Wisconsin Supreme Court Ruling Affront to Democracy, Sets Dangerous Precedent - Wisconsin State AFL-CIO Blog

Earlier today the Wisconsin State Supreme Court overturned a permanent injunction issued by Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi earlier this month, effectively stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights. In the wake of the ruling, Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO issued the following statement:

The inability of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to separate partisan politics from the well-being of Wisconsinites is the latest indication that citizens do not have a voice in this state. And the only way for Wisconsinites to repair that voice is to take back the Senate this summer, stop Walker’s unbridled assault on working people and take back the statehouse in 2012.
Let’s be clear: This ruling will not silence the voices of millions of Wisconsinites who are appalled by Walker’s extreme choices, his addiction to corporate interests and his insistence on putting the wealthy ahead of the working. In their attempt to steamroll education, healthcare, and funding for seniors programs, Republicans have alienated countless Wisconsin families. Now, more than ever, Wisconsinites across the state are committed to holding Republicans accountable for their bad choices.
This ruling is an affront to our democracy. Green-lighting the sort of shady, backroom tactics that Governor Walker used to ram his extreme budget through the legislature sets a dangerous precedent for the future of our state. Democracy is the system by which all people, not just corporation and the wealthy, have a seat at the table – but this ruling is just one more indication that Wisconsin Republicans do not believe in a functioning, sound democracy inclusive of checks and balances.

OSHA Launches New Whistleblower Protection Site

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says that workers who blow the whistle on safety violations and other unlawful practices “play an important role in assuring compliance with federal laws.”

 

But, say workplace safety advocates, too many times workers don’t speak up about safety and health problems on the job because they fear retaliation from their employers, even though it’s illegal.

 
OSHA now has a new website specifically dedicated to its whistleblower protection program, http://www.whistleblowers.gov/.  (Full Story)

Lessons of Financial Collapse Can’t Be Ignored

If the nation ignores the history of what caused the collapse of the financial system, says Phil Angelides,

“We will be doomed to bail it out again.”

Angelides is chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission charged with finding the causes and culprits behind the nation’s economic disaster. Speaking at panel discussion this afternoon at the America’s Future Now conference, Angelides said he dubbed the meltdown, “the immaculate financial crisis” because no one on Wall Street, the Big Banks or the deregulating policy makers that controlled the reins of the system, will take responsibility.

There has been almost no reflection by Wall Street over the crisis because the American taxpayers gave them $1 trillion. Wall Street reform is a start, not an end. We have to commit to changes in our financial system so it works for the many, not the few.

Read the rest of this entry »

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Equal Pay Day 2010: Women, 78 Cents, Men, $1

Today’s the day when women workers finally catch up with the pay men received last year—the day we mark as Equal Pay Day. Being three months and 20 days behind men’s wages means women who work full-time still are paid, on average, 78 cents for every dollar men are paid. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wages of full-time, year-round workers in 2008 stood at $35,745 for women and $46,367 for men.

The wage gap is even worse for women of color. In 2008, the earnings for African American women were $31,489, 67.9 percent of men’s earnings (a drop from 68.7 percent in 2007), and Latinas’ earnings were $26,846, 58 percent of men’s earnings (a drop from 59 percent in 2007).

The chart here shows the molasses-like movement in closing the wage gap. One way to speed up the progress is to urge lawmakers to support the Paycheck Fairness Act, which was passed by the U.S. House in 2009. It updates the Equal Pay Act by giving employees the tools they need to close the wage gap and providing the government with enforcement power to correct pay inequities. Momsrising has an action here to urge your senator to close the wage gap and back the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The group notes that given equal résumés and job experiences, mothers are offered $11,000 lower starting salaries than non-mothers. Yet fathers are offered higher starting salaries than non-fathers. More than half of women bring home at least half the family’s earnings—which means entire families suffer when women are paid less.

The average woman loses $700,000 in pay due to gender discrimination in her lifetime.

Kudos to President Obama who has established the White House Council on Women and Girls. The high-level body, made up of Cabinet members and heads of sub-Cabinet agencies, is charged with advancing the rights and needs of women, including equal pay. Declaring today National Equal Pay Day, Obama notes that “government can only advance this issue so far.”

