Category Archives: trade unions

Community, trade unions

Beaver Bus Drivers Remain on the Job after Strike Vote

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By Moriah Balingit

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Aug 8, 2011 – Drivers, mechanics and service workers with the Beaver County Transit Authority voted to strike Sunday shortly after overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed contract that they felt did not sufficiently address their issues with forced overtime.

The 50 or so workers, represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1743, will not walk out on the job until they get authorization from the union’s international heads and then will face a waiting period, said Local 1743 President Diane Stambaugh.

Ms. Stambaugh said the Beaver Authority forces drivers to stay on beyond their scheduled shifts regularly and disciplines them if they refuse. Under the proposed contract, employees would be allowed to refuse two forced overtime shifts, a quarter and would have disciplinary marks removed from their records after 33 months instead of 36 months.

Drivers, she said, "have no life."

"They can’t make plans to do anything," she said.

Employees want more flexibility to refuse overtime and want less stringent penalties when they do, Ms. Stambaugh said, adding that she believes the authority relies too much on forced overtime when it needs to hire more drivers.

"If they would hire more people, we wouldn’t have this [overtime] problem," she said.

The union’s contract expired Dec. 31.

Officials with the Beaver County Transit Authority could not be reached for comment.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11220/1166024-100.stm?cmpid=news.xml#ixzz1UTNhxBNJ

Economy, trade unions

One Graph, One Thousand Words: Why Unions Are Important

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What Happens When Your Don’t Have Enough Trade Unions, and the Lobbyists for the Wealthy Write the Tax Laws

Beaver County Blue via Alternet.org

Community, Environment, trade unions

Fighting for Our Future & Honoring Martin Luther King With Solidarity

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April 4 ‘We Are One’ Events:

Uniting Labor and Community

For an Upsurge in Class War

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

Working-class solidarity actions involving thousands of workers were among the lead news items in the headlines in nearly 1200 cities and town around the country over the April 4 weekend. The Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Eastern Ohio ‘rust belt’ region was no exception.

The occasion commemorated the anniversary of the April 4, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his effort to help striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee win union recognition. The entire U.S. labor movement seized the time to organize public protest against the outrageous rightwing attacks on worker rights in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. The AFL-CIO knows full well that more attacks are coming, and its ‘We Are One’ campaign for the day was a grassroots dress rehearsal and consciousness-raising effort to prepare both its troops and its community-based allies for more battles to come.

“We are one! We are one!’ and ‘What’s Disgusting? Union busting!’ were among the chants echoing off the concrete and glass walls of downtown Pittsburgh. Somewhere between 500 and 1000 marchers waved V-signs at passersby in cars and buses–but more often than in a long time, one saw a sea of the more militant clenched fist salutes as well. As usual, different contingents of workers wore their color coded T-Shirts for the day-camouflage for the UMWA, dark blue for the Steelworkers, red for Unite Here! hotel workers, and purple for SEIU service workers.

USW President Leo Gerard fired people up at the first stop, the Equitable Gas headquarters. “These rich bastards aren’t paying any taxes and sending the bills to us and giving themselves record-breaking bonuses. If tax cuts created jobs, Bush would have left office with full employment. The speculators gamble with our money and want us to cover their losses. Well, when they come around again, they can kiss my ass.”

The crowd loved it. “What do you think, why are you here?” I asked Pamela Maclin, a woman worker standing near Leo, “We fought and died for our union rights, our civil rights.  We’re taking a stand; they’re not going to take them away.”

Continue reading Fighting for Our Future & Honoring Martin Luther King With Solidarity →

Right Wing, trade unions

Union-Busting: ‘An Attack on All Working People’

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Steelworkers Denounce Wisconsin GOP Bill

Pittsburgh, March 11, 2011 – This statement was released this morning by the United Steelworkers (USW) on actions taken last evening by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republican Senators.

In a clear violation of Wisconsin’s open meeting law, Wisconsin conservative senators yesterday voted without a quorum to strip the state’s public sector workers – teachers, nurses, and librarians – of collective bargaining rights that the people of Wisconsin granted them a half century ago.

United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard said this attack on the rights of Wisconsin’s public sector workers is an attack on all working people. “Although Wisconsin law requires a quorum when Senators vote to spend the people’s money, these conservatives exploited a loophole to vote without a quorum on legislation to steal workers’ rights. This is not democracy,” Gerard said.

