Global Anti-Regulation Agenda Threatens Health and Safety at Work

by James Parks, Apr 28, 2011

On Workers Memorial Day, the global union movement is warning that more lives will be lost at work if business groups and companies around the world succeed in reducing legal protections against hazardous jobs. In the United States, Big Business and congressional Republicans have launched campaigns to turn back health and safety regulations, claiming they hinder competitiveness.

Workers Memorial Day is observed by trade unions around the globe and today there are observances in more than 50 countries. To find out what’s going on around the world for Workers Memorial Day, click here.

Trade unions are challenging the rigged statistics and bogus arguments being used by business interests that care more about profit than the lives of the people who work for them, said Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

“Consider the devastation wrought a year ago by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,” Burrow says.

Eleven lives lost, environmental devastation and economic costs to the economy in the billions—all down to an appalling disregard for safety aided and abetted by an absence of effective regulation and official oversight. Lessons from this and other disasters like the Fukushima complex in Japan show how critically important regulation and enforcement is. Added to this, “slow burn” disasters like asbestos mean today’s failures to regulate can have a deadly legacy spanning two generations and killing millions.

The AFL-CIO “Death on the Jobs” report, released yesterday, showed that in 2009 (the latest figures available), 4,340 workers were killed on the job in the United States—an average of 12 workers a day—and an estimated 50,000 died of occupational diseases. More than 4.1 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported in private and state and local workplaces. But the report says the 4.1 million “understates the problem,” and the actual number is more likely 8 million to 12 million. Click here for the full report.

The report also backs the ITUC call for strong health and safety regulations:

The nation must renew the commitment to protect workers from injury, disease and death and make this a high priority. Employers must meet their responsibilities to protect workers and be held accountable if they put workers in danger. Only then can the promise of safe jobs for all of America’s workers be fulfilled.

While accidents at work kill hundreds of thousands each year around the globe, this total is dwarfed by the number of deaths from occupational diseases such as work-related cancers. The World Health Organization estimates the annual toll from asbestos-related diseases alone at 107,000 deaths a year. Burrow says:

There is plenty of evidence to show the importance and value of proper regulation and enforcement. Lives are saved, and the huge economic costs of occupational accidents and disease are reduced. Studies indicate that possibly more than 20 per cent of major killers worldwide, including cancers, heart and respiratory disease, are related to work. All these are preventable.

Vibrant unions, tough regulation and effective enforcement can ensure safer workplaces, Burrow says.

Harnessing the on-the-ground knowledge of workers, backed by their unions, is crucial for preventing death and illness. Protection, including through respect for workers’ rights to trade union representation, should be expanded and not curtailed in an outbreak of deregulatory fever. Removing or weakening regulations, and depriving workers of union protection costs lives.

Flight Attendant Webcast Available for Viewing

Thu. April 28, 2011

The IAM is inviting all United, Continental and Continental Micronesia Flight Attendants to view an IAM Virtual Road Show. The show, which was broadcast live over the Internet, features United and Continental Flight Attendants answering questions and providing information about the United/Continental merger, the upcoming representation election and the negotiations that will follow.

Click here to view the broadcast and for additional information about the campaign.

IAM Remembers the Fallen

Machinists Union International President Tom Buffenbarger speaks at the annual IAM Workers’ Memorial service for friends and family of IAM members who perished from workplace illness or injuries.

Thu. April 28, 2011

Families, friends and fellow IAM members gathered at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center as part of a national observance of Workers’ Memorial Day to honor the memory of those who perished on the job or from work-related diseases.

The IAM honors its fallen brothers and sisters each year by inscribing their names on bricks that are placed at the memorial. Among this year’s list of inscribed bricks were: Sid Zimmermann of Local 1564, who died from an accidental fall from a ladder; Kenneth Crump of Local W246, who suffered a heart attack on the job; Steve Manwill of Local W246, who died from injuries sustained in a truck accident; Jerry Culuerhouse of Local 2003, who died in a helicopter crash; John Jefferies, District Lodge 4 Vice President, who died of natural causes; and Eduardo Tlatempa of Local 1759, who fell off a baggage loader lifter at Dulles Airport.

