Labor quote of the week August 24, 2005 !
Don't shop where you can't work. Buy where you can work.
Slogan, Chicago Whip, 1930
Taken from the book "Great labor quotations"
Posted 4:03 PM
Todd and Natalie Weidman with daughters Hannah and Makenzie, prepare for the march and rally in SeaTac WA, where thousands of IAM members cheered members of their negotiating team and told Boeing to “Do the Right Thing.”
Nearly four-thousand IAM members and their families turned out in SeaTac, WA, this weekend to send a strong message for Boeing to “Do the Right Thing” as negotiations for a new agreement moved into the second week of round-the-clock meetings.
The roar hundreds of members on motorcycles greeted the Main Table negotiators, Aerospace Coordinator Dick Schneider; District 751 President Mark Blondin; District 70 President Steve Rooney, District 24 President Bob Petroff and Subcommittees as they exited the hotel where meetings between the IAM and Boeing are taking place. Chanting, fist pumping, sign waving union members filled the streets, stretching the entire length of the half-mile route to nearby Angle Lake.
District 751 President Mark Blondin thanked the members for their support and solidarity and reported on the progress so far at the bargaining table – explaining language that has been agreed upon and emphasizing that our top issues, including pensions, health care and job security are still on the table.
Demonstrating the high level of community support for IAM members at Boeing, King County Executive Ron Sims, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender also addressed the enthusiastic crowd at the Doubletree Hotel in SeaTac, WA.
Taken from the imail
Posted 4:10 PM
Americans continue to be hit hard by surging oil prices – most notably at the gas pump, where prices around the country are averaging a record $2.61 a gallon. Gas prices have jumped 36 percent, or 72.8 cents, from a year ago.
After peaking at over $67 a barrel last week, crude oil prices continue to hover over $60 a barrel, a 40 percent increase from a year ago.
As a result of the skyrocketing oil and gas prices, Americans are cutting back on other costs, including food and medical care. With numerous commercial airlines recently raising domestic fares, consumers are also seeing the ill effects of increasing jet fuel costs. And the worst may be yet to come. Winter heating bills will become increasingly hard for working families to bear in the Northeast and Midwest.
Taken from the imail
Posted 4:15 PM
Two Chinese factories producing books for the Walt Disney Company have been charged with severe labor abuses, including unsafe working conditions and mandatory, unpaid overtime.
The National Labor Committee, an anti-sweatshop advocacy group, made the charges after releasing an 11-minute videotape detailing abuses at the Hung Hing and Nord Race factories in China. With their faces hidden, workers displayed their bandaged fingers and cut hands, which they claim was a result of unsafe equipment. Workers from the two factories also complained of extreme heat, long hours and unpaid, forced overtime.
The Walt Disney Company said in a statement they have contacted a non-profit social auditing and training firm to conduct an investigation of the accusations regarding the Hung Hing and Nord Race factories. Although the Hung Hing factory produces products primarily for Disney, they also produce products for Wal-Mart and other corporate giants in the United States.
Taken from the imail
Posted 4:23 PM
Despite concerns that antitrust issues could scuttle the proposed $2.7 billion deal, two of the nation’s largest appliance makers announced an agreement this week to merge. The agreement calls for Whirlpool to acquire all outstanding shares of Maytag in a cash and stock merger valued at $21 per share.
Analysts estimate a combined Whirlpool-Maytag company would capture nearly half of the market in major appliances in the United States, with General Electric and Sweden's Electrolux controlling approximately 46 percent of the U.S. market.
Concerns among employees about job losses in the wake of a merger were fueled by a letter from Maytag CEO Ralph Hake, who said “it is reasonable to expect that some jobs will be eliminated."
"We don't know what Whirlpool's intentions are," said Steve Sleigh, IAM’s Director of Strategic Resources. "We suspect they will move a great deal of Maytag’s current production to facilities they have in Mexico and China. We have not received any assurances from Whirlpool that they wouldn't do that."
Even if federal regulators block the deal, Maytag could lose employees and customers during the lengthy review process.
Taken from the imail
Posted 4:31 PM
Labor quote of the week August 14, 2005 !
The only efective answer to organized greed is organized labor.
Thomas Donahue
Taken from the book "Great labor quotations"
Posted 8:45 PM
The National Labor Relations Board has struck another blow to American workers, ruling that employers can now ban off-duty interaction among co-workers.
In September 2003, workers filed unfair labor practice charges against national security firm Guardsmark, who had implemented a rule saying employees could not “fraternize on duty or off duty, date or become overly friendly with the client’s employees or with co-employees.”
Employees charged the company’s rules inhibited their rights under federal labor law to form, join or assist unions.
