FAA Inspectors Union Applauds Foreign Repair Station Bill

"Remember, for evil to triumph, good men need only to be silent." - Bill Hohlfeld, Local 46 Metallic Lathers & Reinforcing Ironworkers, Labor Management Cooperative Trust

If you write about it, they will read it and eventually, just maybe, something will be done. Many people do not understand the power that is the internet Blogger, this site and many of my fellow labor bloggers sites are actively being read by Senate, Congress, the news media, the FAA, OSHA, as a matter of fact I have noticed quite a few corporations reading stories about their misdeeds. This is power.

The power to change the world.

One of the more recent stories floating around this and other labor sites is the absence of standards for mechanics in countries where aircrafts from American companies are now outsourcing maintenance to, heres 2 recent entries:

• American Airlines, from 911 bailouts, customer rights law overturn, outsourcing, lax FAA enforcement, the Allied Pilots Association and the Teamster
• Southwest Airlines outsources maintenance and puts customers at risk

Mind you I am in no way trying to take much credit for this, as I know the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, The Teamster and both the CTW and AFL-CIO have been spreading the news about this also, but it's nice to see a Newswire which shows bipartisan support for something in which you, and you fellow labor bloggers, took the time to make others aware of.

With much respect to Senators Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) for introducing legislation that all Americans can agree upon, heres the Press Release (excerpted) from PRNewswire (6/5/08):

    Bipartisan Senate Bill Calls for Increased FAA Oversight of Foreign
Repair Stations

  WASHINGTON, June 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senators Claire McCaskill
(D-Mo.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) today introduced the Safe Aviation
Facilities Ensure Aircraft Integrity and Reliability Act of 2008 calling
for more strict oversight of foreign repair stations, and the Professional
Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), AFL-CIO, the union that represents more
than 11,000 FAA employees, including aviation safety inspectors, are
commending the action. PASS National President Tom Brantley released the
following statement regarding the bill:

  "In light of recent failures of FAA management in addressing
inspector's repeated safety concerns in this country, it is clear that the
FAA must be more vigilant in how it oversees the industry. The
McCaskill-Specter SAFE AIR Act takes aggressive action by ensuring that all
major air carrier maintenance work only be performed by certificated repair
stations, that foreign certificated repair stations are inspected at least
twice a year by an FAA inspector, and that all workers working on U.S.
aircraft at foreign repair facilities be drug and alcohol tested. If a
foreign repair facility wants to work on U.S.-registered aircraft or any
aircraft that operates in this country, meeting the same safety standards
as domestic repair stations should be non-negotiable.

  ''U.S. air carriers are increasingly relying upon overseas repair
facilities to perform critical maintenance work on its aircraft, and yet,
many of these facilities are not subject to the same level of oversight,
scrutiny and inspections as domestic repair stations. With airlines taking
tremendous cost-cutting steps to reduce overhead and operating expenses,
now is the time for the FAA to increase its oversight of airline
maintenance, especially oversees.

I'm sure it's not a done deal, but it's a start in the right direction, I personally feel that the American based airlines which sucked our tax money for a bailout after 9/11 and are now sucking our citizens eyes out, shouldn't be allowed to use workers from other nations, but thats just one mans opinion, or is it?

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Act Now to stop the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and the Clinton involvement

UPDATED-> Colombia Free Trade Agreement off the fast track (4/11/08)

In Colombia it's outright dangerous to be a unionist, while some claim that only 39 union leaders were killed last year is a good thing, we here at Joe's union Review tend to think differently. It' s Now Or Never People, I called the desk of Hillary Clinton and had to leave a message, there are 3 E-Action campaign's, get involved before it's too late.

The Scoop From AFL-CIO

House Set to Vote on Removing Fast Track Timetable from Colombia Trade Deal

by Mike Hall, Apr 9, 2008

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that tomorrow the House will vote to lift the 90-day Fast Track time limit for the House to vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that President Bush sent to Congress yesterday.

Pelosi said Congress and the president should be focusing their energy on the needs of America’s working families during these precarious economic times, not on the flawed trade deal. She told reporters she told Bush on Monday that:

we really had to continue our conversation about addressing the economic concerns of America’s working families.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

We agree with Speaker Pelosi that Congress must keep a hard focus on the economic crisis facing America’s working families—and certainly before consideration of another flawed trade deal. We applaud her for taking decisive action to reassert congressional authority over trade.

