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
 |
||||
|
||||
 |
||||
|
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
 |
||||
|
||||
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.
103 Students Set to Graduate from National Labor College
Rachelle Honeycutt works at an oil refinery in Washington State. Sam Schaffer is a skilled sheet metal worker from West Virginia. Javier Almazan organizes workers in south Florida and Cathy Merkel is a registrar in Maryland. They’re all union members. And in a few days, all four will be graduates of one of the crown jewels of the labor movement: the National Labor College.
With a 46-acre campus just outside Washington, D.C., the nation’s only labor college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and grants bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The college evolved from the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, created in 1969, and now partners with the University of Baltimore and George Mason University for its graduate degree programs.
On Saturday, 101 students will receive B.A. degrees and two others will be awarded M.A. degrees, as the Labor College graduates its 11th class in a ceremony on the Silver Spring, Md., campus. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will give the commencement address.
Cities Cut Fire Services, Risk Lives
There’s no dispute that economically strapped cities are facing large and difficult budget shortfalls. But when municipalities try to close the budget gap by shuttering firehouses and laying off firefighters, they are “playing Russian roulette,” says Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger.
Whatever you do that results in increasing response, you are absolutely playing Russian roulette.
The union is working with Congress to provide cities with some financial help to protect public safety jobs.
According to a recent USA Today story, the layoff of 22 firefighters and reduction of operations at two Flint, Mich., fire stations may have played a role in a fatal April house fire.
2,500 UAW Members Say ‘No’ to Health Cuts and Outsourcing—and More Bargaining News
Some 2,500 UAW members in Texas authorize a strike—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 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
UAW, Bell Helicopter: Some 2,500 workers at Bell Helicopter plants in the Fort Worth, Texas, area, represented by UAW Local 218, went on strike today after rejecting contract proposals that would have increased medical costs and outsourced the work of janitors.
Pennsylvania Workers: Our Communities Need Employee Free Choice Act
Molly Theobald reports on the fight for Employee Free Choice in Pennsylvania.
Each and every day, firefighters, teachers and letter carriers serve our communities; caring for us and keeping us safe. Today, in Scranton, members of the Fire Fighters (IAFF), AFT, Letter Carriers (NALC), the Scranton Central Labor Council and the Northeast Area Labor Federation got together for a roundtable discussion on how our communities are strengthened by giving these men and women the tools they need to do their jobs effectively through the Employee Free Choice Act.
Fair wages, quality health benefits and the resources and tools to do their jobs are all secured through collectively bargaining—and those who serve our communities are testament to how protecting the freedom to form unions makes our communities stronger.
Pilots Hold Info Picket at Continental Shareholders’ Meeting, and More Bargaining News
Pilots hold info picket at Continental shareholders’ meeting—and more updates from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
ALPA, Continental: Continental Airlines pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots (ALPA), conducted informational picketing at the annual stockholders’ meeting to press for a fair contract that acknowledges many of the sacrifices and the cuts made by the workers to help the airline. Capt. Jay Pierce, chairman of the ALPA chapter for the Continental pilots, stated that the carrier has “gained a reputation as a leader in the industry and a leader in its treatment of employees. I come before you with one simple demand: show us that you are willing to be a leader when it comes to dealing with your pilots.”