The collective action of businesses, community organizations, and individuals is necessary to ensure that every woman receives just treatment and compensation….I call upon American men and women, and all employers, to acknowledge the injustice of wage discrimination and to commit themselves to equal pay for equal work.

And kudos to Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), who changed his Twitter icon to reflect Equal Pay Day.

Sen. Tom Harkin, who has sponsored the Fair Pay Act, and Lily Ledbetter, whose landmark U.S. Supreme Court case re-ignited the issue of equal pay, put the issue of wage discrimination in the broader context:

[W]e must recognize that the problem of unequal pay goes beyond insidious discrimination. As a nation, we unjustly devalue jobs traditionally performed by women, even when they require comparable skills to jobs traditionally performed by men. Why is a housekeeper worth less than a janitor? Why is a parking meter reader worth less than an electrical meter reader?

The Fair Pay Act would ensure that employers provide equal pay for jobs that are equivalent in skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions.

Civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, who died today, early on championed the notion that the rights of women are fundamentally connected to issues of fairness for all Americans. As the New York Times put it:

Ms. Height is widely credited as the first person in the modern civil rights era to treat the problems of equality for women and equality for African Americans as a seamless whole, merging concerns that had historically been largely separate.

Height “embodied struggle, strength, determination, love and elegance,” says AFL-CIO Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, and her passing today is a reminder of how an injustice to one is an injustice to all.

Limbaugh Lies About Big Branch Mine: No, Rush, It Wasn’t Union

by Mike Hall,  Apr 16, 2010

It was Sen. Al Franken (D- Minn.) in his previous incarnation as an author and comedian who called Rush Limbaugh “A big fat liar.” Well, others can address the first part, but Limbaugh himself has again offered solid evidence about the liar part.

Last week, Limbaugh lambasted the Mine Workers (UMWA) for not protecting their members who, he claimed worked at the Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County, W.Va., where 29 coal miners were killed when the Massey Energy Co. mine exploded.

Of course as we all know, and has been widely reported in mainstream media–and even on Fox News–Upper Big Branch was non-union coal mine. While he never acknowledged his mistake, at least he piped down for a few days.

But yesterday, with a full bag of gas at the ready, Rush claimed he had irrefutable facts to back him up, that UMWA did certainly represent the miners at Upper Big Branch. He said the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had ordered Massey to hire union coal miners.
There were union workers at this mine…You people, it’s been 21 years. At some point you are going to learn: If you go up against me on a challenge of fact, you are going to be wrong. It’s just that simple.

Let UMWA President Cecil Roberts throw the challenge flag on this one.

Yesterday, Rush said on his program, “But in 2009, the [NLRB] agreed with the decision that Massey Energy rehire 85 coal miners who said they had been discriminated against because they were union members. So there were union workers there. So the United Mine Workers should have been overseeing their safety, the United Mine Workers of America.”

Wrong again, Rush. The decision you refer to was AT ANOTHER MINE! And, Massey is appealing that decision, meaning the workers who were discriminated against at the Cannelton mine (in another county from the Upper Big Branch mine) have yet to reclaim their rightful jobs as the NLRB ordered.

Those are the facts. Who’s wrong now, Rush?

While Limbaugh may have lost a few pounds, that liar part still fits quite snuggly.

2010 PayWatch Exposes Corporate Lobbying on Financial Reform

The nation’s biggest banks helped create the current financial crisis that required a $700 billion taxpayer bailout. In return, the banks cut back on lending to consumers and small businesses but paid out a record $145 billion in total compensation in 2009.

The 2010 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch, which launched today, shows the same Big Six banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo—are spending millions of dollars lobbying on financial regulations, including limits on executive pay and risky actions like the ones that caused the current crisis.

[Full Story]

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Trumka Warns ‘Forces of Hate’ Fanning Flames of Workers’ Economic Anger

An economy that seems to work for just a privileged few, 11 million vanished jobs and a bailout for banks and Wall Street—but not working families—is fueling justified anger in workers. Speaking last night at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told an audience about the “forces of hate” and “radio voices” that are frantically fanning the flames of that justified anger to divide working people.

