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Candidates Spar at AFL-CIO Forum Nine presidential contenders touted their union credentials and visions for a more worker-friendly future before a packed house of 2,500 labor leaders at the AFL-CIO’s Working Families Presidential Forum. The 90-minute event was broadcast nationwide by C-SPAN and featured pointed comments by union members about lives lost to a broken health care system and jobs lost to unrestrained free trade policies. Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt challenged the audience to look beyond the campaign rhetoric of his rivals on foreign trade. “Check our record,” said Gephardt, who led the fight in Congress against NAFTA. “Check who was there when the fat was in the fire.” Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said he would oppose future trade deals that did not include environmental and labor standards. “If we’re going to create jobs, the first thing we have to do is make sure George W. Bush loses his,” said Kerry to prolonged applause. Florida Sen. Bob Graham, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman offered explanations for their support of NAFTA that did little to persuade the union audience. The candidates’ forum also included the Rev. Al Sharpton, North Carolina; Sen. John Edwards, Ohio; Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who summed up the feelings of many in the hall when she said “Organized labor has given us the middle class, and if we’re going to fight for the middle class, we’ve got to fight for the unions.”
Machinists File Suit at
Northwest Airlines Under an agreement negotiated by the IAM and Northwest Airlines in 1993, IAM members received shares in exchange for commitments made over a period from 1993 through 1996. “Our members fulfilled all their obligations under the agreement,” said IAM General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr. “Northwest Airlines must live up to its commitments and provide what rightfully belongs to our members.” The IAM’s lawsuit demands payment of not less than $100 million, representing the repurchase obligation applicable to the 2,129,734 shares held by past and present IAM members. The complaint alleges, among other things, breach and anticipatory breach of contractual commitments made to IAM employees by Northwest Airlines. Text of the complaint can be found on the IAM web site at www.goiam.org. “Our members expect the decision-makers at Northwest Airlines to honor their commitments and promises,” said IAM District 143 President Bobby DePace. “Northwest has failed their employees, and made this lawsuit necessary." Freedom to Join a Union Features IAM Member
Illinois Gov Signs Card
Check Law Under current Illinois law, union organizers must collect signed cards from at least 30 percent of workers and then petition for an election. “The election process can be lengthy, during which some employers intimidate or otherwise scare workers into voting against a union even though the workers may really want a union,” said Blagojevich. “This makes it a lot easier for people to join a union and fight for better working conditions, for better wages and better benefits.”
Additionally,
Illinois’ first Democratic governor in a generation signed a measure
reversing a 1995 amendment to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act
that prevented faculty members at three University of Illinois campuses
from organizing. The governor also signed a bill that will preserve union
representation for local government employees in the event their
bargaining unit falls below a 35-person threshold.
‘Ground Zero Syndrome’ Stalks 9-11
Workers Medical screenings of 6,000 workers conducted by the Mt. Sinai Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine found more than half reporting multiple upper and lower respiratory problems. Exposure to a toxic cloud of pulverized glass, concrete, asbestos and PVC plastic is blamed for the workers’ airway complaints, headaches, facial pressure and constant coughing. Thousands examined by the Mt. Sinai staff reported chest pains and shortness of breath. Some are permanently disabled and unable to work in any capacity. In the days following the building’s collapse, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared the air and water around Ground Zero to be safe and did not represent a health threat to workers or the public. “Well, they were wrong,” said Dr. Steven Levine, director of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center. In a recent interview with National Public Radio, Dr. Levine said the EPA failed to test air samples for lead, pulverized concrete or other potentially toxic construction materials. Additionally, representatives of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) monitoring the site did not require the use of respirators once the initial rescue work was completed.
Since May 2002, the
IAM has raised nearly $30,000 to provide medical care for rescue and
recovery workers who braved the conditions at Ground Zero.
IAM to Take Part in
Manitoba Inquest Read Past iMail | Email Your Opinion | Visit www.goiam.org | Print Version | Sign-Up for iMail
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