Locked-Out Workers to Embark on Journey for Justice
 |
Amy Masciola, a union campaign consultant, sends us this.
More than six months ago, American Crystal Sugar Co. locked out more than 1,300 sugar beet workers in the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Two months ago, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. locked out more than 1,000 workers in Findlay, Ohio. Last week, Caterpillar announced it would shut down a plant in Ontario, just over one month after locking out 500 workers. Rio Tinto Alcan locked out 750 workers in Quebec Jan. 1. HealthBridge locked out 800 nursing home workers in Connecticut in December. As Laura Clawson at the Daily Kos notes, “For evidence of a war on workers, look no further than the rise of the lockout.”
Steven Greenhouse of The New York Times wrote recently that the number of strikes has dropped precipitously in the past two decades, while lockouts now “represent a record percentage of the nation’s work stoppages.” Greenhouse quotes professor Gary Chaison of Clark University, who says:
This is a sign of increased employer militancy. Lockouts were once so rare they were almost unheard of. Now, not only are employers increasingly on the offensive and trying to call the shots in bargaining, but they’re backing that up with action—in the form of lockouts.
Unions and our allies are fighting back against this war on workers. Beginning Feb. 22, locked-out workers from American Crystal Sugar Co. and Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. will start a 1,000-mile journey across America’s heartland. They will visit six states in six days, taking part in rallies, fundraisers and other actions with local union members and allies. Locked-out workers will take their message to supporters—and call out the perpetrators of the war on workers. Read the rest of this entry »
USW Reaches Tentative Deal with Oil Industry
The United Steelworkers (USW) and the oil industry have reached a tentative three-year agreement covering 30,000 USW members at 168 production, refining, marketing, transportation, pipeline and petrochemical facilities nationwide, the union announced last night. The deal is subject to ratification by the membership.
Talks between the USW and Shell—which represented the industry—began Jan. 14,and most the current contracts expired at midnight.
While details of the tentative contract have not been released, news reports say that improvements in safe and health provisions—a major concern for the USW—are included. Between 2009 and 2011, 18 workers died while working at U.S. refineries.
China’s Unfair Trade Puts U.S. Auto Parts Jobs at Risk
 |
More than 1.6 million American jobs in the nation’s auto supply chain are at risk unless China’s illegal trade practices are curtailed, according to three new reports released today. In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said:
China is cheating unmercifully in this sector and we are saying to China—and asking our government to stand up to China and say—“enough is enough.” It is time to enforce our trade policies.
Two reports from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and one from Stewart and Stewart, a law firm that has won cases challenging China’s unfair trade practices, detail China’s persistent and growing violations of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and outline plans by China’s government to use these same tactics to boost their auto parts exports even further.
In the past 10 years alone, China’s auto parts exports to the United States have increased by 850 percent, while jobs in the parts industry declined by more than 400,000. Says Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM): Read the rest of this entry »
This Is So Cool!
 |
You’ve got to check this out…it’s meant for kids, but, really, how can you go wrong at a website that rocks noisy engine revs, animated potato chips and full-color awesomeness?
It’s a new site, ManufacturingIsCool.com, and it’s the definition of fun-while-learning.
Produced by the Society for Manufacturing Engineers, the site uses an interactive “desk” to send kids on a journey through everything from how paper, Pringles and bike helmets are made, to the ins and outs of building a concept car—and way, way beyond.
Our friends at the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) sent us the link, and we agree—it’s great to get kids excited about manufacturing. AAM is a partnership of the United Steelworkers and a group of leading manufacturers with a mission to strengthen manufacturing in the United States.
USW Oil Workers Set Stage to Bargain for Safe Refineries, Good Jobs
Patrick Young from United Steelworkers Strategic Campaigns sends us this.
Three years ago, members of the United Steelworkers (USW) went to the bargaining table with the big oil companies to negotiate changes to health and safety programs at oil refineries that would keep workers safe. Across the board, the industry said, “No.” They weren’t interested in bargaining meaningful and enforceable improvements to refinery safety.
In the next three years, 18 oil workers died on the job, dozens of others suffered life-altering injuries and countless others have likely suffered from chronic occupational diseases due to work-related exposures. It’s become pretty apparent that health and safety in the oil sector is out of control.
This month, the 30,000 members of the USW in the oil sector are returning to the bargaining table with the oil industry. They’re not willing to let another 18 workers die on the job.