There are forces in our country that are working hard to convert justifiable anger about an economy that only seems to work for a few of us into racist and homophobic hate and violence directed at our President and heroes like Congressman John Lewis. Most of all, those forces of hate seek to divide working people—to turn our anger against each other. [Full Story]

Source:  AFL-CIO Now Blog

Massey Mine Cited for 450+ Safety Violations Before Deadly Blast

The Massey Energy Co. mine, where 25 coal miners were killed and four remain unaccounted following an explosion yesterday, was assessed nearly $1 million in fines for safety violations last year, including violations concerning escape routes and ventilation, according to federal records and news reports.

The mine is owned by Massey and operated by its subsidiary, Performance Coal Co.

Early indications indicate the blast was caused by highly explosive methane gas leaking from sealed-off areas of the Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va.—the same cause of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster that killed 12 miners. New federal mine safety rules enacted after the Sago disaster included tougher new requirements for sealing off worked-out areas. [Full Story]

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

New Labor Dept. Drive Sets to Stop Wage Theft

In a 180-degreee turn from a Labor Department under the Bush administration that tried to gut overtime rules for millions of workers, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has unveiled a new campaign to inform workers about their pay rights and to put a stop to wage theft.

In Chicago last week before a group of union, community and faith activists, Solis said: [Full Story]

The Gift America Needs Most: Manufacturing

by Leo W. Gerard, Dec 22, 2009

In Columbus, Ohio, a 5-year-old girl jumped onto Santa’s lap last month and asked if he could give her dad a job as an elf.

Mike Smith, who works the Santa station at the Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, asked why, the Wall Street Journal reported. The little girl in the Dora the Explorer sweatshirt responded:

Because my daddy’s out of work, and we’re about to lose our house.

Happy Holidays, America!

The gift this country needs most this holiday season is an economy built on a solid foundation, one that will provide middle class, family-supporting jobs now and into the future.

That present would not be another version of Monopoly for Wall Street wannabees. It would not be Barbie-goes-to-the-mall-credit-cards for youngsters in families already maxed out on their plastic and their mortgages.

The metaphorical gift our economy could really use is an Erector Set—a strong steel construction kit from which the intrepid manufacture airplanes, automobiles, robots on motorized tracks, backhoes, helicopters, skyscrapers, cranes, even working Ferris wheels.

That’s because, most of all, this economy needs manufacturing. Enthralled by the glitz, glamour and bogus bonuses of Wall Street, we’ve allowed multinationals to export our grit and grimy factories overseas. Factories that made clothing, sports shoes, large appliances, tires, glass and so much more in big and small U.S. towns—now transferred to China and Indonesia and India, lured not just by cheap labor, but also by lavish government subsidies and absent environmental regulations.

Manufacturing, the basis of any strong economy, has continuously declined as a percentage of the U.S. gross domestic product since its World War II peak, when it was 28.3 percent. Its new low is less than half of that—12 percent.

Here’s the most obvious difference between an economy based on manufacturing and one based on Wall Street: You can hold the handlebars of a Harley-Davidson in your hands, but just try grasping a derivative.

The paper traders on Wall Street bundle mortgages into exotic financial instruments called derivatives, sell those, buy pseudo-insurance to secure them, then engage in legal betting on whether the “instruments” will soar or fail. This kind of activity caused the financial collapse in 2008. Frankly, beyond being incredibly risky, these transactions don’t create true wealth; they just generate big bonuses.

In manufacturing, an entrepreneur takes raw material and adds energy, ingenuity, tools and labor to create a product, like steel, that has real value and can be sold on the market to someone who needs it to combine with other materials to make finished merchandise like motorcycles or refrigerators. And those manufactured items are durable and valuable.

In the process of manufacturing, many people are employed—to get the raw materials, whether it’s limestone or iron or trees, to transport it to a factory, to generate electricity to run the factory, to transform the raw material at the factory, to deliver the product to the buyer, to pave the roads and build the bridges and repair the railroads necessary for all that transportation, to design the highways and factories and overpasses, to feed all the workers lunch.

Tragically, the Great Recession caused by Wall Street has hit manufacturing hard. While unemployment is at a 25-year high of 10 percent, the unemployment in manufacturing has run a couple of percentage points higher than that. More than 2.1 million manufacturing workers have been thrown out of their jobs since the recession began in December 2007.

These workers are the parents of children in Dora the Explorer sweatshirts who are asking Santa for elf jobs.

These are the workers who have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments—although almost half are suffering from depression or anxiety, a New York Times/CBS poll of unemployed adults showed.

These are the workers who told the pollsters that the frustration and stress of unemployment has provoked conflicts and arguments with family and friends.