IAM Workers' Memorial

“The IAM remembers its fallen members today,” said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. “Like us, these brothers and sisters got up every morning, got dressed and headed off to work so that they may be able to provide for themselves and their families. Sadly one day these members did not return home. They are the reason we continue to fight. We fight so that not one more person will have to endure the pain and grief of losing a loved one on the job.”

This year marks the 40th anniversary of OSHA and the right of workers to a safe job. With help from OSHA, unions have made great progress in making workplaces safer and protecting workers. But this progress didn’t just happen overnight. It happened because workers and their unions organized, fought and demanded action from employers and their government.

Reminders for 2011 IAM National Staff Conference

Thu. April 28, 2011

IAM representatives from the United States who are assigned to the 2011 National Staff Conference scheduled for June 12-16, 2011 in Toronto, Ontario, are reminded that they need a valid U.S. Passport enter Canada. If you do not have a current passport, you should apply for, or update, your Passport as soon as possible. Click here to go to the State Department website for the application form and further instructions.

Another concern is extra charges for international cell phone usage. Before leaving for the Staff Conference, contact your cell phone carrier about making and receiving calls while in Canada. Most major phone companies have ongoing or temporary service plans that allow you to make international calls. Call your carrier for specific information about your phone plan.

Also, you should call your credit card company to let them know the times you’ll be in Canada so they don’t put a hold on your account because they think your card has been stolen.

IAM Welcomes Single Carrier Ruling for Ramp/Fleet at United Airlines

Thu. April 28, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C., April 28, 2011 – The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) welcomed today’s National Mediation Board (NMB) single carrier ruling for the Ramp and Fleet Service classifications at the recently combined United Airlines and Continental Airlines.

The NMB decision sets in motion a 14-day period during which the IAM will provide sufficient evidence of support for the NMB to call for a union representation election. The Board requires a “showing of interest” by at least 35 percent of the combined classification before an election will be scheduled. The NMB will set the time frame for an election after the IAM provides its showing of interest.

“We are very pleased with the NMB decision,” said IAM District 141 President and Directing General Chairman Rich Delaney. “This will allow Fleet/Ramp service employees to determine their future and allow the IAM to continue to negotiate from a position of even greater strength. As airlines continue to consolidate for their best interests it is equally important for airline employees to consolidate into a single group. This decision is the first step.”

The IAM has represented Ramp Service employees at United Airlines since 1948, negotiating collective bargaining agreements that repeatedly set compensation standards for the entire industry while providing solid careers for generations of workers at United.

“This is the first step towards bringing together the Fleet/Ramp service classifications at the new United under the banner of the IAM,” said New York Local 1322 President James Carlson. “The IAM has the knowledge, experience and strength to deliver a combined collective bargaining agreement that secures the wages, benefits and working conditions we deserve.”

“IAM members in Chicago are looking forward to the process that will welcome our brothers and sisters from Continental into the IAM family,” said Chicago Local 1487 President Tony Liccardi.

Fleet Service workers at Continental are also looking forward to the representation election. “The fact that the Machinists were the only union at United to secure a defined benefit pension for its members when the carrier went through bankruptcy is proof they can get the job done,” said Houston-based Continental Fleet Service worker David Otoya.

“The best job in the world isn’t worth much if it can be easily outsourced, subcontracted or drastically cut back,” said Newark, NJ-based Continental Fleet service worker Mitch Buckley. “The IAM contract has solid job security language that doesn’t have an expiration date.”

The IAM has represented United’s Ramp Service workers for more than 60 years while Continental and Continental Micronesia’s Fleet Service workers are currently represented by another union. The IAM is the largest airline union in North America. More information about the IAM campaign is available at www.voteiam.com.

Obama: Workers Memorial Day—Time To Recommit to Job Safety

by Mike Hall, Apr 28, 2011

Today, in hundreds of ceremonies across the country, working families are honoring workers who died or were injured on the job in the past year. In a Workers Memorial Day proclamation, President Obama says the nation must:

recommit to keeping all workers safe and healthy [and] make sure the full force of the law is brought to bear in cases where workers are put in harm’s way.

He also says the safety and health laws that protect today’s workers “were won by generations of courageous men and women, fighting to secure decent working conditions.”

Organized labor has continued to give voice to millions of working men and women by representing their views and fighting for good working conditions and fair wages.

Click here for the full proclamation.

