News for the Working Family From AFL-CIO
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House Hearing Focuses on Mine, Workplace SafetyMine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts told the House Education and Labor Committee this afternoon, “We can and must do a better job of protecting our nation’s miners,” and urged Congress to approve legislation to strengthen mine and workplace safety laws. The bill, the Miner Safety and Health Act (H.R. 5663), focuses on mine safety, but also includes provisions to strengthen worker safety protections in all workplaces. Its backers say recent deadly workplace disasters are concrete but tragic evidence that job safety laws must be improved. Just this year, the deadly Massey Energy Upper Big Branch explosion killed 29 coal miners; the Tesoro refinery blast claimed the lives of seven Washington State workers; the BP oil rig blast killed 11, and six workers died at a Connecticut Kleen Energy Systems explosion. As Roberts told the committee: “Clearly the status quo isn’t good enough.” The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) efforts have failed to motivate at least some mine operators, like Massey, to operate their mines safely each and every day. Stanley “Goose” Stewart was able to escape the April 5 blast at Upper Big Branch. He outlined more than a dozen safety shortcuts and violations, from ventilation to coal dust and methane levels, conducted and condoned by mine management he witnessed at Upper Big Branch. The 34-year-veteran miner, who spent 15 years at Performance Coal Co., the Massey subsidiary operating Upper Big Branch, told the committee: Something needs to be done to stop outlaw coal companies who blatantly disregard the laws…This bill must pass to keep ... AFL-CIO | | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 | Hits: 13 | Comments Read more |
Players Want 2011 All-Star Game Moved Out of ArizonaBaseball fans, take a good look at some of the players in tonight’s All-Star Game. You may not see them at next year’s classic if they are Latino. A growing number of Latino players—including such perennial all-stars as Albert Pujols and Adrian Gonzalez—have said they would not participate in the game if it is played as scheduled next year in Phoenix. The Latino players are calling on Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 game out of Phoenix as a protest against Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law, which goes into effect July 29. The law requires police to stop and question anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” of being undocumented. The law does not define “reasonable suspicion,” a fact that many opponents say is a carte blanche for racial profiling. Writing at Huffington Post today, Ben Walker speaks with several Latino players who say the law is unfair and they cannot play if the game remains in Phoenix. He quotes Kansas City Royals closer Joakim Soria, who says: They could stop me and ask to see my papers. I have to stand with my Latin community on this. Read all of Walker’s post here. The Major League Baseball Players Association said in a statement that the new law could have a “negative impact” on major league baseball teams, which have hundreds of players who are citizens of countries other than the United States. At least six players on the Arizona Diamondbacks roster are not U.S. citizens, and 30 percent of all Major League players are Latino. These international ... AFL-CIO | | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 | Hits: 11 | Comments Read more |
Lack of Jobs, Not ‘Generous’ UI Benefits, Keep Unemployed JoYou’ve really got to wonder if any of the Republican lawmakers, conservative think-tankers and right-wing bloggers who continue to claim that jobless workers would rather collect unemployment insurance (UI) benefits than find a job have ever lived in the real world. Thankfully, it’s been a long time, but when I was collecting UI, I was busting my hump to find work because the $190 or so a week UI check didn’t go too far. Same thing with my wife when she was out of work back then. Everybody I’ve known who’s been on UI would gladly have traded that UI check for a paycheck. If you ask the nearly 15 million people out of work today—almost half for more than six months—they’d make the same deal. Republican senators, with the support of their usual gang of cronies, have four times blocked legislation to extend UI benefits for the long-term unemployed. With the extensions expired, more than 2 million Americans have lost their unemployment benefits, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Republicans say they’re concerned about adding to the deficit. But there is enough chatter about “generous benefits,” “disincentives” and other code words for lazy on right-wing radio, Fox News political shows and conservative blogs to raise suspicion. A congressional report last week blew away these bogus claims. But before we get into that, let’s take a look at some of the more ridiculous assertions. Remember the argument boils down to the disincentive a $300 a week UI check (national average) provides over a job with ... AFL-CIO | | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 | Hits: 11 | Comments Read more |
Netroots Nation: Tell Us Your Ideas for the Labor Caucus Netroots Nation, the annual gathering of some 2,000 progressive bloggers and activists, is coming up fast—July 22–25—and we need your input on topics we should focus on at the Labor Caucus we hold there every year. Labor communicators from the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and independent unions take part in the Labor Caucus, as well as allies from groups such as Jobs with Justice. This year, Matt Browner-Hamlin from SEIU and I are co-hosting it, and we want your input to help frame the agenda. Participants in the Labor Caucus focus on issues affecting our work as labor communicators—how we can improve what we do and effectively reach union members and the public. Last year, we explored how to build our own online union community, connecting labor to the progressive blog world and utilizing our resources to make changes at the state and local levels, to support union members and campaigns. So whether you are traveling to Las Vegas for the Netroots Nation conference or will follow along here and at the Netroots Nation site, let us know what you want explored at this year’s Labor Caucus. Leave suggestions here or send an e-mail to blognews@aflcio.org. We will cover labor events while at Netroots Nation, including the “21st Century Economy” panel with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; Elizabeth Warren, chairwoman of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP); Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.); and others. If you’re at Netroots Nation, the panel is Saturday, July 24, 11:45 a.m. PDT. We also will blog the panel, “Young Workers: Taking Charge of O... AFL-CIO | | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 | Hits: 9 | Comments Read more |
Netroots Nation: Vote on a Union Beer By popular demand, Working America and the AFL-CIO are bringing back last year’s “Raise a glass for the working class” booth—otherwise known as the beer booth—at Netroots Nation. If you come by our booth anytime the exhibit hall is open and take an action for working families, you’re entitled to come back and sample union beer during the happy hours we’ll be holding next week on Thursday and Friday of the convention. We’ll have updates coming soon about what actions you can take and exactly when beer will be served. (Last year the actions included writing to your members of Congress about health care reform or the Employee Free Choice Act, or joining Working America.) But right now, the big question is: What beer should we serve? We’ll only be serving union beer, of course. Once again we’ll be handing out our handy wallet-sized union beer info cards (“Drink beer made by union members. You’ll feel better in the morning”), which list the following options: All Miller products, including: (UAW) Miller High Life, Genuine Draft and Lite Milwaukee’s Best Sharp’s Icehouse, Red Dog Hamm’s All Anheuser-Busch products, including: (IAM) Budweiser, Bud Light and Budweiser American Ale Michelob Shock Top Busch Natural Light Rolling Rock O’Doul’s Leinenkugel’s (UAW) Iron City (IUE-CWA) Mad River Brewing Co. (IAM) Henry Weinhard’s (UAW) Unfortunately, the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas isn’t able to get all of these—our choices are Miller and Leinenkugel beers. But we still have to pick which Millers and which Leinenkugels, and when we’re figuring out the order, we want to know what you want. So take the poll; we’ll do our best ... AFL-CIO | | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 | Hits: 10 | Comments Read more |