These are the workers who have lost their homes or have been threatened with eviction or foreclosure, who have difficulty paying bills and have resorted to borrowing money from friends and relatives. These are the workers profiled by Anne Hull of the Washington Post in a story that began by describing desperate laid-off Warren, Ohio, residents in a pawn shop:

At campaign time, they are celebrated as the people who built America. Now they just want to know how much they can get for a wedding band.

These are workers selling their precious keepsakes to survive 15 percent unemployment in an area along the Mahoning River that once was the world’s fifth-largest steel producer—until it lost 50,000 of those family-supporting manufacturing jobs and another 11,500 middle-class jobs at the Lordstown General Motors plant, all in a decade.

These workers could be holding good, steady factory jobs if the United States had implemented a manufacturing strategy, the way China, Japan, Germany, even the Netherlands, did long ago.

Just last week, the Obama administration offered a gift to all those who believe in manufacturing. It is that strategy for America. Its formal name is the White House Plan to Revitalize American Manufacturing.

For that 5-year-old girl in the Dora the Explorer sweatshirt. For her furloughed father and her family. For the future of this country, let’s give ourselves the gift of a future constructed on a solid economic foundation. Let’s implement that plan to revitalize American manufacturing immediately. Millions of unemployed workers can’t wait.

Paid Leave Key to Slowing Spread of H1N1

by Mike Hall, Nov 17, 2009

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one worker sick with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus will infect one in 10 co-workers if he or she goes to work while infected with the virus. Even more frightening, another recent study predicted that 63 percent of Americans will be infected with the virus by the end of December.

Today, family advocates and heath care professionals told the House Education and Labor Committee that along with vaccinations, and good hygiene practices, the best way to protect workers and slow the spread of the H1N1 virus is through guaranteed paid sick leave legislation, such as the Healthy Families Act.

The CDC’s guidelines to employers and workers to slow the spread of the virus says workers who suspect they have the swine flu or another influenza-like illness should stay home and employers should allow workers to stay home “without fear of reprisals or…losing their jobs.”

But nearly half of all private-sector workers—and 76 percent of low-income workers—have no paid sick leave. That leaves sick workers facing the dilemma of staying home and losing several days of pay or likely spreading the disease to fellow workers and the public. Many low-wage workers have jobs that have direct contact with the public, such as the food-service and hospitality industry, schools and health care.

Says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families:
Congress should waste no time in passing paid sick days legislation so that working people can earn paid time off and help prevent the spread of illnesses, without jeopardizing their economic security.

Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says paid sick leave benefits both employers, workers and their families along with customers and the general public. For employers, Benjamin says:

Sick workers are not productive ones and by spreading disease in the workplace risk the overall productivity of the business. By providing paid leave for sick workers, worker safety and business productivity can both be enhanced—a win-win for employers.

While we want to encourage workers to make healthy and rational decisions, when they are faced with the choice of staying home sick without pay or going into work sick so they can put food on the table and pay their mortgage, many workers choose to go to work and “tough it out,” putting their co-workers and their customers at risk.

Committee chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) says that Congress has been “pushing for universal paid leave policies for workers of all income levels.”

Let’s face some simple facts: When you’re struggling to make ends meet, you’re going to do everything possible to not miss a day’s pay. The lack of paid sick leave encourages workers who may have H1N1 to hide their symptoms and come to work sick—spreading infection to co-workers, customers and the public. This isn’t good for our nation’s public health or for businesses.

Earlier this year, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) introduced the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 2460 and S. 1152), which would require businesses with more than 15 employees to provide workers with up to seven paid sick days a year to care for themselves or a sick child or spouse.

At a Senate hearing on H1N1 earlier this month, Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris announced the Obama administration’s support for the Healthy Families Act.

The Healthy Families Act offers an important opportunity to provide workers with economic security by assuring that they have the ability to stay home if they are sick without fear of losing their jobs or being forced to go to work sick because they cannot afford to stay home. We support this bill and look forward to working with you on it as it moves through the legislative process.

BP Hit with Largest-Ever OSHA Fine of $87 Million

Posted By James Parks On October 30, 2009 @ 12:20 pm In Organizing & Bargaining

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 [1] 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 [2] 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.

