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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Headlines 7/27/02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
27 Jul 2002
Modified: 30 Jul 2002 |
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. House Approves Fast Track in 3:30 a.m. Vote; Homeland Security Bill Omits Worker Protection for 170,000; Mine Workers Trapped in Pennsylvania; Prison Workers Warn That Budget Cuts Put Them At Risk; Sonic Workers Jobs Gone for Good; Illinois Enacts Law to Boost Safety for Highway Construction Workers; Stalwart Guided Unions to Forefront of Illinois Politics |
House Approves Fast Track in 3:30 a.m. Vote
Even as corporate scandals resulting from too-little regulation continue breaking, the House of Representatives last night approved corporate America's top priority and voted in favor of fast track negotiating authority for the president. The vote of 215 to 212 occurred at 3:30 a.m., and was the final vote before congress adjourned for a five-week-long vacation. President bush hailed the vote this morning calling it a "landmark agreement", saying the bill will give him the power to negotiate trade deals. Two of the nation's largest business organizations, the National Association of Manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce lobbied hard for the bill. Organized workers and grassroots activists across the nation opposed the bill and were angered and disappointed with the tricks used to pass the bill. Public Citizen's global trade watch called the bill a "midsummer night's massacre." Global trade watch noted that such pro-corporate trade bills have become so unpopular that Congress must resort to procedural tricks and secrecy to gain the passage of the bills. Final changes to the fast track bill were negotiated in secret late Thursday night, and no member of congress was able to see the text they were voting on until late on Friday, just hours before they had to vote to approve or reject the 304-page bill. Trade watch also notes that the bill weakens existing protections for workers displaced when corporations move operations across borders, it allows corporations to sue national governments--extending NAFTA's infamous Chapter 11 provisions, and it allows new trade deals to eliminate existing protections for workers and industries. The Senate must also vote on the bill, but passage in the more business-friendly (although democrat-controlled) senate is expected to be easy.
www.tradewatch.org
Note: the URL below is only for the TPA piece of the bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c107:1:./temp/~c107sMWQKx:e113345:
Roll call vote:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2002&rollnumber=370
Homeland Security Bill Omits Worker Protection for 170,000
The new homeland security agency which the house voted to create yesterday will not grant the 170,000 employees in the agency civil service protections. The new office was created in a rush this summer as President Bush tried to divert attention from news that the federal government had substantial information about the September 11 attacks, and from news that his administration falsely stated for weeks after the attacks that 'nobody could have imagined' that terrorists would fly civilian aircraft into major structures. The new agency will combine parts of 22 agencies in the largest government reorganization in 50 years. Democrats tried to improve the bill, but their amendments were defeated. One amendment would have maintained civil service protections, and another would have required the agency to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests. The bill currently exempts nearly all operations of the homeland security agency from public oversight. The American Federation of Goverment Employees says that civil service protections allow workers to speak out about mismanagement in the new agency, without fear of losing their job. Civil service protections and union representation ensure that speaking out about serious problems is encouraged, rather than punished. The president and his allies in congress, however, argued that the president needs flexibility in hiring and firing.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/07/20020726-1.html
http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=150
Mine Workers Trapped in Pennsylvania
Workers continued trying to rescue nine miners in Pennsylvania who remain trapped inside a flooded mine. Rescue workers are trying to drill two shafts to reach the workers who are believed to be alive despite being surrounded by fifty-five degree water since Wednesday night. Shortly after the accident was reported, the United Mine Workers of America issued a statement offering to help the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Deep Mine Safety in any way it can during the rescue. International president Cecil Roberts said, quote, "An accident like this draws attention to the need for stronger enforcement of the federal Mine Safety & Health Act. We will do everything we can to help MSHA and the state halt the growing number of coal mine accidents, injuries and fatalities. Although this mine is not represented by the UMWA, this union is committed to protecting all coal miners and other workers." unquote.
Prison Workers Warn That Budget Cuts Put Them At Risk
State budget cuts are leading to unrest at state prisons. Corrections workers in Illinois, who are represented by AFSCME, demonstrated on July 25 outside Gov. Ryan's office and presented the state's budget director with a petition containing 40,000 signatures opposing the closing of the medium-security Sheridan Correctional Center by Aug. 15. The closing will exacerbate crowding at other prisons, which are already overfull, and reduce staff to a ratio of one for every 4 inmates, a 15-year low. An AFSCME official said that "All of these jobs get a lot more dangerous as you stack more and more inmates into the prison system." Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2002, section 1, p 1
Sonic Workers Jobs Gone for Good
On July 22, employees who showed up to collect wages owed them by Sonic drive-in restaurants in Springfield were told that the restaurants were closed and would be sold in order to raise the money to issue workers their final paychecks. The Illinois Department of Labor had closed the restaurants on July 19, saying that the franchise owner had not paid 5 months worth of sales taxes and had also failed to pay withholding taxes deducted from employees' paychecks. State Journal-Register, July 23, 2002, p 1
Illinois Enacts Law to Boost Safety for Highway Construction Workers
On July 11, Gov. Ryan signed a bill amending the Illinois Vehicle Code that would increase the fine for exceeding speed limits in highway construction and maintenance zones by $50, raising the fine to $200. Money collected through the increase will be used to pay for hiring off-duty state police officers to monitor work zones and enforce work zone speed limits. Last year 33 workers were killed by reckless drivers in and around posted construction zones. Construction Labor Report, vol. 48, no. 2384, July 17, 2002, p 572
Stalwart Guided Unions to Forefront of Illinois Politics
Robert M. Healey, 72, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor from 1987 to 1994, died of lung cancer on July 22. Mr. Healey received a bachelor's degree from DePaul and a master's degree from the University of Chicago. He taught English in high school from 1956 to 1968, and was president of the Chicago Teachers Union from 1972 to 1984. After leaving the CFL, he was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Labor by Gov. Ryan in 1999, but stepped down in April 2002 to become chairman of the local panel of the Illinois Labor Relations Board. Mr. Healey spearheaded improvements in teacher benefits and class size limitations, and he bolstered the CFL's influence in Illinois politics. A visitation will be held on Thursday, July 25, from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Drake & Son Funeral Home, 5303 N. Western Ave., Chicago. A funeral mass will be said on Friday, July 26, at 1 p.m. in the Old St. Patrick's Catholic Church, 700 W. Adams St., Chicago. Chicago Tribune, July 24, 2002, section 1, p 8
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See also:
www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
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A note on homeland security and labor... |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
30 Jul 2002
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I saw John Sweeney debating the head of the Business Roundtable today on Wolf Blitzer's CNN show. He was, to be frank, very weak, especially on the issue of workers in the DHS. He allowed Blitzer to frame the issue as one of so-called flexibility, purportedly necessary in the interests of national security, and did not denounce the provisions as another attack on the right to organize, instead offering vague opposition. Anti-labor practices are working their way into the public sector, and if the AFL-CIO doesn't wake up soon, American organized labor will be utterly shattered. |
