9/11 Health Bill Clears Another Hurdle
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The nearly 60,000 rescue and recovery workers and community members whose health is at serious risk from their exposure to the contaminated and toxic rubble at the 2001 Ground Zero World Trade Center attacks are a step closer to receiving long-term medical care.
Yesterday the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health subcommittee approved by an overwhelming and bipartisan 25-8 vote the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 847). The bill would establish a medical monitoring and treatment program for the Sept. 11 first responders and the community members at the site of the attacks.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y) one of the bill’s chief sponsors, along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), says that while progress has been “painfully slow,”
today we are one important step closer to providing the brave responders and survivors of 9/11’s toxic aftermath the health care and compensation they need and deserve. Read the rest of this entry »
Seattle Activists Demand Big Banks Pay Fair Share
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Nearly 100 union and community activists rallied outside a JP Morgan Chase bank branch in downtown Seattle yesterday demanding the state legislature make “Big Banks pay their fair share” by closing a $67 million tax loophole for out-of-state banks.
The rally came on the first day of a special legislative session to close a $2.8 billion budget shortfall that threatens cuts in schools, health care, public safety and other vital services. The House revenue package closes the bank loophole, but bank lobbyists are pressuring the state Senate to maintain the giveaway.
Al Link, Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) secretary-treasurer, says the banks fighting to keep the $67 million loophole open are showing the same greed as
the Wall Street banks that turned their backs on us after they took $700 billion of our money in taxpayer bailouts….Now, here in Washington State, these big banks want even more of our money.
Proposed Settlement Not Nearly Enough for 9/11 Heroes
A proposed settlement has been reached of the more than 10,000 lawsuits by the rescue and recovery workers suffering serious illnesses from the toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos and other debris they were exposed to at Ground Zero of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack in 2001.
But congressional and union leaders say much more must be done to provide justice and health care for the nearly 60,000 workers and community members whose health is at risk from their exposure to the contaminated rubble.
Stimulus $$ Is Out There—300 Pennsylvania Union Leaders Find Out How to Get It
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| Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William George leads a discussion on tapping into economic recovery funds with union leaders from across the state. |
Yael Foa, AFL-CIO senior field representative for the Northeast Region, sends us this report on union efforts in Pennsylvania to tap into federal economic recovery funds to create jobs across the state.
The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO recently sponsored two first-of-their-kind forums to provide union leaders with specifics about where and how American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars are being spent in our state. We also examined how union leaders can identify opportunities to access economic recovery dollars for job creation and training programs. Nearly 300 union leaders from across the state took part.
California Students Rise Up Against Massive Education Cuts
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Californians by the tens of thousands spoke as one yesterday demanding the primacy of public education in the state’s budget. Up and down the state, students held scores of demonstrations, rallies, marches and teach-ins at governmental centers, universities, community colleges, high schools and elementary schools.
The actions come as the 2010-2011 budget process looms and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, after promising in January to increase education funding, instead cut $2.5 billion from education in his budget proposal.
In Sacramento, several thousand students, teachers and workers rallied on the steps of the Capitol building, spilling out over the grassy mall. They demanded state legislators and the governor fully fund public education and make it affordable and accessible to all.
State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D) and Assembly Speaker Manuel Perez (D), as well as several other legislators, pledged support for funding education. Assembly member Alberto Torrico (D) made a pitch for support of his bill that would create a 12.5 percent tax on oil extracted in the state to raise $2 billion a year for public education. He noted that California is the only state in the nation that doesn’t charge such a fee and that oil companies shouldn’t be getting off the hook while education suffers.
New Push to Organize the South Focuses on Jobs
Steve Stallone is president of International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) and secretary/editor of the California Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521.
Leaders of the South Carolina union movement unveiled a bold new initiative, “Jobs with Rights Now,” to bring employment and union membership to their state and the South. The announcement came last Friday at the 10-year anniversary of the campaign to free the Charleston Five.
