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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Hour Headlines, 10-13-01 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!)
Phone: 217-359-9338 |
13 Oct 2001
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Headlines as broadcast on the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT, 90.1 FM. |
Former Teamster President Acquitted
News wires this morning reported that former Teamster President Ron Carey was acquitted on Friday of charges that he lied about illegally using funds for his 1996 election campaign. When the verdict was announced, Carey hugged his three crying daughters and later told reporters that he was delighted with the court's verdict. The 64 year-old Teamster was charged with perjury and other offenses for allegedly lying when he told investigators he didn't know about a scheme to use $900,000 in union funds for his re-election. Carey won that election campaign over current Teamster president James P. Hoffa, who is now running for re-election himself. Defense lawyers had portrayed Carey as a reformer who cut his own salary and eliminated perks such as private jets and limousines when he took over the presidency of the nation's largest union in 1992. Lawyers for Carey said it was ironic that prosecutors had so zealously pursued charges against a man they said only wanted to clean up a once mob-plagued union. The U.S. government, which prosecuted the case, said that they were disappointed in the verdict.
4 UN Disarmament Workers Killed by U.S. Military
The first civilians killed by the United States in the new war on terrorism were workers. Four people employed by the Afghan Technical Consultancy, a United Nations organization that cleans up land mines were killed on Monday, October 8 after the U.S. military fired a missile at the building where they worked. Four other workers were injured. Great Britain did not participate in Monday's attacks. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher did not respond directly to questions about the killings, saying instead, quote, "Certainly, any civilian casualties would be regrettable." unquote. The United Nations appealed for protection of civilians during the bombings, and the Associated Press reported members of the workers' families gathered in the rubble of the collapsed buildings, waiting for clean-up crews to clear away the rubble so they could collect the remains of their family members' bodies.
Bush Globalization Agenda Advances Beneath Bombs
On Tuesday, a piece of the President's corporate agenda moved forward when the fast track negotiating authority bill moved out of the House Ways and Means Committee. Committee approval means that the full House of Representatives can vote on the matter at any time. The Senate will also have to approve the bill before it becomes law. Approval by the conservative Ways and Means committee was assured, but observers say that the bill appears to be in trouble. Some committee members who normally vote for globalization bills voted against fast track because they felt that it was inappropriate to advance such a controversial bill while the nation is distracted with a war. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Charles Rangel of New York normally supports the corporate agenda, but lashed back at Republicans who charged that fast track opponents were un-patriotic at a time of war. The bill could come before the full house as soon as next week, and both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable are aggressively pushing the bill. Opponents include environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and labor groups like the AFL-CIO.
www.aflcio.org www.tradewatch.org www.icftu.org
AFSCME Makes Organizing a Top Priority
Organizing should be at the top of every union's agenda, says Gerry McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. McEntee made his remarks in early September at a national convention dedicated to union organizing, an event believed to be the first national organizing convention since the 1930's. Proclaiming that organizing must be, quote, "our first concern, and it must be our second concern, and it must be our third concern," unquote, McEntee pledged to boost the percentage of the international union's budget allocated to organizing, and he called on all state and regional levels of the union to do the same. In an interview with the Bureau of National Affairs after his speech, McEntee noted that some of AFSCME's branches are already dedicating a high level of resources to organizing, but that others are waiting to be convinced. He called Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, quote, "the wackiest governor I've ever seen," unquote, as he noted that states will try to balance budgets on the backs of workers. In addition to many small and medium-sized campaigns across the nation, AFSCME currently has major organizing campaigns underway in Kentucky with 35,000 employees, and in Puerto Rico where a multi-union coalition is attempting to organize 100,000 state workers.
National Academy Report Criticizes US Health Care
A panel of prestigious U.S. scientists released a report this week stating that millions of Americans lack health insurance and that the number will likely increase as the economy worsens. The National Academy of Sciences released the report last week, the first of a series of six planned by the Institute of Medicine over the next two years. The first report simply aims to create a picture of health insurance in the U.S. The report did not include any recommendations. Among the report's findings were that forty million Americans had no insurance for all of 2000. About two thirds of the remainder who have insurance are covered through their job or a relative's job, suggesting that many people gain and lose coverage as they marry, divorce, change jobs, start or leave college, or go through other transitions. At some point, one out of seven Americans goes without coverage for a full year; many others lack coverage for shorter periods. The panel found that about 13.6 million of the uninsured work for employers that do not offer health insurance. Individually purchased coverage may be prohibitively costly. The panel that released the report was chaired by NAS member and University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman.
http://books.nap.edu/html/coverage_matters/
Florida Waitress Sues Employer
A Florida waitress is suing her employer for giving her a toy Star Wars doll instead of a car for being an outstanding employee. Waitress Jodee Berry worked at a Hooters restaurant in Panama City, Florida where she says that a manager told waitresses that the one who sold the most beer in April would win a new Toyota automobile. When Berry was led blindfolded to the parking lot to claim her prize, she instead received a <> toy Yoda doll. A judge is currently deciding whether the court should handle the case or if the employee handbook denies employees the right to sue. Berry said she agreed to work under those conditions because she didn't realize what she had signed and had no option but to sign it.
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