Wednesday February 23, 2005
Employee, Community Rally Wednesday 11:30 AM |
(SPEEA)Thousands of aerospace workers here will soon be working for Onex Corporation after the Canadian firm agreed to buy the Commercial Airplane Division of The Boeing Company’s plant. The announcement of the sale lifts the cloud of uncertainty that hung over employees since Boeing announced plans to sell the plant one year ago.
The sale sends to Onex approximately 2,500 skilled engineers, technical and professional aerospace workers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, AFL-CIO. Labor unions at the plant will continue to represent employees during and after the transition and close of the sale. |
Monday February 21, 2005
Quote of the Week
Republicans believe in the minimum wage--as minimum as possible!
President Harry S. Truman
Taken from "Great Labor Quotations Sourcebook and Reader
Posted 8:07 PM
Would the GOP's proposed private accounts really pay a higher rate of return than Social Security?
RHETORIC »
Vice President Cheney recently said: "Young workers who elect personal accounts can expect to receive a far higher rate of return on their money than the current system could ever afford to pay them." [AP, 1/14/04] more......
taken from the IAM newsbrief
Posted 7:40 PM
More than half of American workers question the basic morality of their organizations' top leaders and say that their managers do not treat them fairly, according to results of a just-released, representative, nationwide survey of 7,718 American workers conducted by Harris Interactive, Inc. more.....
taken from the IAM newsbrief
Posted 7:46 PM
As reliance on computers increases, Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) are hitting epidemic proportions. More than 28 million Americans use computers each day and, according to officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) many risk coming down with carpal tunnel syndrome, the painful, debilitating condition that is the number one disability reported by insurance companies today.
Repetitive musculoskeletal injuries like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome have become the nation's leading workplace health cost. RSI represents 62 percent of all North American workers' compensation claims and results in nearly $15-20 billion in lost work time and Workers Compensation claims each year, reports OSHA.
taken from the IAM newsbrief
Posted 7:51 PM
by Eileen Appelbaum and Ellen Bravo
Eileen Appelbaum is a professor at Rutgers University and Director of the Center for Women and Work. Ellen Bravo is the former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women; she served on the bipartisan Commission on Leave.
Don’t let the twelfth anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act be its last.
On February 5, 1993, America’s most successful step forward for working families was signed into law. This measure allows workers in firms of 50 or more to take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for their own serious illness or to care for a new child or seriously ill family member. Since that date, an estimated 50 million workers have been able to care for a loved one or recover from illness without being fired. At the same time, almost nine in ten employers report that the FMLA has had a positive effect or neutral effect on productivity and profits. more.....
taken from the IAM newsbrief
Posted 7:57 PM
Wednesday February 13, 2005
Quote of the Week
"Labor never quits. We never give up the fight – no matter how tough the odds, no matter how long it takes.”
George Meany; President, AFL-CIO
Taken from the BIGLabor.com , check it out there is a lot of good information.
posted at 12:19 PM
Federal Defense Department (DoD) workers and their unions, including IAM/NFFE Federal District 1, are banding together to protest the Bush Administration’s sweeping changes in the federal personnel system that will weaken worker rights and collective bargaining protections for the majority of DoD’s 770,000 civilian workers.
The United DoD Workers Coalition, which includes 36 unions who represent DoD civilian employees, held a press conference and marched to Capitol Hill to call attention to the new National Security Personnel System (NSPS) that eliminates most traditional collective bargaining and gives management sole decision-making authority over almost all aspects of a worker’s job, from shift assignment to pay grade. more.......
Taken from GOIAM imail
Posted 8:20 PM
The IAM and more than a dozen U.S. unions are banding together to address the twin issues of hospital cost and quality, key economic issues across nearly every bargaining table.
The California Health Care Coalition will conduct a much-needed examination of prices charged at different hospitals and then use that information to broker better terms for benefits purchased with union trust funds.
The initiative follows a groundbreaking move last year by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) to eliminate 24 high-cost hospitals from its network, a decision that will protect union members and save $36 million this year and $45 million each year thereafter. Thirteen of the 24 targeted hospitals are owned and operated by Sacramento-based Sutter Health. more.........
Taken from GOIAM imail
Posted 8:30 PM
The country may be split between red states and blue states, but conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and Independents are finding common ground on the subject of China’s unfair and abusive trade practices.
A bipartisan coalition of 60 lawmakers plans to introduce legislation to repeal Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China, saying the trade legislation is destroying the middle class in the U.S. and helping China to become the world’s dominant economy.
Congress approved PNTR in September 2000, allowing Chinese exports to enter the U.S. at the same low tariff rate as goods from other countries. Since then, an explosion of low-cost Chinese goods flooded world markets, costing millions of U.S. jobs and fueling a record-breaking $561 billion trade deficit. more........
Taken from GOIAM imail
Posted 8:35 PM
Tuesday February 01, 2005
People don't get the opportiunity or freedom or equality or dignity as an act of charity; they have to fight for it, force it out of the establishment.
Taken from the Great Labor Quotations Sourcebook
Posted 7:14 PM
Charles Schwab and other investment firms “could reap billions of dollars in management fees and commissions over the long term” if Social Security is privatized, according to the Jan. 18 Los Angeles Times.
Take action now. Tell Charles Schwab: Don’t support Social Security privatization. Click below:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/schwab_kwb
Schwab’s corporate philosophy description says its goal is to offer individual investors “useful, ethical services at a fair price.” The most ethical service Schwab could provide for working families is to withdraw support for privatizing Social Security.
We need your help to urge Charles Schwab, which stands to gain millions from President George W. Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, to:
Take action now. Please tell Charles Schwab: Don’t support Social Security privatization.
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/schwab_kwb
Social Security is America’s best-run, most successful family insurance program. Millions of retirees, survivors and people with disabilities rely on Social Security. President Bush’s plan to move Social Security funds into private accounts may be good for Schwab’s business—but it would hurt working families terribly, forcing devastating cuts in benefits and replacing retirement security with retirement risk. Charles Schwab’s support of Social Security privatization is in serious conflict with the interest of its customers.
Please contact Schwab CEO Charles “Chuck” Schwab. Urge him to drop his company’s support for Social Security privatization. Click here: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/schwab_kwb
Thanks for all that you do.
In solidarity,
Loretta Baize
Political Director
Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
3219 W. Central Wichita KS 67203 316-941-4061
Jan. 31, 2005
Taken form the KansasWorkbeat
Posted 7:00 PM