Read Full Story

From the E-mail box

American Rights At Work

Dear Joseph, Urgent: First Vote Tomorrow Say NO to Fast-Tracking the Colombia "Free" Trade Agreement Write Your Reps. Now! There's little in life that's free. You’re savvy enough to look for the hidden costs, or the catch. Americans now know the catch in "free" trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA. The hidden costs of these pacts took a tremendous toll: 1 million jobs disappeared, countless communities collapsed, and workers' rights were exploited at home and abroad. 1 But now George W. Bush and Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Labor, want another "free" trade deal, this time with Colombia. To make matters worse, Bush wants to unilaterally "fast-track" this agreement in 90 days. The first vote takes place tomorrow in the House of Representatives. Tell your Members of Congress and Secretary Elaine Chao that you oppose the Colombia free trade agreement. We can stop this. http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/colombia_fta_chao/8kkg6bn207nw3jnw? Outside of the obvious negative consequences for the United States, the Colombian free trade agreement (FTA) fails to meaningfully address a severe Colombian crisis: union members there are regularly assassinated. Violent incidents against union members are pervasive in Colombia, and the country's president has done little to stop the attacks. Since 1991, at least 2,245 union members have been killed for supporting a union, including 18 deaths already in 2008. 2 Believe it or not, Elaine Chao doesn't seem to think that's a problem. She even had the gall to suggest that because fewer union members are being killed than in previous years, we should implement the trade agreement - without putting in place real protections to stop violence against union members. 3 Voice your opposition to the Colombia free trade agreement - write to your representatives and Elaine Chao now: http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/colombia_fta_chao/8kkg6bn207nw3jnw? You've heard from me before about the sorry state of labor law in the United States; most of America's workers never get a free and fair chance to join a union because of threats, intimidation, and misinformation from their employers. But as bad as America's workers have it, Colombia's aspiring union members literally put their lives on the line to have a voice at work. This is an unacceptable situation, and the United States should not engage in agreements with leaders who overlook serious issues like the assassination of union members. With Bush threatening to unilaterally pass this agreement in less than three months, your voice is needed to take away his power to do so. Please write to your representatives now. Thanks for all you do for workers everywhere. Sincerely, Liz Cattaneo American Rights at Work www.americanrightsatwork.org Sources: 1. Revisiting NAFTA, report by Economic Policy Institute, 9/06: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/bp173 2. Labor Rights and Freedom of Association in Colombia, report by the Colombian Trade Union Federations, 10/07: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/globaleconomy/upload/colombianlabor_english.pdf 3. Department of Commerce press release, 2/27/08: http://www.commerce.gov/NewsRoom/PressReleases_FactSheets/PROD01_005275

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about American Rights at Work. Tell-a-friend!

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for American Rights at Work.

From (4/8/08)

AFL-CIO Working Families E-Activist Network

Dear Joseph, President Bush is demanding a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before he leaves office next year. The Colombia FTA is wrong for workers both in the United States and Colombia. Tell your senators and representative that you OPPOSE the Colombia Free Trade Agreement and that they should, too. Use our toll-free number to do so today: 1-866-338-5720 And please click here to let us know how your lawmakers plan to vote on the Colombia FTA. With the U.S. economy in near free fall, President Bush has sent the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to Capitol Hill—Bush wants to force a vote before he leaves office next January. The all-out, nationwide mobilization to let members of Congress know that working Americans oppose this deal begins today. As the fight gears up, we need to know whose side your members of Congress are on. Call your senators and representative today to ask if they will side with workers and oppose the Colombia FTA. The call is toll free: 1-866-338-5720 We need you to report back to us: Click here to let us know how your lawmakers will vote. The deal is wrong for workers in both countries. Bush has made passing this agreement a priority, even though it will do next to nothing for the failing U.S. economy. The Colombia FTA represents a continuation of the Bush administration’s failed trade policies, an agenda that has contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2000, skyrocketing trade deficits and shrinking paychecks. Colombia remains the most dangerous country in the world for union members—39 trade unionists were murdered in 2007 and another 17 to date in 2008. Of the more than 2,500 murders of trade unionists since 1986, only some 70 cases—about 3 percent—have resulted in convictions. Balanced trade agreements must guarantee the right to organize, lift the lives of workers in both countries and prevent exploitation. But this can’t happen in a country where workers who try to organize are killed. Colombia’s government has thwarted workers' right to organize and bargain collectively—by weakening labor protections, refusing to register legitimate unions and failing to enforce the law against anti-union discrimination. Remember to call your representative and senators today. Tell them to oppose the Colombia FTA: 1-866-338-5720. In solidarity, Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO P.S. Please tell your friends to call the U.S. House and Senate today at 1-866-338-5720. Together, we can stop the Colombia FTA.