OSHA has issued 271 notifications to BP for failing to correct hazards at the Texas City refinery since the explosion. The agency also identified 439 “willful and egregious” violations of safety controls at the refinery.

Wayne Ranick, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers ([3] USW), which represents the BP workers, says the union has not yet read the citation, but “we have faith in OSHA.”

In the past we have offered to work with the company to address safety concerns and that offer still stands.

BP management initially tried to blame the workers for the explosion, but evidence collected in investigations by OSHA and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board forced the company to acknowledge it operated dangerous, obsolete equipment with a history of problems and malfunctioning control valves. Instead of venting flammable liquids to a flair, they were vented into the atmosphere, where they overflowed and exploded—even though OSHA had warned the company years before that the equipment was dangerous and should be replaced.

In addition to killing 15 people, the explosion injured 170 workers and obliterated 13 employee trailers and damaged 13 others, some as far as 300 yards away.

Jordan Barab, acting assistant secretary for OSHA, said the safety problems at BP are systemic.
There are some serious systemic safety problems within the corporation, specifically within this refinery as well. I think that just the fact that there still are so many life-threatening problems indicates they have a systemic safety problem at this refinery.

BP already has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the explosion and agreed to [1] pay $50 million, the largest criminal fine ever assessed against a company for Clean Air Act violations. Six months after the explosion, BP [4] agreed to pay a $21.3 million OSHA fine, then the largest in the agency’s history.

Since the explosion, BP has settled more than 4,000 civil claims, paid from a $2.1 billion fund it set aside to resolve claims.

Solis ended the press conference by reiterating that job safety is a top Labor Department priority:

Our number one concern is the safety and protection of the current workers. We don’t need to see another loss of one life there. Our motto is that we would like to see people go into work and be able to come home to their families.

---------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from AFL-CIO NOW BLOG: http://blog.aflcio.org
URL to article: http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/10/30/bp-hit-with-largest-ever-osha-fine-of-87-million/
URLs in this post:
[1] 2005 explosion: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/10/25/bp-fined-50-million-in-texas-refinery-blast-that-killed-15
[2] safe workplaces: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety
[3] USW: http://www.usw.org/
[4] agreed to pay a $21.3 million: http://spewingforth.blogspot.com/2005/09/bp-fined-over-21-million-for-refinery.html

OSHA, MSHA Move on Bush-Stalled Health and Safety Rules

by Mike Hall, May 12, 2009

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is moving forward on several new workplace safety measures that languished for years under the Bush administration. The move follows last week’s unveiling of the Obama administration’s Labor Department budget that boosts OSHA’s funding by $51 million and includes the hiring of 160 new safety inspectors.

According to the Labor Department’s regulatory agenda released yesterday, the safety agency will move on several rules stalled under Bush’s OSHA, including rules to protect workers from exposure to dangerous substances and chemicals such as silica (which can cause serious respiratory disease), diacetyl (a flavoring additive linked to “popcorn lung”) and beryllium (a light metal that can cause lung damage, especially to metal and dental workers). [Full Story]

Source: AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

Leaders in Investment Community Speak Out for Employee Free Choice

A coalition of investors, representing nearly $400 billion in assets, has stepped forward to say the Employee Free Choice Act is the right move right now to protect workers and strengthen the economy.

In a letter to Congress, 26 leaders from the investment community strongly endorse the Employee Free Choice Act, saying that it’s critical not just for the cause of human rights, but for business, too. The support of these business leaders is a valuable corrective to the anti-union spin and disinformation promoted by corporate lobby groups.

Adam Kanzer, managing director and general counsel at Domini Social Investments LLC, says workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain is critical to a strong economy.

The Employee Free Choice Act is an investment in our shared economic future. The act will help to stabilize our economy, both in the United States and abroad, by establishing a more balanced relationship between labor and management. Today, American workers are producing more and receiving less. This is an unsustainable trend that creates material risks for employees, investors and the global economy. By more effectively protecting workers’ fundamental human rights, the Act would help to reverse these damaging trends.