The Republican-dominated NLRB defended their decision by arguing workers would likely interpret the rule as simply a ban on dating and not a prohibition of association among co-workers.
Wilma Liebman, a Democratic appointee, said in a dissenting opinion that because the Guardsmark rule already specifies dating, workers logically would assume fraternization to mean something else, such as their freedom to associate and form unions.
In response to an earlier anti-worker NLRB ruling in July, in which Republican appointees on the board declared graduate assistants at universities are students and not employees and are thus not entitled to the protections of federal labor law, New York University (NYU) officials announced Aug. 5 they would no longer recognize UAW Local 2110 as the bargaining representative for about 1,000 graduate assistants when the current contract expires August 31. NYU was the first private university to recognize a union for graduate assistants.
August 14 marks the 70th birthday of Social Security, the most successful government program ever. But the Bush administration wants to forget this anniversary.
At a recent meeting, the Social Security Administration informed their employees that they had no plans to conduct any celebration for the 70th anniversary of the August 14, 1935 signing of legislation by Franklin Delano Roosevelt that created Social Security.
This dramatic change in practice was a shock to SSA employees who participated in the grand celebrations that the SSA conducted to commemorate the 60th anniversary. Just ten years ago, the SSA directed all field offices to participate in the anniversary celebrations...and participate they did! The SSA website has some 25 pages documenting the festivities.
The Center on Budget Policies and Priorities has a new report on "The Top Ten Facts About Social Security"
more on this story......
taken from the Kansasworkbeat
posted 8:15 PM
Recertify SPEEA. Vote YES Wednesday, August 17.
(August 8) The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, filed a lawsuit against The Boeing Company in federal court this morning to restore early retiree medical benefits for thousands of Wichita employees being denied the coverage after the sale of Boeing’s commercial airplane division.
The union represents more than 4,400 employees at Boeing and what is now Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. Early retiree medical benefits provide medical coverage from age 55 to 65 for employees who retiree early. SPEEA contract agreements with Boeing state employees with 11 years service are eligible for the benefit. The contracts allow employees who are laid off at age 49 to receive the benefit at age 55 if they have 11 years of service.
Taken from the Kansasworkbeat
posted 8:25
We affirm, as a fundamental principle, that labor, the creator of wealth, is entitled to all it creates.
--Wendell Phillips, American orator, abolitionist, 19th Century
Taken from the BIGLabor.com , check it out there is a lot of good information.
posted at 5:24 AM
Quote sources:
Great Labor Quotations: Sourcebook and Reader, by Peter Bollen
The Great Quotations, by George Seldes
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
We Will Remember Wednsday's CAFTAVote
Because of your efforts, we were able to persuade the majority of Democrats to vote against CAFTA. Unfortunately, the following 15 Democrats joined with 202 Republicans and voted wrong on CAFTA:
Melissa Bean (Ill.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Norman Dicks (Wash.), Rubèn Hinojosa (Texas), William Jefferson (La.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), Jim Moran (Va.), Solomon Ortiz (Texas), Ike Skelton (Mo.), Vic Snyder (Ark.), John Tanner (Tenn.), Edolphus Towns (N.Y.).
And these 27 Republican members of Congress joined 187 Democrats and 1 Independent in voting against CAFTA:
Charles Boustany (La.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Howard Coble (N.C.), Barbara Cubin (Wyo.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Virgil Goode (Va.), Gil Gutknecht (Minn.), John Hostettler (Ind.), Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Bobby Jindal (La.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Connie Mack (Fla.), Thaddeus McCotter (Mich.), Patrick McHenry (N.C.), John McHugh (N.Y.), Candice Miller (Mich.), Robert Ney (Ohio), Charlie Norwood (Ga.), Butch Otter (Idaho), Ron Paul (Texas), Dennis Rehberg (Mont.), Rob Simmons (Conn.), Mike Simpson (Idaho), Chris Smith (N.J.), Tom Tancredo (Colo.).
Let’s be clear: CAFTA failed on its merits.
It was salvaged in the middle of the night by the Bush team’s last-minute pork deals and high-stakes pressure. CAFTA will extend to Central America the disastrous job loss and environmental damage caused by 11 years of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Thanks to your mobilization efforts, to win CAFTA Republican leaders had to keep the vote open for an hour while they strong-armed swing voters.
For the future, we need to look at every option to get real support in Congress for working people—and that includes backing primary opponents against so-called Democrats who REFUSE to stand with the working people who elected them!
Take a moment to thank the representatives who voted right and let members who voted wrong feel the heat. Click this link:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/CAFTA_Fight_kwb
U.S. workers lost more than 1 million jobs and real wages in Mexico have fallen as a result of NAFTA in the past 11 years, according to the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.
Taken From the Kansas workbeat
Posted 5:15 AM