“As illustrated by the surging crowd of protesters who filled the capitol building in Wisconsin after the undemocratic sneak-vote Wednesday, workers everywhere, whether public sector or private sector, union or unrepresented, will unite to win back their rights with their feet at protests and their votes at ballot boxes,” said Gerard, who leads North America’s largest industrial union, with 850,000 members, including steelworkers, paper workers, oil workers, rubber workers and public sector workers in the U.S. and Canada.

The conservative attack on workers in Wisconsin is far from isolated, Gerard said: “This is a nation-wide campaign by billionaires and country-club conservatives, to terminate workers’ rights, giving unfettered power to corporations.” So far in Wisconsin, conservatives have granted only government workers the right to freeload – the ability to benefit from collective bargaining without paying union dues. In nine other states, from Maine to Missouri, conservatives are pushing right to freeload legislation to cripple all unions.

“All this legislation is an attack on the middle class, which blossomed in this country as a result of collective bargaining victories during the middle of the last century. Middle class workers, whether Republican or Democrat, know they must repel this assault on their right to collectively bargain or be reduced to insecurity and poverty,” Gerard said.

trade unions, Women

March 8: Women’s Day Is About Equality and Autonomy

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On Women’s Day, GOP Attacks Women


By Leo Gerard
USW International President

Beaver County Blue via Huffington Post

Not like Valentine’s Day, which is about love and chocolate, or Mother’s Day, which is about sentimentality and breakfast in bed, International Women’s Day is about equality and autonomy.

The first commemoration occurred on March 19, 1911, a time when most governments in the world, including the U.S. and Canada, barred women from voting and most employers refused to hire women, ghettoizing them in sweatshops.

Six days after that first international call to action for women, flames engulfed such a sweatshop, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, killing 146 workers, the vast majority of them young women aged 16 to 25, some of whom jumped to their deaths from the 9th floor rather than burn.

Women can vote now. They can hold most jobs, though not all, including combat positions in the U.S. military. And their pay is only 75 percent of men’s. So the struggle for equality and autonomy is not over. Yet the GOP is intent on setting women back. If the Republican governors across the country succeed in confiscating collective bargaining rights from public sector workers, women will be hurt most. Continue reading March 8: Women’s Day Is About Equality and Autonomy →

Economy, Right Wing, trade unions

Worker Solidarity Comes To Harrisburg, Too!

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‘We Are Wisconsin’ Rally on Capitol Steps Draws 1,000

LARA BRENCKLE, The Patriot-News

By LARA BRENCKLE

Harrisburg’s Patriot-News

Feb 26, 2001

We are Wisconsin rally

Carla Crawford of Pittsburgh yells towards protesters during a We Are Wisconsin rally to show support for the state’s workers. Wisconsin’s governor and Republican legislature are seeking to end collective bargaining for state employees.

Tom Banks of Lemoyne (with flag) shows his support during a "We Are Wisconsin" rally to show support for the state’s unionized workers. Wisconsin’s governor and Republican legislature are seeking to end collective bargaining for state employees.

rally 2 0226 sds

Saying they’re sending an SOS for the American Dream, a thousand people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol this afternoon in support of union workers and the middle class.

Organized by Keystone Progress and dozens of other  organizations, the event was part of a nationwide day of action against efforts in Wisconsin and other states to eliminate collective bargaining for unionized state employees.

Continue reading Worker Solidarity Comes To Harrisburg, Too! →

labor, Right Wing, trade unions

Solidarity Rally Thursday, Noon, Feb 24, in Pittsburgh! More to Follow…

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Show Pennsylvania’s

Support for the Fightback!

From Steffi Domike, USW

Dear Pennsylvania USW Friends and Associates:

The billionaire backed Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has declared all-out war on workers’ freedoms. He’s slashing taxes for the richest residents of his state, and wants to eliminate the rights of workers to organize a union, bargain for fair wages or advocate for decent pay and benefits.

In response, more than 25,000 protesters have converged on the state house in Madison to stage a sit-in that blocks the halls, bars the doors of the Senate and fills the state house lawn with tens of thousand of workers.  They’re fighting for their livelihoods and they’re fighting for ours as well because if workers lose in Wisconsin, the wave to take away our job rights and wages will spread across the country.

Pennsylvania is joining the Fight Back!

PLEASE JOIN US as we rally in support of American working families and the American Dream.

