Voices At Work

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Despite promising a veto, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) on Friday signed into law revisions to the state’s notorious anti-immigrant measure HB 56. The new version (HB 658) maintains the worst of the original law’s provisions.

Our sisters at the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) want to get the word out about a new online women’s health community just launched by the non-profit group Healthy Women that CLUW has partnered with on many projects. CLUW President Karen See says the new online community offers:

a safe health haven for women and a place where women can ask health questions, get answers and share their own experiences with other women, as well as with health care experts.

This is cross-posted from Broadcast Union News:  IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local One -- the men and women who construct, install, maintain, and operate the lighting and sound equipment, the scenery and special effects for shows, concerts, productions, and broadcasts in Manhattan (including Broadway, Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and more) -- are picketing to protest Foster Entertainment's use of a non-union construction crew to build and non-union stagehands to run "Empire New York."  

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Fifty-nine pilot and flight simulator instructors at The Boeing Company voted by a 4-to-1 margin to join the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA)/IFPTE Local 2001 in an election that was certified today.

The National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) has taken action against Verizon for the firing and disciplining of its workers after a two-week strike last August. NLRB Region 2 has authorized the issuance of a complaint against Verizon for 58 of the 63 cases of unfair dismissal or discipline charges brought by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). 

We’ve known this for decades and now the journal Science has empirical proof that workplace safety and health inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) save lives, reduce employers’ costs for workers’ compensation and do not have any negative economic effect on the inspected businesses.

The authors of the study—three professors from the University of California, Harvard Business School and Boston University—say they set out to answer a simple question: Do government regulations kill jobs—as business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Republican lawmakers claim—or protect the public?  

A new report reveals the “extraordinary influence” the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has had in the Wisconsin legislature during the past 16 months—the same 16 months since Gov. Scott Walker (R) took power. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which released the report, says ALEC's influence:

undermines the rights of Wisconsin families while advancing the agenda of huge corporations.

China has been dumping solar cells on the U.S. market at artificially low prices, the U.S. Commerce Department ruled today, imposing stiff new tariffs of about 31 percent on 60 Chinese firms to provide U.S. manufacturers a fair playing field.

House Republicans have blocked efforts to maintain strong workplace health safety rules for workers at the nation’s nuclear weapons facilities. Republicans leaders rejected even a vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would have preserved the current standards.They are pushing an extreme proposal to deregulate worker safety and allow employer self–regulation and self-oversight.

Tomorrow in Chicago, nurses from across the United States and U.S. and global activists will rally and call on world leaders to adopt a Robin Hood tax on financial speculation by banks and financial institution to create jobs and rebuild the economy that Wall Street broke. The Day of Action is sponsored by National Nurses United (NNU).

San Francisco public health nurses are in negotiations over the city's proposed financial and working conditions concessions.  Sasha Cuttler writes:  "Nurse’s Week is over and we have a lot to do, let’s start with a fair deal for DPH nurses. It's not to much to ask for and we will all benefit."

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This piece originally appeared in SEIU Healthcare's Nurse Alliance RoundUp.  No matter where you work or what you do, the issue of workplace violence is hugely important.  What is it, what causes it, why is it under-reported, and what does OSHA have to do with it?

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Berry Craig writes about what's wrong with GOP presidential-hopeful Mitt Romney's statement that the Employee Free Choice Act would strip "workers of the right to vote by secret ballot on whether to unionize."   

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The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is set to go into effect on May 15, despite increased violence and threats against workers' rights and human rights advocates.  This piece is cross-posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

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