Labor Union Blog

By Doug Cunningham

Mark Ayers, President of the AFL-CIO Building Trades Department, says the recent spate of construction fatalities in New York City and Las Vegas are disturbing and most are preventable. Ayers says 22 percent of all worker deaths on the job are in construction. The Building & Construction Trades Governing Board is meeting this week to examine the issue and make recommendations to improve job site safety.

By Doug Cunningham

The SEIU’s quadrennial convention officially kicks off today in San Juan Puerto Rico as the leadership of one of America’s biggest and fastest growing unions charts a course for continued growth and worker representation. SEIU President Andy Stern says SEIU is pursuing a global strategy to advance the interests of workers in the 21st century global economy.

[Stern]: “Our theme of our convention is justice for all. It’s a recognition that the words workers of the world unite can no longer just be a slogan. It’s the way that workers win in a global economy. The gap between the rich and the rest of the world population is growing so wide and so fast all over the world that in this time of a global economy with multinational employers unions must go international as well. I’m enormously excited to call this convention to order and to build the global union that SEIU wants to become.”

Summer air travel season is just getting under way, but in the nation’s control towers and radar facilities, a worsening staff shortage and the effects of fatigue with fewer air traffic controllers working longer shifts could pose a major problem, warns a new video from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).

The video, “When You Lose Controllers, You Lose Control,” asks:

…What happens when we’re exhausted and stretched to the limit? Nearly one-fifth of us have left since 2006, leaving towers dangerously short-staffed, with fewer experienced controllers being forced to work overtime. Even the National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] warns the results could be catastrophic, but the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] still won’t listen.