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News :: Labor |
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Labor Hour Headlines 9-14-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
15 Sep 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. World Trade Center Cough from Neglect of Safety Guidelines, Commerce Dept Discusses Steel with OECD, British Union Federation Demands UN Support for Iraq Attack, S. Korean Riot Police Break Hospital Strike, ILWU Actions and Negotiations Proceed, Pekin Retirees Snub City's Insurance Offer |
World Trade Center Cough from Neglect of Safety Guidelines
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week that so many New York City Fire Department workers experienced a disabling cough after working at the site of the terrorist attacks that scientists coined a term for the new syndrome: "World Trade Center cough." Three hundred thirty two firefighters experienced a cough severe and persistent enough to require medical leave of four or more weeks, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. The number of firefighters affected by the disabling condition is nearly as high as the number who were killed in the building collapses. The cough is presumably related to particulate matter in the air and to the fact that nearly all of the affected firefighters did not use respirators. Virtually all of those with World Trade Center cough were at the site of the collapse on September 11 or September 12 last year. In tests of their lungs, many of the firefighters showed airway blockage and reduced breathing function typically seen in miners or construction workers after years of low-level exposure to particulate matter in the air.
http://chronicle.com/free/2002/09/2002091003n.htm
Commerce Dept Discusses Steel with OECD
At a meeting of wealthy nations in Paris this week, the United States Commerce Department is proposing reforms in government support for steel production. The proposals being presented to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are in response to international criticism of significant tariffs that the US imposed on foreign-produced steel last year. Other countries said that the tariffs violate rules of the World Trade Organization, but the US defended the measure saying that developing countries heavily subsidize steel their steel production, making it impossible for cleanly- and efficiently-produced north american steel to compete. At the OECD, US representatives will propose a four-point plan calls on countries to agree to end subsidies to the steel sector, to eliminate all tariffs and trade barriers, to improve enforcement of domestic competition laws, and it calls for action on a grab-bag of other areas such as preferential financing for steel forms and bankruptcy procedures that allow inefficient facilities to continue operating. there is overcapacity. Marco Trboich, a representative for the United Steelworkers of America, applauds some aspects of the plan, but not all. Trbovich says that a major trade disparity between US and foreign-produced steel is that many foreign producers provide national health insurance, a cost which US steel producers must shoulder on their own. In other words, health insurance is a subsidy that American steel companies don't receive. However Trbovich says it's unrealistic to expect that the US would be able to persuade foreign producers to eliminate national health insurance to level the playing field. The Commerce Department hopes to win approval of its proposals in December.
British Union Federation Demands UN Support for Iraq Attack
The British labor movement told Prime Minister Tony Blair that they will not tolerate an attack on Iraq if only the US and Britain are waging the war. The Trades Union Congress--the British version of the AFL-CIO--overwhelmingly approved a declaration urging that military action only be launched with the explicit endorsement of the United Nations Security Council. The TUC is part of the core of Blair's Labour Party support. The resolution stated that an attack on Iraq should only be sanctioned on the basis of evidence that President Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction and that his regime constituted a threat to world peace. Billy Hayes, the general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said Mr Blair should "give peace a chance", quoting a John Lennon song. Arguing in favour of a complete ban on military intervention in Iraq, he said that such a policy would have the full support of the British public.
S. Korean Riot Police Break Hospital Strike
More than 3,000 riot police stormed two hospitals in Seoul, South Korea early Friday morning in separate raids to break up unionized workers who had been staging long-running strikes over pay and working conditions. The Korea Herald says the three thousand riot police hauled away 330 striking unionists from one hospital and 170 from a university medical center. The workers were taken to 21 police stations across the capital for questioning. The union leader at one of the hospitals and five leaders of the progressive Korean Confederation of trade Unions were also taken to a police station, along with dozens of university students participating in the walkouts, police said. A police spokesperson said hundreds of policewomen first raided the ground-floor lobbies of the two hospitals to take out female unionists, and the police said no injuries occurred. The police said the raids were justified because the prolonged strikes at the two hospitals had been inconveniencing patients, their family members and ordinary citizens. Unionized workers of the two hospitals had been striking for months, demanding pay hikes and improved working conditions. Labor unions denounced the raid, threatening sympathy strikes. In a statement, a national health workers' trade union said it would stage a protest against the police action at the two hospitals. The KCTU said, quote, "The police raids will break industrial peace, and we will join the hospital workers' strikes and wage an anti-government campaign" in October.
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2002/09/12/200209120034.asp
ILWU Actions and Negotiations Proceed
Negotiations in the nation's most important labor dispute ground forward last week, with the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association exchanging proposals on the use of new technology. The ILWU remains willing to grant port owners the ability to implement new technologies, but the union wants the people who operate the new technology to be in the union. After originally agreeing to this principle, the owners backtracked and currently stand opposed to the union's proposal, demanding full rights to hire and fire, and set wages and working conditions for new employees. Away from the bargaining table, the ILWU has sent delegations to the offices of the shipping company Maersk. Union groups visited Maersk offices in San Francisco, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, and Alaska to bring attention to the company's role in the slow negotiations. Demonstrations are being planned for the offices of other major companies next week, and the union will protest Bush's labor secretary, Elaine Chao, when she visits San Francisco and Los Angeles. California governor Gray Davis sent a letter to Bush calling on him to stay out of negotiations. Davis said, quote, "I believe it would be counterproductive in this case to use the military to replace private sector employees as a way to break a bona fide labor dispute. . . And frankly, I am also concerned that Federal military intervention may ultimately impede the negotiation process and increase the risk of a bargaining impasse." unquote. Bush, encouraged by numerous major retailers including Wal-Mart, has threatened to take over the west coast ports with US military personnel if a strike or lockout takes place.
www.ilwu.org
Pekin Retirees Snub City's Insurance Offer
Police department retirees in Pekin, who are faced with substantial increases in their health insurance premiums, rejected a new plan presented by the city council on Monday. According to the Peoria Journal-Star, the cheaper coverage could only be obtained by their joining the same insurance plan endorsed by Teamsters Local 67, and the police retirees say that the plan's premiums are still too high. The retirees are demanding a limit of a $600 per month premium for a married couple, with the city paying whatever exceeds that amount. City officials say they cannot afford the retirees' demand. |