The letter from investors details the flaws in our current system for forming unions, starting from the simple proposition that it should be workers, not their bosses, who make the decision about whether, and how, to form a union. The investors say that workplaces where workers are free to join unions are safer, fairer to workers, have lower turnover rates and deliver a better return on investment. In addition, when workers can bargain for a fair share of the value they create, they can get the economic security they need to have stronger purchasing power—an absolute must to turn around the economy.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says that the letter points out how many in the business community want to work with, not against, their employees for a stronger, more sustainable economy:

These investors know from experience that businesses that honor strong labor standards are much more likely to benefit from higher productivity, less turnover and a better-trained workforce. They have recognized, along with many in the business community, that working people need to have the tools to increase their purchasing power and bargain for financial stability in order to get this economy growing again.

You can read the full letter here. The voices of these investors are yet another addition to the broad coalition that demands labor law reform and a free and fair chance for workers to bargain for a better life.

Colombian Workers Pay High Price for Flowers

by James Parks

This Mother’s Day, remember the mothers in Colombia who grew, cut and trimmed the flowers you receive. Six days a week, Amanda Camacho and thousands of her co-workers at flower plantations in Colombia cut and trim at least 350 flowers an hour. In the weeks before holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day, the work extends deep into the night—all for about $8 a day, less than the cost of a bouquet of carnations in the United States. [Full Story]

Source: AFL-CIO Now Blog

Our day to remember the fallen: Workers' Memorial Day

Every April 28, the international labor movement stops to commemorate the lives and sacrifices of workers who never made it home, and to renew the struggle for safer and healthier workplaces. Here is a sampling of the events taking place next Tuesday around the world:

Canada(British Columbia): 10am, BC Federation of Labour hosts a rally in honor of BC's fallen workers at Hastings Park, Vancouver BC.

Unions in India will hold meetings all day April 28 with government ministry officials to push for a ban on asbestos.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions will host a one-day conference on improving reporting of workplace fatalities and enforcement of Ireland's workplace safety laws.

The South African Department of Labour in partnership with the ILO will hold an event May 8 titled "Health and Life at Work: A Fundamental Human Right."

Here in the U.S., Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will participate directly in Workers' Memorial Day, as she helps to break ground for a new national workers' memorial at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD.

Solis' involvement marks a sharp turnaround from the Bush era, and underscores her commitment to improving worker health and safety. James Parks of the AFL-CIO blog has more about the day

Big Business Blocks Working Family Bills by Keeping Franken’s Senate Seat Vacant

It’s April 2009 and we’re still checking back in to see who won in Minnesota’s hard-fought 2008 Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and AFL-CIO-endorsed challenger Al Franken—because corporate front groups are dumping money into delaying and dragging out the process.

When last we visited Minnesota, the state was just beginning to recount the votes in the excruciatingly close race. The recount was an exhaustive, transparent process, with every step open to the public and examined closely by Minnesota’s judiciary. And this week, a three-judge panel—in a 68-page decision issued after extensive consideration—ruled that Franken “received the highest number of votes legally cast” and is “entitled to receive a certificate of election.”

Yet Franken can’t be seated, because ex-Sen. Coleman is planning to appeal to the Minnesota state Supreme Court. Although election-law experts suggest that Coleman’s arguments are unlikely to have any more effect on the state Supreme Court than they did in front of judges from around the state who have heard them throughout this long process, Coleman is still keeping his team of lawyers busy and well-paid. And who’s paying for those mounting legal bills? The same corporate front groups bankrolling the fight against the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent reports that Coleman’s cronies—a coalition of deep-pocketed corporate lobbying groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant Association and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW)—are willing to “raise as much as necessary” to keep Coleman’s lawyers going and bankroll his attempts to overturn the judges’ ruling that Franken is the winner.

It’s clear what’s underlying this: Franken ran—and won—as a friend to working families and a supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. Franken, a former member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the Screen Actors (SAG) and the Writers Guild of America, campaigned alongside union members throughout his campaign, and their energetic mobilization made the critical difference in one of the closest Senate races in U.S. history.

Now, after their failure to defeat pro-worker Franken at the ballot box, corporate front groups are hoping to keep him out of the Senate seat that’s rightfully his, to prevent him from voting to break minority filibusters and pass critical legislation to make the economy work for everyone. Because of the rules of the Senate, having a vacant seat is just as effective in squelching pro-worker bills as having someone there to vote against them. Even Dirk Van Dongen, NAW president, acknowledges that keeping the seat empty is a feature that Coleman’s backers are happy about.