Oil workers are demanding some small changes that won’t cost the companies much at all, but they’ll go a long way in keeping workers and refinery communities safe. They’re asking for the right to stop unsafe work, safe staffing levels at refineries, union safety representatives who will work with the company to find hazards and help the company eliminate or reduce those hazards and that the companies properly inspect and maintain oil refineries and equipment.
Union leaders and members know that to win these improvements at the bargaining table, we need support from refinery communities and consumers. So on Jan. 21, members of the USW took to the streets across the country to visit gas stations to talk to drivers and community members about safety issues in oil refineries. Read the rest of this entry »
Calif. Carwashes Agree to $1 Million Back Pay Settlement
Eight California carwashes agreed to a historic $1 million settlement with the state’s attorney general for routinely failing to pay minimum wage or overtime, creating false records of work hours and not paying money owed to employees who quit, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris.
Workers at these car washes were taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers who illegally denied them the pay and benefits they earned. I am pleased that the resolution of this case will allow workers to receive the pay they are owed.
At least $800,000 of the settlement will go to workers who were underpaid, according to court records. Other parts of the settlement will pay taxes and penalties. Click here for a copy of the settlement agreement.
Two of the washes in the agreement are Bonus Car Wash in Santa Monica and Marina Car Wash in Venice, where workers fought and won recognition with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675 last year. Says Local 75′s Dave Campbell:
We are glad that the Attorney General is taking seriously the issue of wage theft among car wash workers. Workers have been waiting to be made whole for past violations for years.
‘Brotherhood Outdoors’ Goes on Louisiana Gator Hunt
 |
Mention Louisiana swamps and likely the first thing that comes to mind is alligators—big alligators and lots of them. Wayne “Kip” Benoit, a United Steelworkers (USW) Local 750 member from Boutte, La., knows his way around swamps and gators and, in the latest episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” guides show host Tom Ackerman on an airboat alligator hunt.
The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA‘s) hunting and fishing series airs Thursday, Jan. 12, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST on the Sportsman Channel.
While the lifelong Louisianan uses his airboat for hunting adventures, when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he used it to help rescue and transfer patients from the intensive care unit of a New Orleans hospital to the ambulances waiting on high ground.
Heading down streets in a city covered by the flood with people wading by up to their necks in water was like being in one of those doomsday movies, something Spielberg might make; it was just unreal. People were stunned and, for the most part, very quiet and very cooperative.
Read more about Benoit and the gator hunt from USA’s Ken Barrett here, and click here for photos.
Steelworkers Tell Congress: We Need Safe Refineries
Members of Congress got an earful today about the dangerous and often life-threatening conditions workers face at oil refineries and in other oil processing facilities. At a briefing sponsored by the United Steelworkers (USW), Kim Nibarger, a USW health and safety specialist, laid out the issue in stark terms:
When things go bad in a refinery, they go really bad and people die.
Since the last round of talks in the National Oil Bargaining program, the Read the rest of this entry »
Mexico’s Mineros Leader Honored with Meany-Kirkland Award
 |
||||
 |
||||
|
||||
Exiled Mexican mine workers union leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia will be honored with the AFL-CIO’s 2011 George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award tonight at a ceremony at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Gómez Urrutia is a ”truly courageous man who has shown us how difficult and how important it is to be an independent leader of a democratic union.”
Gómez Urrutia, head of the Mine, Metal and Steel Workers Union (SNTMMSSRM), also known as Los Mineros, was forced to flee Mexico to Vancouver, Canada, in 2006. The Mexican government filed criminal charges against him after he publicly accused the government of “industrial homicide” following a February mine explosion that killed 65 miners.
Mexican and international human and labor rights organizations have dismissed the government’s charges as false.
SoCal Carwash Workers Win First-Ever Contracts
|
|
There’s good news from the struggle for justice for Southern California carwash workers—carwasheros. In a groundbreaking agreement, carwash workers at Bonus Car Wash in Santa Monica have reached a first-ever contract. The workers voted to join United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675 this summer.
Also, workers at Marina Car Wash in Venice, owned by the same company but closed, won union recognition and a contract, and the owners have committed to work to reopen the facility. In addition, workers at three other carwashes have won a union voice.
Oliverio Gomez, who has worked at Bonus Car Wash for nine years, says:
