Labor Union Blog

Mammoth Coal Company has been ordered to rehire 85 workers who were refused jobs when the Mammoth Mine was purchased by Massey Energy in 2004. The National Labor Relations Board made the ruling on September 30 and along with the order to rehire the workers the company has been ordered to recognize and bargain with the United Mine Workers of America. The board determined that the mine had discriminated the 85 workers due to their status as union members.

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What was smooth sailing for a bill in the House of Representatives extending unemployment benefits an extra 13 weeks for states with rates over 8.5 percent could be heading for choppy waters in the Senate. Senators Harry Reid and Max Baucus proposed adding four weeks for every state and 13 weeks for the 27 hardest hit states. Senator Jeanne Shaheen plans to introduce an amendment to the Reid-Baucus bill tat would instead give 13 extra weeks of unemployment to every state in the union plus four extra weeks for the hardest hit.

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Lede: America’s jobs picture remains bleak as another 263,000 jobs vanish in September. Doug Cunningham has more.

By Doug Cunningham

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Betty White

Although best known for her role as Rose Nylund on the 1980s “Golden Girls” TV series and as Sue Ann Nivens on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Betty White has for six decades been a beloved comedienne, pioneering television producer, host, author and animal rights advocate.

Often called “America’s Sweetheart,” White has won six Emmys, including the first and only Daytime Emmy for Best Game Show Host for a woman. In 1952, she became a Hollywood pioneer when she and two colleagues formed their own production company, creating the nationally televised comedy series “Life with Elizabeth.” The series made White one of only a few women with creative control before and behind the camera in television’s early years.

Now, her colleagues and co-workers plan to honor her with the Screen Actors (SAG) Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. White will receive the award at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards—the nation’s largest and only-nationally televised all-union awards show—which premieres live on TNT and TBS Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT. SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors in film, television, industrials, commercials and music videos.

This year White is starring in the Disney feature “You Again,” and earlier this summer, she played in the popular romantic comedy, “The Proposal.”

Former SAG President Alan Rosenberg said of White:

Whether creating some of television’s most indelible characters, plunging into film roles with joyous gusto or perfecting the art of the quip as a television panelist and host, Betty White has entertained audiences with her impeccable comic timing and remarkable wit for more than 60 years. Her lifelong devotion to the welfare of animals, manifest in her work as an author, producer and philanthropist, is further evidence of her tremendous humanity and meaningful contributions in so many important areas. Screen Actors Guild is honored to celebrate Betty White’s extraordinary achievements over the course of an exemplary life.

White, 87, has been an advocate for the health and welfare of animals since childhood. She is president emeritus of the Morris Animal Foundation and has been a trustee since 1971. She first learned about the Foundation’s support of research studies to protect, treat and cure animals while creating, producing and hosting “The Pet Set,” the 1970-71 syndicated series featuring celebrities and their pets. 

She received the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Humane Award in 1987. A member of the board of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association since 1974, she served as a Zoo Commissioner for eight years. In February 2006 White was honored by the City of Los Angeles with a bronze plaque placed next to the Gorilla Exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo naming her “Ambassador to the Animals” for her life-long work for animal welfare. In 2007 Western University Veterinary School awarded her an honorary Doctor of Humane Veterinary Sciences. 

Three of her five books directly connect to this passion:  “Betty White’s Pet Love: How Pets Take Care of Us” (1983) and two co-authored with Tom Sullivan: “The Leading Lady: Dinah’s Story” (1991) and “Together: A Story of Shared Vision” (2008).  She published her first autobiography, “Betty White in Person,” in 1987, which was followed by “Here We Go Again: My Life in Television” in 1995.

As a Lifetime Achievement Award winner, White joins such previous honorees as Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (1985), Elizabeth Taylor (1997), Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (2000), Edward Asner (2001), Clint Eastwood (2002) and Shirley Temple Black (2005), Julie Andrews (2006), Charles Durning (2007) and James Earl Jones (2008).