Ken Riley, president of Longshoremen (ILA) Local 1422 and vice president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO, said the time is right for “Jobs with Rights Now” and the conditions in the South make it necessary. Joining him in making the announcement: South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna Dewitt, the leaders of the Palmetto State’s three central labor councils and the leaders of the state’s Fire Fighters and building trades council. Riley said:
Domestic and foreign corporations are invading the South like we were another third world country to colonize and plunder. And they are emboldened by the dire state of our economy-a South with double-digit unemployment and the state of South Carolina with the third-highest unemployment rate in the country. A South with the lowest rate of unionization, and where low taxes, right-to-work-for-less laws and weak environmental protections are a welcoming doormat for them to exploit.
Executive Council Approves Action to Create New, Good Jobs
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Saying “We will be in the street wherever the fight for jobs is being fought,” members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council today issued a call to action for the entire union and progressive movement to put America back to work and ensure those whose reckless acts created this jobs crisis pay a price.
At its meeting in Orlando, Fla., the AFL-CIO Executive Council approved a statement saying in part:
Mass unemployment is intolerable. Action is required. The AFL-CIO calls upon the entire labor movement—our affiliated unions, our state and local labor councils, the millions of members of Working America and our allies in communities and progressive movements across this country—to come together in a great effort to create and protect good jobs. This campaign for jobs must be carried out at every level—in Washington, D.C., in state capitols and city halls, in boardrooms and workplaces and in living rooms across this country.
The council outlined an ambitious plan that targets politicians who vote to deny aid for the unemployed and against action to create jobs. It also calls for strong actions against Wall Street firms that pay bonuses but won’t pay taxes and against corporations that take the public’s money and use it to downsize and outsource jobs.
Ohio Workers Demand Good Jobs Now
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More than 100 working people marched from to the state capitol in Columbus, Ohio, yesterday to call on lawmakers to focus on creating jobs and making Wall Street pay for the economic crisis it created. They sent the message that it is time to help working people and put Main Street back to work.
Ohio’s jobless rate is 10.9 percent. The state has lost millions of jobs due to the decline in manufacturing.
Marchers chanted “Good jobs now, make Wall Street pay,” and carried signs saying, “Dear Wall Street: you destroyed millions of jobs. Fix your mess.” Some dressed as Wall Street executives to highlight the role of greedy executives in creating the economic crisis.
At the rally, sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America, speakers said Congress and the White House must take serious and immediate action to invest in jobs
Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola said corporations and Wall Street executives have destroyed working people’s jobs. He said it is up to working people to hold our elected officials accountable to create a new economy that works for working families.
Working America’s Regional Director Dan Heck said:
Ohio working people have been slaughtered by a bad economy, bad decisions made by the last administration and Wall Street greed. Working people are saying ‘no more’ and marched today to call attention to how bad things are for Main Street.
L.A. Unions Send Caravan of Food, Hope to Locked-Out Rio Tinto Miners
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Several hundred Southern California union members rallied at a Dodger Stadium parking lot yesterday before sending off a caravan carrying more than $30,000 worth of food and other supplies for locked-out borax miners at Rio Tinto’s Boron, Calif., mine. The mine is about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
The caravan was organized by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor to support the nearly 600 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 who are fighting the international mining conglomerate’s move to outsource jobs, convert full-time jobs to part-time temporary work, slash retirement benefits and gut grievance protections and other workplace rules.
Last month the workers rejected the contract offer and Rio Tinto locked them out Jan. 31.
Locked-out miner Randy Laursen told the rally:
You know we got big corporations trying to push all the laborers out, make nothing….This is America. We all have a right to make a decent living.
Firing of Central Falls, R.I., Teachers ‘Illegal, Unjust, Disgraceful’
In the middle of the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, more than 90 dedicated professional educators find themselves put out into the street. On Feb. 23, the Central Falls, R.I., school trustees fired the entire teaching staff of Central Falls High School, supposedly because of declining test scores at the school, which is located in Rhode Island’s smallest and poorest city.
In all, 93 persons were put in the street—74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals. Negotiations over ways to improve the school between teachers and the school superintendent broke down when school officials insisted that teachers add new duties, some without any extra pay at all.
