Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

Does beer help the economy? According to a new study commissioned by the Beer Institute and the National Beer Wholesalers Association it does. One point nine million jobs are created by beer sales and the industry contributes $198 billion annually to the economy. The study suggests one million jobs are created within the industry while the beer industry supports 888,000 retail positions.

By Doug Cunningham

A federal lawsuit against New York City seeks to change the hiring selection and exam process at the city’s fire department. John Coons is with the Vulcan Society, a black firefighters organization within FDNY. He says its ironic that New York City is one of the most racially diverse cities in the world while its fire department is not nearly diverse enough.

[Coons]: “Yet the fire department doesn’t reflect that in its hiring of firefighters. So this case is really about people’s opportunity to work.”

The U.S Justice Department has intervened in the lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, also alleging that the hiring selection and exams process discriminates. Coons hopes the suit can be resolved before it’s scheduled for trial in June.

By Doug Cunningham

A federal lawsuit against New York City seeks to change the hiring selection and exam process at the city’s fire department. John Coons is with the Vulcan Society, a black firefighters organization within FDNY. He says its ironic that New York City is one of the most racially diverse cities in the world while its fire department is not nearly diverse enough.

[Coons]: “Yet the fire department doesn’t reflect that in its hiring of firefighters. So this case is really about people’s opportunity to work.”

The U.S Justice Department has intervened in the lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, also alleging that the hiring selection and exams process discriminates. Coons hopes the suit can be resolved before it’s scheduled for trial in June.

Steelworkers came out in Granite City, Illinois on Tuesday to oppose plans to use foreign made steel for the proposed pipeline projects. Jesse Russell reports:

Nearly 1,000 people attended the rally on Tuesday intended to bring attention to plans to use foreign made steel for pipeline projects in the United States. The rally was held in front of the shuttered United States Steel Corporation plant in the St. Louis suburb where many of the protesting steelworkers had previously been employed. The stimulus package approved by President Barack Obama in February does contain a “Buy American” clause, but that clause doesn’t apply to private projects. Specifically the workers had gathered to protest the so-called Keystone Pipeline which will be made with steel shipped in from India. The project is estimated to be $5.2 billion and will span the states of Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and both of the Dakotas.

By Doug Cunningham

As unification efforts in the labor movement continue, the AFL-CIO, Change To Win, and The National Education Association are creating a National Labor Coordinating Committee to act in unison on major issues facing working Americans. A complete unification agreement will be ironed out in the coming months. The new national committee will deal with issues like labor law reform, health care reform and rebuilding the economy.

Health and safety activist Jordan Barab was appointed today as the acting head of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Barab, a senior policy adviser for the House Education and Labor Committee, is well-known as a strong advocate for health and safety in the workplace.

Barab will lead the agency until a permanent director is chosen and then will become OSHA’s deputy assistant secretary on a permanent basis.

Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO’s director for safety and health, says Barab is an “excellent choice” for OSHA deputy assistant secretary. 

He has decades of experience in safety and health working in the labor movement, at OSHA and in the House of Representatives on a broad range of issues. He has a deep commitment and dedication to protecting workers and will bring to OSHA the kind of energy and leadership that is sorely needed to move the agency in a new direction.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, says Barab “will bring a tremendous amount of valuable health and safety experience to an agency that has been neglected for far too long.”

Throughout his career, Jordan has demonstrated the specialized knowledge of health and safety issues needed to revamp the agency and strengthen its efforts to protect Americans while on the job.

Barab joined the House Education and Labor Committee staff in February 2007 as senior labor policy adviser after four years at the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. He served as special assistant to the assistant director of labor for OSHA from 1998 to 2001. He was a consultant to the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department from 2001 to 2002, and directed the safety and health program for AFSCME from 1982 to 1998. 

From 2003 to 2007, Barab wrote an award-winning blog about workplace health and safety called Confined Space.

A U.S.-flagged and crewed merchant ship carrying food relief supplies to Kenya was boarded by Somali pirates earlier today some 350 miles off the African coast. According to the latest news reports, the crew has regained control of the ship, the Maersk Alabama, and the pirates have left but they are holding the captain hostage.

Twelve members of the 20-person crew are members of the Seafarers (SIU) and the ship’s officers are members of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association (MEBA) and Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P).

When the pirates, armed with AK-47s, boarded the 730-foot vessel, the unarmed crew locked themselves in an area of the ship that contains the ship’s steering gear, second officer Ken Quinn told CNN in a ship-to-shore phone call. 

He said the crew had captured one of the pirates and, in negotiations with remaining pirates, agreed to exchange him for the release of the ship’s captain. But after the captured Somali was released, the pirates continued to hold the captain as of 4 p.m. EDT.

In a statement late this afternoon, Maersk Lines says: 

The armed hijackers who boarded this ship earlier today have departed, however they are currently holding one member of the ship’s crew as a hostage. The other members of the crew are safe and no injuries have been reported. Our primary concern is for the safe return of the individual still being held. 

