’ fire and emergency medical services accounts for some of the increase.
But as the logs of a Washington, D.C., fire company show, the lack of health insurance by too many people—especially low-income families—has turned some local fire departments into mobile emergency rooms.
According to a recent article in The New York Times:
Among the hidden costs of the health care crisis is the burden that fire departments across the country are facing as firefighters, much like emergency room doctors, are increasingly serving as primary care providers.
Two Firefighters Killed in California Wildfires
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Firefighters across the country are mourning the loss of two heroic Los Angeles firefighters who were killed while battling the wildfires raging in Southern California.
Tedmund Hall and Arnaldo Quinones, both members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1014, died Aug. 30. It appears the two were in a truck searching for an escape route for corrections personnel and inmates of an area prison camp when their truck went over the side of a dirt road and fell 800 feet into a canyon.
Services for the firefighters will be Sept. 12 at Dodgers Stadium.
IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says:
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Hall and Quinones families. They made the ultimate sacrifice trying to save the lives of many others. Their heroic acts and dedication to duty will not be forgotten.”
Local 1014 President David Gillotte praised both men, saying:
“Brothers Hall and Quinones brought commitment, courage and honor to all that they touched as fire fighters and proud members of Local 1014.”
Gillotte says Hall, 47, was a frequent participant in union activities and dedicated many hours of service to protecting the prison camp. Quinones, 35, was “a rising star in the department and in our local, and was one of those genuinely good guys that you always want to have in your corner,” Gillotte adds.
Katrina Four Years Later: Iraq Being Rebuilt Faster
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Four years after Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people and left thousands homeless along the Gulf Coast, many residents, especially those displaced in New Orleans, still cannot come home, because there are no homes to come back to.
From the beginning, the union movement has sought to aid in rebuilding the communities, with the AFL-CIO’s Gulf Coast Revitalization Program early on committing to spending $1 billion to produce new housing, fund economic development projects and create thousands of new jobs. Already more than 400 workers have been trained to fill those jobs.
But outreach efforts continue to be stymied. Robert “Tiger” Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, tells Press Associates that local and state officials keep putting up “roadblock after roadblock after roadblock” to building housing for displaced residents.
43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers Ratify Pact, and More Bargaining News
Some 43,000 New Jersey Communications Workers of America ratify a revised contract—and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The
AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,100 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
CWA, New Jersey: More than 43,000 workers in the largest union representing New Jersey state workers, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), ratified a revised contract that defers a raise and swaps furloughs this year for future vacation days. “During these hard economic times, nothing is more important than protecting vital public services and the jobs of working people,” said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA’s New Jersey area director.