In Huntington, W.Va., the West Virginia AFL-CIO will honor the 50 West Virginia workers killed on the job in 2010, including the 29 coal miners killed in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine. Says President Kenneth Perdue:

As vividly demonstrated by the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and other worker safety disasters that recently occurred, too many workers remain at risk and face death, injury or disease as a result of their job.

In Kansas City, Mo., Ron Hayes, whose son Patrick was killed in a grain silo accident in 1993 on his first day working in a location and job for which he hadn’t been trained, will join Workers Memorial Day services.

After his son’s death, he founded the group Families in Grief Hold Together (The Fight Project). He tells the Kansas City Star:

We help families speak with and learn from other families who have had loved ones killed or hurt at work.

Visit the Fight Project’s Facebook page here.

At a Las Vegas Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) union hall today, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will join workers and families whose loved ones have been killed on the job. In a column this morning in the Las Vegas Sun, Solis writes:

Our nation and especially our workers are facing big challenges and making big sacrifices every day. But one sacrifice they should never have to make is trading their lives for their livelihood.

She notes that while workplace deaths and injuries have fallen dramatically since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted 40 years ago and the Mine Safety and Health Act shortly after:

there’s no question, we still have more work to do. Although the numbers may seem overwhelming, for me on this day, their message is quite clear: One workplace-related death, injury or illness is one too many.

Click here for a list of other Workers Memorial Day events around the country.

May Day Rallies Will Support Workers’ and Immigrant Rights

Thousands of people rallied in New York City last year on May Day.

by James Parks, Apr 27, 2011

This May Day, working people are rallying across the country to oppose attacks on workers’ rights and immigrant rights. Just as we did on April 4, working people will declare: “Somos Unos—Respeten Nuestros Derechos” or “We Are One—Respect Our Rights.”

Workers’ rights and immigrant rights are connected. CEO-backed politicians are targeting all working people—including immigrants—with their corporate-sponsored political agenda and continuing power grab. In addition to demanding protection for collective bargaining and other workers’ rights, ralliers will call for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act, which would provide undocumented young people a pathway to legal residency through higher education or service in the military.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says:

These [May Day] marches are driven by the same spirit of activism and commitment that drives our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin and every other community that is now fighting back against the attacks on working people.

Trumka will speak at a march and rally of about 60,000 people in Milwaukee. Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will address a crowd in Chicago and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will join a mass rally in New York City.

To find out what is happening in your community on May Day or to plan an event, visit www.we-r-1.org.

Here are some other major rallies planned for May Day:
•In Boston, thousands will participate in a march that draws on the global fight for workers’ rights with the theme of “From Cairo to Wisconsin to Massachusetts Defend All Workers’ Rights.”
•In Houston, the local chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is joining with Houston United in a huge rally for workers’ rights and immigrant rights.
•In Buffalo, N.Y., working people and immigrants will march 2.1 miles from the east side of the city to the west side of buffalo for a rally to protest the threat to close a community health clinic that supports the growing Latino community.

Protests in 10 Cities Support Tobacco Workers

Protesters march up the walkway to the British Embassy in Washington, D.C.

by James Parks, Apr 27, 2011

Union activists joined with members of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) to rally in front of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and British consulates in nine cities. The marchers called on British American Tobacco (BAT), the largest stockholder in U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American, to use its influence to stop “widespread and egregious” human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers.

Meanwhile in London, a delegation led by Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) President Baldemar Velasquez met with a small group of BAT corporate officials at the company’s headquarters. BAT promised to hold another larger meeting next month with workers to discuss conditions in the U.S. tobacco fields, according to FLOC. This is the first time any corporation with close ties to Reynolds American has agreed to meet with workers. For at least the past four years, Reynolds has refused to meet with representatives of workers.

Tomorrow, Velasquez will present to the BAT annual shareholders’ meeting the major findings of an upcoming human rights study detailing the abuses of workers in the U.S. tobacco supply chain. Says Velasquez:

We are urging the company to back up its words of support for human rights with monitoring and enforcement. Through its control of Reynolds, BAT has the power and the moral obligation to take action to end these abuses.

A worker delegation visited BAT headquarters in London today.

At the British embassy rally, Nick Wood, a FLOC organizer, told the crowd that tobacco workers are some of the most exploited people in the world. He said the workers are exposed to pesticides and nicotine poisoning in the fields and live in squalid housing. Workers have no protection, he said, if they complain or are fired for seeking union representation to help them improve their working and living conditions.