News reports say a U.S warship is still several hours away.

In statement, the SIU says:

Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew members, officers and their families. A toll-free phone number is being established for family members of the SIU crew and officers currently aboard the ship. Family members will be contacted as soon as possible with that number, the “Maersk Alabama Assistance Line.”

The SIU members aboard the Maersk Alabama have undergone safety training at the union-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education, which is located in Piney Point, Md.

Among the school’s course offerings are an anti-terrorism briefing that is given to every student; security awareness; vessel security officer; basic and advanced fire fighting; chemical, biological and radiological defense; vessel familiarization; small-arms training; damage control; and dozens more classes.

The AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE) has released a fact sheet that explains why unions matter to professional and technical workers and the public—and why, in turn, we need the Employee Free Choice Act to protect workers’ freedom to choose a union and bargain. 

From the DPE report: 

Professionals are joining unions to preserve workplace integrity and respect, and create safe, professional, and rewarding work environments for themselves and their colleagues. The desire to do their jobs well attracts many professional employees to union representation. 

Having a union gives employees in a wide variety of professions—from nursing to pilots and engineers—the tools they need to not only improve their own working conditions but also to improve the critical services they provide to the public. As the DPE report notes: 

Unions allow professional employees to do their jobs to the best of their training, education and abilities through vital workplace protections. Rationalization of personnel procedures and protection against arbitrary dismissal afford professional employees the ability to speak up when they see a threat to professional integrity. 

Through training programs and a strong stake in the quality of work they’re providing, professional employees’ ability to form unions has powerful benefits for the people they serve. 

The DPE’s fact sheet says the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to ensure that professional employees can freely exercise their basic freedom to form a union and bargain. The legislation will make sure employees, not their bosses, can make the choice about which method to use to form a union—either a National Labor Relations Board election or majority sign-up. It will remove obstacles that frequently are thrown in the way of workers who want to form unions by creating real penalties for coercive management tactics, including the illegal firings that mar one out of every four union campaigns. And, by guaranteeing a first contract, the bill will prevent the routine management tactics of delay and refusal to negotiate. 

Giving professionals the choice about how to form a union is critical to fairer workplaces, better service to the public and a stronger economy. It’s time to pass this critical bill.

President Obama’s economic recovery plan sets aside $50 billion in grants and tax incentives to promote efficient, clean and renewable energy. Several unions are reminding policymakers that the nation already has a huge and available supply of fuel that could be harnessed to provide green jobs and promote energy independence.

The Mine Workers (UMWA), Boilermakers (IBB), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC) are aggressively promoting the use of coal-generated electricity to provide jobs and help clean up the environment.

Along with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the unions recently released a study showing that using advanced clean coal technologies that capture and safely store carbon dioxide will create millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs for U.S. workers. Using this “clean coal” technology will reduce carbon dioxide emissions, generate $1 trillion of economic output and create up to 7 million work-years of employment, according to the study.

Speaking at a Washington, D.C., press conference, Bob Baugh, IUC executive director, said (see video):

Our nation needs good jobs and new technology that will cut our carbon emissions. It is time to quit talking about advanced coal technology and begin building it.

You can read the entire study, “Employment and Other Economic Benefits from Advanced Coal Electric Generation with Carbon Capture and Storage,” here.

In a statement, IBEW President Ed Hill said while he supports development of wind and solar power on a large scale:  

the only realistic course for our nation is to minimize the carbon emissions from coal generation, which, along with nuclear, will continue to be a vital part of our energy mix for the foreseeable future.

The United States has more coal reserves than Saudi Arabia has oil and we cannot ignore those reserves if we want to make energy independence a reality, says IBB President Newton Jones.

This study demonstrates that it also has the potential to create thousands of good paying jobs….We urge policymakers to keep the results of this study in mind as they move forward in regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and take appropriate steps to encourage the commercialization of [clean coal] technology.

The AFL-CIO strongly backs efforts to combat global warming, achieve energy independence and revitalize American manufacturing in the process. In 2007, the AFL-CIO Executive Council issued a statement that said, in part:

It makes sense to seek energy independence through investments in infrastructure, clean coal/carbon sequestration, advanced technology vehicles and their key components, alternative energy resources (solar, thermal, wind, biomass, etc.) and energy-efficient buildings and appliances.  Each of these should be linked to domestic investment and production.

To ensure green jobs are quality jobs, the AFL-CIO has created the Center for Green Jobs. Starting with $1 million from the Working for America Institute, the AFL-CIO’s workforce and economic development arm, the center will partner with affiliated unions to help pave the way for good union jobs in a variety of this country’s unionized and greening industries. The center also will spread the lessons of AFL-CIO affiliates that have successfully joined the green economy, especially in manufacturing.

As UMWA President Cecil Roberts says:

Workers and their families win, the communities where these facilities will be constructed win, and the environment wins. It’s time to get started.