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.
Happy 100th Birthday to a Long-Time Union Member
Paul Pimentel, research director for the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), pays tribute to an extra special union brother.
On May 28, George Dirig will celebrate his 100th birthday and in August, his 75th year of continuous service as a member of SMWIA Local 20.
Dirig started working in 1923 for CV Dirig Sheet Metal at age 14. The shop where he worked fabricating furnaces belonged to his brother. The shop later evolved into a specialty shop with a long list of repeat clients throughout the Indianapolis area.
Dirig filed his official application to join the SMWIA on May 1, 1934, at age 24. The original application form, which is still on file at Local 20’s Fort Wayne office, indicates he was earning 60 cents per hour before joining the union. His pay would rise to 80 cents per hour after his application was accepted.
Get the Latest on Pulte Homes
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Keep up with the latest news about Pulte Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, on Building Justice’s updated website, http://poorlybuiltbypulte.info/. The site also enables homeowners to complete a survey about their experiences with Pulte.
Building Justice is a partnership of the Painters and Allied Trades union (IUPAT), the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), the AFL-CIO, Pulte homeowners, community members and elected officials to improve conditions at Pulte developments.
Workers in three Western states employed by contractors hired by Pulte report unpaid wages and overtime, pressure to work through break periods and pressure to bypass safety precautions. They report sexual harassment and discrimination on the job. Some workers also report that appropriate construction materials, safety equipment and potable drinking water are not available.
Workers, Homeowners Deliver Lemons to Pulte Exec
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A Pulte Homes executive got a special delivery this morning, when 50 angry workers and supporters delivered lemon awards to him at a state board meeting. The workers and homeowners in three western states say buyers should beware before they purchase a home built by Pulte or its subsidiaries.
The protest at the Nevada State Contractors Board meeting in Las Vegas came on the same day that Building Justice released a report that shows nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents to a survey of owners of homes built by Pulte and its Del Webb subsidiary reported their homes had construction defects. Building Justice is a partnership comprised of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), the AFL-CIO, community members, Pulte homeowners and elected officials to improve conditions at Pulte developments.
News Nuggets from AFSCME and Sheet Metal Workers
Here’s a trio of union news nuggets from AFSCME locals in Kansas and Connecticut and Sheet Metal Workers in Pennsylvania.
Some 7,000 licensed and registered home child care providers won their first contract with the state last month. The workers mobilized in 2007 to form the Child Care Providers Together Kansas (CCPT)/AFSCME.
The contract establishes the framework for strengthening ties between the providers, two state agencies and the legislature. Specifically, it adopts a list of provider rights and sets guidelines for licensing, professional development and the payment process.
Women Gain by Joining Unions
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Today is International Women’s Day and a new report points out that while all workers gain through union membership, women gain a lot more. A new report released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) shows the global pay gap is 22 percent, but women who belong to unions earn more than nonunion women and receive better pay relative to their male co-workers. Click here to read the entire report.
Teresa Griffin, a member of UAW Local 1247 in Hagerstown, Md., has lived the union difference. As a single mother supporting two children, she was making $9 an hour in 1993 working for a small pension plan administration firm. A year later, she was laid off, and took a job with her former firm’s biggest client making $7 an hour. It took her five years to get a $1 an hour raise. When her supervisor asked the company to give her a 25-cents increase, management refused.
A week later, Griffin was hired by Mack Trucks Inc. and became a union member for the first time. Her starting salary was $12 an hour, 50 percent more than her last job. Griffin says:
When I gave my resignation, I was called into the office and asked what it would take to keep me because they didn’t want to lose me. My reply was straight to the point: “Last week I wasn’t worth a quarter and now I’m worth an additional $4. It took me five years to earn [a] $1 [increase], so how long will I have to work to earn another increase?”
Or take Carla Buschjost, who for 10 years was barely able to make ends meet working for a nonunion plumbing company. But when she moved to a union mechanical shop and became a member of the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), her life changed.
SMWIA Member Gets Missouri Labor Post; N.Y. State AFL-CIO Endorses Candidate with Union Background
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Carla Buschjost, a member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 36, in St. Louis, is the new director of the Division of Labor Standards in the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DOLIR). Meanwhile in New York, Scott Murphy, a candidate in the special election for the 20th Congressional District seat, won the backing of the New York State AFL-CIO this weekend. Murphy is the son of a postal worker and a teacher.
Appointed late last month, Buschjost will oversee the division’s worker safety sections as well as the state’s child labor and prevailing wage laws. Says Buschjost:
I am passionate about stronger enforcement of laws that create stronger and safer workplaces.
New Look for Sheet Metal Workers’ Website
When you get a chance, cruise on over to the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) revamped website. The just-launched site offers several new features—for visitors and SMWIA members—along with a clean and streamlined look.
The site’s new News section brings you a wide variety of worker-orientated labor and political news from the blog world and the mainstream press. The new Multimedia Resource Center gives you access to a wide range of SMWIA news, videos, podcasts and photos. Check out the video gallery here and photo gallery here.
New social networking features include SMWIA Facebook, the Sheet Metal Network and Sheet Metal Twittering.
The site’s Action Center provides information and the chance to join in the union’s and the labor movement’s latest campaigns, including the fight to win the Employee Free Choice Act.
Sheet Metal Worker, Firefighter Win Sportsmen’s Alliance Contest
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Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) member Bob Wewers and Fire Fighters (IAFF) member Nick Kashi had a chance to get up close and personal with the roar of the engines and smell of burning rubber and high-octane fuel at Texas Motor Speedway last month.
The two Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) members are this year’s winners of the NASCAR weekend at the famed Texas track from the hunting and fishing alliance and the firearms maker Beretta.
The pair, randomly selected from USA’s membership, each won prize packages valued at $6,000 that included airfare, lodging, VIP seating, pit passes and track merchandise. To top it off, Beretta donated for each winner a limited-edition, American-made 3901,12-gauge shotgun stylishly engraved with the USA’s logo.