(Worth noting: the Chamber of Commerce gets at least some its money from groups that have taken taxpayer bailout money. Not only is the Chamber putting its resources into anti-worker lobbying and anti-Employee Free Choice commercials—they’re paying to prevent Minnesota from seating a senator.)

Coleman and his cronies already have lost the battle in the court of public opinion as well as in Minnesota’s judicial branch. At Daily Kos, Arjun Jaikumar provides a comprehensive rundown of the voices from across the political spectrum asking Norm Coleman to give it a rest—including three newspapers that endorsed Coleman during election season. And Sam Stein at The Huffington Post gets a Republican official on the record suggesting Coleman isn’t doing himself any favors:

If this goes much farther, he will lose whatever goodwill he has remaining with the voters of Minnesota and he can kiss a political comeback goodbye. There is a fine line between toughness and obstinacy.

A poll of Minnesota voters shows that 63 percent think Coleman should concede, and 59 percent say Franken should be seated now, giving Minnesota’s voters the two senators that every other state gets.

Experts say Coleman has minimal chances of getting the previous rulings overturned—and he knows it. He can’t overturn the vote, but as long as the seat is vacant, Coleman & Co. can make it harder for the majority in the Senate to break filibusters and pass pro-worker legislation.

It’s the equivalent of saying: if we don’t get to win, nobody does.

From the Field: Employee Free Choice Actions Everywhere

With members of Congress at home for the April congressional recess, the grassroots campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act is in high gear, with more than 300 events taking place around the country in support of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. Here are some highlights of this nationwide effort.

Last Tuesday, hundreds of workers rallied for Employee Free Choice in Harrisburg, Pa. Among the speakers were Ed Sadusky and Ken Matz, two workers at a steel plant in Cressona, Pa., who were subjected to intimidation, harassment and management roadblocks in their attempt to form a union. Their efforts to bargain for a better life were thwarted by corporate pressure and delays, and it took them two and a half years to get a fair first contract. Their story illustrates why we need the Employee Free Choice Act.

In Florida, union members and members of Jobs with Justice delivered more than 8,500 letters to the office of Sen. Bill Nelson to thank him for co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s just one of the many activities in support of the legislation happening all across Florida during the recess.

As part of the “Faces of the Employee Free Choice Act” campaign, union members and community allies are touring Colorado accompanied by moving billboard trucks bearing the faces of Dan Luevano and other workers whose stories show the need for the Employee Free Choice Act.

In Indiana, supporters of the bill held a faith empowerment breakfast featuring Kim Bobo of Interfaith Worker Justice and members of various religious groups.

In northwest Indiana, union members held a working lunch where they wrote letters and made phone calls to their senators asking them to support the Employee Free Choice Act. A similar working lunch was held in Texarkana, Ark., and another was held in Omaha. Thousands of phone calls and letters are going out to senators around the country.

In Orono, Maine, author Barbara Ehrenreich was the featured speaker at a symposium about the Employee Free Choice Act. She said that by reducing inequality and giving workers bargaining power, the bill will serve as an economic stimulus.

The campaign to pass the federal legislation is active in Louisiana, too. Louisiana AFL-CIO President Louis Reine recently published an op-ed in the Bogalusa Daily News in support of the bill, which he says is critical to strengthening the economy by protecting workers’ ability to bargain for a better life. Says Reine:

Companies routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire people who try to form a union and have collective bargaining.

Current law is ineffective in stopping these corporate practices, and penalties are so slight for breaking the law that many corporations simply consider it the cost of doing business. The government found that companies violated the rights of 26,824 workers in 2006 alone. Especially under these current economic conditions, it is time to stand up for working Americans. It is time to rebuild the American middle class.

Sign up Now for Strategic Research Training

It’s a good time to sign up for a course in strategic campaign research, writes Charles Taylor, coordinator for the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research recruitment program. Here’s why.
The union movement is poised to launch new waves of campaigns that will require skilled strategic researchers supporting organizing, bargaining and representation. To help meet the demand, the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research (CSR) offers technical training for union researchers and campaigners to help prepare for the opportunities ahead.

The CSR co-sponsors a unique training on strategic corporate research for undergraduate and graduate students interested in working as strategic researchers and as campaigners in the union movement. Launched in 2001, the annual, one-week course takes place in Ithaca, N.Y., the site of the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Cornell University (ILR), which also co-sponsors the training.

Read the rest of this entry »