Today, Wednesday, 2/23, Pennsylvanians will be standing up in solidarity with Wisconsin workers in SCRANTON

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for Wisconsin Workers

WHEN:         12:00 Noon to 12:30, Today, Wednesday, 2/23

WHERE:      Labor Leader John Mitchell Statue, Lackawanna Courthouse (Adams Avenue Side) Scranton, PA

On Thursday, 2/24, working Pennsylvanians will be rallying in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for the Wisconsin Workers

WHEN:         11:30am, Thursday, 2/24

WHERE:      Municipal Services Bldg PlazaAcross from City Hall PHILADELPHIA

WHAT:         Solidarity Rally for the Wisconsin Workers (Lunch will be provided)

WHEN:         12:00 pm Noon, Thursday, 2/24

WHERE:      United Steelworkers Headquarters, 5 Gateway Center, 60 Blvd of the Allies PITTSBURGH

On Saturday, 2/26, working Pennsylvanians will be rallying to save the American Dream in Harrisburg.

SATURDAY, 2/26 IN HARRISBURG

WHAT:         Rally to Save the American Dream

WHEN:         Saturday, 2/26 at NOON

WHERE:      Capitol Steps, Harrisburg

Please do you best to attend these rallies and please spread the word about them.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Right Wing, trade unions

Solidarity Is More Than Shouting Slogans, So Lend a Hand!

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THE BATTLE FOR UNIONS IN WISCONSIN:

HOW YOU CAN HELP

THE BATTLE FOR UNIONS IN WISCONSIN
HOW YOU CAN HELP

Folks from outside Wisconsin are contacting me and asking how to help with the battle to save collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin.   (Additional information on the current status of things here is at the end of this letter.)

YOU CAN PROVIDE FINANCIAL SUPPORT
People of generally modest means, including many college students, are continuing the occupation of the Capitol and the daily picketing in resistance to the Governor’s plans. Most teachers have had to/have chosen to return to their classrooms, but many other union members remain, people from private sector unions and public unions including police and firefighters.  There are many private citizens, often seniors.  Those remaining in the capitol and on the picket lines need food, water, transportation, housing. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO is coordinating much of that support. No matter how small, financial support is welcome:

ONLINE:  The AFL-CIO is accepting donations online through PayPal or any major credit card. Please go to  http://wisaflcio.org  for the link.

Continue reading Solidarity Is More Than Shouting Slogans, So Lend a Hand! →

labor, Right Wing, trade unions, Youth and students

General Strike? Wisconsin Workers Prepare to Up the Ante vs. the Far Right

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Photo: Afl-CIO President Richard Trumka at Madison Protest

Madison Area AFL CIO Votes to Prepare For General Strike

By Mike Elk

Beaver County Blue via michaelmoore.com

This evening in a press release from IBEW Local 2304 President Dave Pokilinski, I received word that the 45,000 member Southern Central Federation of Labor, the local chapter of the AFL-CIO for the Madison and Southern Central Wisconsin area, has voted to make preparations for a general strike.

The press release reads as follows:

Around 10:50PM Wisconsin Time on February 21st the South Central Federation of Labor endorsed the following motions:

Motion 1: The SCFL endorses a general strike, possibly for the day Walker signs his “budget repair bill,” and requests the Education Committee immediately begin educating affiliates and members on the organization and function of a general strike.

Motion 2:  The SCFL goes on record as opposing all provisions contained in Walker’s “budget repair bill,” including but not limited to, curtailed bargaining rights and reduced wages, benefits, pensions, funding for public education, changes to medical assistance programs, and politicization of state government agencies.

Continue reading General Strike? Wisconsin Workers Prepare to Up the Ante vs. the Far Right →

Right Wing, trade unions

Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio

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Ohio: Collective Bargaining Union Protesters Clash at Statehouse with Tea Party Supporter of anti-Union Bill

Vociferous throngs attend hearings on Senate Bill 5

Thursday, February 17, 2011

By Jim Siegel
The Columbus Dispatch

Supporters of Senate Bill 5 rallied today outside the Statehouse . . .

JONATHAN QUILTER | DISPATCH Photos

Supporters of Senate Bill 5 rallied today outside the Statehouse . . .

. . . as the bill's opponents rallied inside.

. . . as the bill’s opponents rallied inside.

Thousands gather for Senate Bill 5 hearing

More than 3,000 enthusiastic supporters and opponents of the Senates proposed collective-bargaining overhaul enveloped the Statehouse this morning with cheers of kill the bill and yes on 5, prior to the latest hearing on Senate Bill 5.

The spacious Statehouse atrium was packed mostly with public union workers outraged at efforts to end collective bargaining for state workers and significantly weaken the ability for local workers to bargain for their pay, benefits and working conditions.

Unions made a strong showing for the bill’s first two hearings, and they were joined today by more than 200 red-shirt clad tea party activists pushing for the bill’s passage. The mix verbally clashed in the Statehouse rotunda, where each side did its best to drown out the other.

Continue reading Battle Against GOP Union Busters Spreads to Ohio →