As OSHA Turns 40, A Look Forward
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AFL-CIO Media Outreach Fellow Nora Frederickson sends us this report on a discussion at the Center for American Progress on the future of Americans’ health and safety at work.
Since 1970, workers in every state have counted on workplace inspections, whistleblower protections, and standard safety regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to keep them safe at work. Today, unions and their partners in business are expanding their roles in helping OSHA protect workers today, according to panelists at “OSHA at 40,” a discussion at the Center for American Progress on Thursday featuring David Michaels, Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. In two separate panels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Michael laid out OSHA’s plans for the future and talked with representatives from the labor, business and academic communities about how to adapt safety regulation for the changing workplace. Read the rest of this entry »
USW Workers Ratify Goodyear Contract Covering 10,300 Workers
The United Steelworkers (USW) announced that workers overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement covering some 10,300 union members at seven Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. plants. The new pact provides job security and maintains quality, affordable health care for the union members.
The agreement also protects six of the seven plants from closure during the term of the agreement and provides for minimum staffing levels. As part of the deal, Goodyear committed to invest $600 million in capital expenditures in the plants, keeping them up to date and globally competitive.
USW President Leo Gerard said:
During this difficult economic period, this contract gives our members job security for the next four years.
Tropicana’s New Owners Get Chance to Treat Workers Fairly, and More Bargaining News
Will the new owners at Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino reverse the previous owner’s anti-worker practices? Get this 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.
NEGOTIATIONS
UAW, Tropicana: Members of the UAW at Atlantic City casinos stated that new management at Tropicana has the opportunity for a 180-degree turnaround from past illegal practices and should begin fair negotiations for a first labor agreement.
“It’s hard to believe that a company run by a judge would break the law, but that’s what the National Labor Relations Board is telling us,” said Eric Knuttel, who has been a dealer at Tropicana for 27 years. Tropicana has been administered under a conservatorship by former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Gary Stein since December 2007, after previous owners lost their license to operate the casino.
Lilly Ledbetter Watches as Obama Signs Fair Pay Act
With Lilly Ledbetter looking on, President Barack Obama this morning signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Said Obama during the ceremony in the White House East Room:
In signing this bill today, I intend to send a clear message: That making our economy work means making sure it works for everyone. That there are no second class citizens in our workplaces, and that it’s not just unfair and illegal—but bad for business—to pay someone less because of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.
After working nearly 20 years at a Goodyear tire plant, Ledbetter discovered she had been paid significantly less than men doing the same job. A federal jury ruled in her favor but Goodyear appealed, and in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Ledbetter—and other workers—had no right to sue for a remedy in cases of pay discrimination after more than 180 days after the first paycheck, even if she didn’t discover the pay discrimination until years later.
