Military Veterans Deserve Jobs When They Return
 |
|
While we take the time this Veterans Day to honor the courage and sacrifice shown by our veterans, we should also rededicate ourselves to making sure vets have a secure and stable life after they finish their service.
The U.S. Labor Department reports the unemployment rate among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is 11.3 percent, significantly above the overall rate of 10.2 percent for the nation as a whole. Some 185,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are out of work. Many of these unemployed veterans are National Guard or Reserve troops who were called to duty but found when they came home that their old jobs were no longer there for them.
The AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council is calling on Congress to strengthen and enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which ensures veterans can claim their former jobs when they return from active duty.
In his Veterans Day message, Union Veterans Council Chairman Mark Ayers quotes President Franklin Roosevelt who signed the first GI Bill into law in 1944:
What our servicemen and women want, more than anything else, is the assurance of satisfactory employment upon their return to civil life.
BP Hit with Largest-Ever OSHA Fine of $87 Million
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced today the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has levied the largest fine in its history—$87.4 million—against BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Texas, refinery.
In a telephone press conference this morning, Solis said the fines are the result of BP’s failure to comply in hundreds of instances with a 2005 agreement to fix safety hazards at the refinery.
Solis said the fines represent the Obama Labor Department’s commitment to maintain safe workplaces:
Let me be clear. This administration will not tolerate disregard of our laws. Employers have a legal and moral responsibility to protect their workers who ultimately are America’s most important assets. The laws are designed to level the playing field for all businesses and ensure that workers in any economic climate are kept out of harm’s way.
Fight Child Labor in Uzbekistan
 |
||||
|
As the harvest season for cotton in Uzbekistan begins, 2 million Uzbek children, some as young as six or seven and ranging up to 15, will be forced to spend their days picking cotton instead of attending classes.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Labor Department included cotton from Uzbekistan on a list of goods produced by forced and child labor. Each year during the three-month harvest, Uzbek authorities shut down hundreds of schools, hospitals and public offices. Along with the children, thousands of teachers, doctors and public administrators are forced into the fields.
The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has joined with AFT and a broad range of organizations in the United States and Central Asia to call for an end to forced child labor in Uzbekistan. You can act today to stop this shameful practice by signing a petition here.
All supporters who sign the petition by Oct. 2 will have their names put on a special cotton quilt that will be unveiled at a rally in front of the Uzbek embassy in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 14. To get more involved in this action, e-mail volunteer@ilrf.org.
Tomato Workers Score Huge Victory
 |
||||
|
In a huge win for farm workers, one of the nation’s top food service and management companies reached an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve working conditions and give a raise directly to Florida’s tomato harvesters.
The pact between Compass Group North America and the CIW calls for the company to pay an additional 1.5 cents per pound for all the tomatoes it purchases each year, with 1 cent per pound passed directly from the supplier to the workers. The agreement boosts workers’ wages from 50 cents for a 32-pound bucket to 82 cents per bucket, a 64 percent increase.
This is the first agreement where the money goes directly to the workers. Previous agreements called for the money to go into an escrow account.
New Reports Detail Global Child Labor Products and Abuses
 |
|
Child labor, says U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, continues to be a serious global “problem in 21st century society” and says the United States “must do everything in our power to end these shameful practices.”
Solis’ comments came with the release earlier this month of three new reports by the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). The central report is a list of goods believed to have been produced by child or forced labor and it includes 122 products from 58 nations.
The report includes many products companies around the globe use as raw materials for finished products that are purchased by U.S. consumers. They include cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, rice, cocoa, bricks, garments, carpets, footwear, gold and coal.
Brian Campbell, International Labor Rights Forum director of policy and legal programs, calls the new list:
a critical tool that consumers and businesses can use to identify the sectors where forced and child labor abuses continue…this list helps to focus attention on problematic sectors and the challenge now is to implement business practices that lead to higher labor standards and living and working conditions for workers.
Click here for the report, “2008 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.”
Solis Meets with Workers, Pledges to Fight Alongside Them
 |
After her inspiring speech at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis joined with workers in a private meeting to discuss their struggles in forming a union, struggles faced by workers across the country.
Shawn Williams, Xiaohong Colluci, Angel Rangel, Debbie Kaliff and Billie Jean Huggins got a chance to speak personally about the intimidation, harassment and mistreatment they’ve faced as they’ve struggled for fairness on the job. In her compassionate conversation with these workers, Solis proved she gets it—she understands what workers are going through. She promised to fight for good jobs, for workplace safety and for the freedom to form a union. She said she appreciated what all of the workers had to offer:
These are the stories we have to tell.
Thank you so much for your courage and leadership—this means a lot to all of us. We’re with you, the president is with you, and believe me, we’re going to change this country.
Solis: We’ll Work Hard to Pass Employee Free Choice Act
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention today that she and the Obama administration will join with workers to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In the first address by a labor secretary to an AFL-CIO convention in more than eight years, Solis, the daughter of union members, said unions are more important than ever in today’s economic crisis:
Workers are under assault and they need the voice on the job that unions provide. I believe and I know union jobs are good jobs.
She quoted President Obama’s Labor Day speech when he said:
That’s why I support [the Employee free Choice Act]: to level the playing field so it’s easier for employees who want a union to form a union. Nothing—nothing wrong with that. Because when labor is strong, America is strong. When we all stand together, we all rise together.
Check Out Live Webcast of AFL-CIO Convention
 |
|
The AFL-CIO’s 26th Constitutional Convention—for the first time ever—will be webcast live, via Ustream, beginning at 3 p.m. Sept. 13 and running through the closing gavel on Sept. 17. To check out these historic proceedings, stop by our convention site here.
There will be a lot to see on the Ustream webcast. Many of us on the AFL-CIO staff are leaving today by bus for Pittsburgh to set up and prepare for the convention. Not only will delegates elect new leaders for the federation, we will pay tribute to retiring AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
In addition to live webstreaming, we plan to blog, post video clips and photos and update you via Facebook and Twitter. (Follow the AFL-CIO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AFLCIO and Twitter at http://twitter.com/AFLCIO. We will use the hashtag #aflcio09 for our convention updates.)
Obama Tells AFL-CIO He’s ‘Fired Up’ for Health Care, Rebuilding America
Saying he was “fired up and ready to go,” President Obama challenged working people to join in building a future of prosperity out of the nation’s economic mess. The president vowed to pass health care reform, reaffirmed support for the Employee Free Choice Act and laid out a plan to rebuild the middle class.
Speaking at the 23rd annual Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council Labor Day picnic, Obama reminded the crowd of nearly 5,000 that in tough times, America’s working men and women are ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka joined Obama in the Queen City.
Trumka told the crowd in Cincinnati:
This is a unique moment in American history—and we can make it labor’s moment. This can be our moment to build the labor movement we need to create the country we want: …A nation where every worker has a job with a future and where all of us can step into the winner’s circle.
Solis Vows to Work with Obama on Employee Free Choice Act
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told a group of Chicago area union, community, business and academic leaders the Employee Free Choice Act will level the playing field for workers who want to form unions and bargain of a better life.
I believe what you all believe. Union jobs are good jobs, paying higher salaries and wages.
In a speech yesterday before the Union League Club of Chicago—co-sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL)—Solis pledged to work with President Obama “to make the strongest case possible for the Employee Free Choice Act.”
I believe workers have the right to fairness and balance in the workplace and in order to rebuild the middle class, we need to level the playing field for all workers.
