Archive for the ‘Labor’ Category
Coal prices are down and no one deserves it more than Massey Energy
Coal stocks are down, across the board. Bloomberg recently reported that the largest U.S. coal producer, Peabody Energy Corp., fell 5.2 %, to $40.96. The second biggest producer, Arch Coal Inc., fell 5.9 % to $21.08. Massey Energy Co., the largest Central Appalachia coal producer, plunged $1.40, or 4.6 percent, to $28.75.
via Clean coal vs. natural gas – Aug. 30, 2010.
You sickening bastards like killing coal miners don’t ya? Yeah I know you do. You don’t care about their safety at all especially Massey Energy. Well take this!
Economic justice what being a Christian really means (i’m a deist though ahem)
Bishop William Murphy addressed these issues in the 2010 Labor Day Statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, saying, “New jobs with just wages and benefits must be created so that all workers can express their dignity through the dignity of work and are able to fulfill God’s call to us all to be co-creators.”
I’ve always been moved by the Church’s insistance on economic justice for workers all over the world. Though I do not follow any organized religion, but do beleive that there is “something.” I am happy to see this.
A bad employer is a bad employer no matter where they are
Ms Ariyawathie, a mother of three, travelled to Saudi Arabia in March to become a housemaid.
Doctors say this X-ray shows nails embedded in the housemaids hand Last week, she flew back to Sri Lanka and was admitted to hospital in the south of the island, where she told doctors she had undergone abuse for more than a month.
“When we checked her, we found 24 metal pieces in her legs and hands. She still cant properly sit down and walk,” Dr Kamal Weerathunga told BBC Sandeshaya.Doctors said Ms Ariyawathie was deeply traumatised and unable to give full details of her experience.
via BBC News – Maid tortured with nails to have surgery.
Some news about our friends in the “Kingdom.”
Xerox hearts union-busting
Xerox recently told 19 workers they must transfer departments or leave the company.What do these workers have in common? Theyre all fighting for a fair union contract.While Xerox tramples on its workers rights at home, Xeroxs outsourcing division is trying to ship those jobs – and thousands of jobs like them – overseas.Tell Xerox CEO Ursula Burns: Our economy needs good jobs, not unionbusting and outsourcing.
via Tell Xerox to Stop Unionbusting and Shipping Jobs Overseas.
I’d think twice before getting any machinery from Xerox.
Too Big Not To Organize – I totally agree organize the US Financial sector
When Santander acquired Sovereign, it immediately laid off 23 percent of its new subsidiary’s workers. The company cut pay, slashed hours and doubled the cost of healthcare for workers. Sovereign workers knew they had to do something, so they approached SEIU last spring to help them organize.
via Too Big Not To Organize — In These Times.
Santander has responded to efforts at organizing by firings and union-busting activities.
I think this paragraph really says it all:
Santander bank branches are on average 75-percent unionized outside the United States, according to UNI Global Union Finance Director Oliver Roethig because most other industrialized nations have unionized banking sectors. In the United States, however, less than 1 percent of all front-office bank workers are organized. In fact, the unionized janitors working for contractors that clean Sovereign Bank’s headquarters in Boston, Mass., often make more than the bank tellers and personal bankers, whose average wage is $10-$12 dollars per hour, despite individually producing millions of dollars in profits for the bank each year.
Why is the Obama administration training 3,000 offshore IT workers?
U.S. To Train 3,000 Offshore IT Workers
Despite President Obama’s pledge to retain more hi-tech jobs in the U.S., a federal agency run by a hand-picked Obama appointee has launched a $22 million program to train workers, including 3,000 specialists in IT and related functions, in South Asia.
Following their training, the tech workers will be placed with outsourcing vendors in the region that provide offshore IT and business services to American companies looking to take advantage of the Asian subcontinent’s low labor costs…
How pathetic and sad is this?
I have to agree with David Sirota when he says.
Now look, I’m all for a robust foreign aid budget – we don’t do nearly enough to help the developing world. However, using foreign aid money to specifically help private corporations “take advantage of low labor costs” in the developing world – that’s absolutely grotesque.
I know thousands of people right in the President’s backyard in Southeast DC who could use this training! WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING?!!
Why is the MTA allowing its bus drivers to be mugged?
Two drivers who have been assaulted say that theyve been telling bosses for years there should be extra security but that the requests have fallen on deaf ears at the cash-strapped agency. “As soon as I put my car key into my pocket, three people came from behind me, knocked me to the ground and started punching and kicking me,” said Diane Monges, 49, a bus operator for 21 years.
via Facebook | TWU Local 100: Bus drivers sideswiped by muggers.
I don’t care how cash-strapped you are. There are certain things that must be done. Ensuring the safety of your employees is one of those things. If the MTA can’t afford it can the NYPD patrol the area?
OSHA Whistleblower site too important to go unnoticed
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration OSHA says that workers who blow the whistle on safety violations and other unlawful practices “play an important role in assuring compliance with federal laws.”But, say workplace safety advocates, too many times workers don’t speak up about safety and health problems on the job because they fear retaliation from their employers, even though it’s illegal.
via AFL-CIO NOW BLOG | OSHA Launches New Whistleblower Protection Site.
If you see something say something! This kind of abuse by employers is more common than you think.
The evil of the TATA Group
They are like the Haliburton, BP or Wal-Mart of India.
An international IUF fact-finding team has been denied access to an Assam plantation to investigate the recent deaths of three workers. The plantation is owned by Amalgamated Plantations in which Tata Global Beverages is the major shareholder. The 930 hectare Powai estate has one of the world’s largest tea-processing factories and employs some 1,800 permanent and 1,200 temporary workers. Tata is already under fire for its brutal attacks on tea workers and their rights in West Bengal.
Why isn’t there a criminal investigation going on of Massey Energy?
An NPR News investigation has documented a dangerous and potentially illegal act at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia two months before a massive April explosion killed 29 mine workers.
On Feb. 13, an electrician deliberately disabled a methane gas monitor on a continuous mining machine because the monitor repeatedly shut down the machine.
Three witnesses say the electrician was ordered by a mine supervisor to “bridge” the automatic shutoff mechanism in the monitor.
via Massey Mine Workers Disabled Safety Monitor : NPR.
I’m sure Joe Main at MSHA is probably itching to lay the smackdown on Massey Energy if he’s not in the process of doing so already.