After the rally, a delegation hand-delivered a letter to the embassy gate asking Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald to use his influence to get BAT to act. At the same time, local union leaders delivered the letter along with LCLAA’s recent report, “Latino Workers in the United States,” to the British consulates in nine cities.

Clayola Brown, president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), told the crowd at the embassy that BAT is a “two-faced corporate outlaw” and despite its stellar corporate image exploits workers around the world.

Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO President Joslyn Williams said British companies should respect workers’ rights in America. LCLAA Executive Director Hector Sanchez said it was time for BAT and Reynolds American “to stop profiting off the backs of farm workers in North Carolina.”

NLRB Seeks to Overturn Anti-Worker Amendments in Ariz., S.D.

by Mike Hall, Apr 27, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is set to file lawsuits to overturn constitutional amendments in Arizona and South Dakota that outlaw the use of majority sign-up for workers who want to form unions.

Federal labor law provides two methods for worker to form unions. They can either go through an NLRB-supervised election or use majority sign-up, in which the employer agrees to recognize the workers’ choice when a majority of the workers sign union authorization cards.

The NLRB says the state amendments, approved by voters last fall after well-funded campaigns by anti-worker groups, are preempted by federal labor law.

Acting General Counsel Lafe E. Solomon also says the state amendments are preempted by the supremacy clause of the Constitution that says federal law prevails if there is a conflict between state and federal law.

South Carolina and Utah have similar constitutional amendments against majority sign-up. In a letter to the attorneys general of all four states, Solomon says the NLRB may later file suit to invalidate the South Carolina and Utah amendments.

Backers of the amendments said they were needed to protect secret ballot elections and falsely claimed the Employee Free Choice Act—then under consideration in Congress—would outlaw union elections. The Employee Free Choice Act, in fact, would give employees the choice about how to decide about forming their union. Currently employers decide whether workers must go through an election, even if a strong majority signs authorization cards.

Click here to find out more about your freedom to join a union.

Sweeney to Keynote Conference on 120th Anniversary of Landmark ‘Rerum Novarum’

John Sweeney

by James Parks, Apr 27, 2011

AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Sweeney will keynote a two-day conference celebrating the 120th anniversary of the landmark papal encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things).

The Church, Labor and the New Things of the Modern World conference at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., May 2-3, will bring together top Catholic religious leaders and scholars, journalists Harold Meyerson and E.J. Dionne and others to discuss the relevance of Catholic social teaching in the modern world.

Sweeney’s keynote speech on “Renewing the Historic Partnership of Unions and the Catholic Church in an Anti-Worker Era” on May 2 will explore Catholic involvement in labor issues around the world guided by the principles outlined in Rerum Novarum. While the conference is free and open to the public, you must register. Click here to learn more about the conference and here to RSVP.

Dr. Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at Catholic Univeristy, says Sweeney was a natural choice for the keynote.

Nobody gets the moral dimensions of labor solidarity and its commitment to the common good better than John Sweeney. A symposium on the contemporary significance of Rerum Novarum, a document that speaks so eloquently about the moral and social imperatives of worker justice, would be inconceivable without John Sweeney.

Written by Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum laid the foundation for the Catholic Church’s longtime involvement in workers’ issues, Schneck says.

That encyclical endorsed Catholic religious participation in organized labor. The result was that from its beginnings, the labor movement in America has had a religious component. Arguments for worker justice and for the moral cause of unionism reflect these religious influences, and throughout the 20th century and down to the present, the history of American labor benefited from the continuing commitment of religious support.

Catholic social teaching has played a central role in Sweeney’s more than 50 years of serving those who work for a living. After receiving an honorary doctorate at Georgetown University, Sweeney said faith “has been the bedrock of my life.”

He added:

[The] Holy Father [the Pope] reaffirms our belief in government as a legitimate tool for correcting injustice and inequality, and for regulating business. He writes: “The market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak.”

He also reinforces the spiritual teaching that society should honor work—work is a way of worshipping God and participating in God’s ongoing act of creation. Honoring the dignity of work is the core of our shared support for free labor unions, for the absolute right of workers to join together and bargain collectively, and the absolute obligation of corporations to honor those rights and hold themselves to higher standards of social responsibility.