Click the link below to tell your friends about this campaign. Tell-a-friend!

From (4/4/08)

LabourStart

It has been nearly a month since the murder of Leonidas Gomez Rozo, a leader of the National Union of Bank Workers of Colombia.

His murder in early March was one of several violent attacks against trade unionists in that country -- many of which have been highlighted on LabourStart's Colombia news page recently.

Today we've been asked by UNI Global Union -- a global union federation to which Rozo's union was affiliated -- to flood Colombian embassies around the world with messages of protest next week.

Please send off your message by clicking here. And spread the word.

Thanks.

Eric Lee

More News,

Working Life - "Killing In The Name Of So-Called "Free Trade" (UPDATED)" (4/7/08)

I keep thinking that there will be a limit on how far thinking people will go to turn a blind eye to the death and misery brought to us courtesy of so-called "free trade". But, lo and behold, every day brings new wonders at the capacity of our government, and its servants in the "free market", to ignore reality in the service of profits and "efficiency" and "low costs". Prepare yourself for another example coming down the pipeline this week when the Administration tries to ram another so-called "free trade" deal down the throats of the Congress—-and down the throats of the American people.

The uproar over Mark Penn’s work for the Colombian government, and his resignation from the Clinton campaign, has partly obscured the content of the issue (most of the traditional media and, frankly, progressive media and blogs, have been far more focused on Penn and the political/electoral insider story than the actual Colombia deal). This pact, which is in a whole lot of trouble, as it should be, is awful for a variety of reasons. But, the main one is this: union activists and leaders have a funny way of ending up dead in Colombia, courtesy of death squads that have been linked to the government.

Read Full Story

The Clinton Involvement

Change To Win "Mark Penn Thinks You Are Really Dumb" (4/9/08)

... dumb enough to believe that he has been fired from Hillary Clinton's campaign staff, when in fact he has just had his job title changed.

I posted about this yesterday, of course, but since that post went live the evidence of Penn's non-dismissal continues to mount.

Sam Stein at the Huffington Post reports "Mark Penn Speaks (In Private): Will Still Advise Clintons, Calms Nervous Aides":

Mark Penn, who resigned over the weekend as the Clinton campaign's chief strategist, went into full damage control mode on Monday, hosting a conference call with Burson Marsteller's managing directors to persuade them that the fallout from his resignation was both overblown and would soon pass.

Peppered with questions from colleagues -- one mentioned her "pretty panicked client," another asked bluntly, "Ultimately did you think that it was the best thing for the company [to work for Clinton's campaign]?" -- Penn insisted that "the situation has played itself out."

But he confirmed that while his title with the campaign had changed -- and his work load would undoubtedly decrease -- he still would play a direct advisory role for Clinton.

Karen Tumulty at Time Magazine reports "Mark Penn is Not Out":

Two sources confirm Marc Ambinder's scoop that Penn was on the campaign's message-of-the-day call this morning, and was involved in debate preparation this afternoon.

Tom DeFrank and Michael McAuliff at the New York Daily News report "Mark Penn still in Clinton loop: source":

Hillary Clinton's political guru may have been pushed from the top spot in her campaign, but he didn't land in the grave.

Despite embarrassing the White House hopeful by consulting for the Colombian government on a U.S. trade agreement she opposes, Mark Penn remains "very much in the loop," a Clinton source said...

"Reports of Mark's death are greatly exaggerated," said a Penn confidant.

"You don't break a circle like that easily and quickly," a senior Clinton adviser agreed.

So the message to insiders is: Penn's not going anywhere, just wait a few days for the public to stop paying attention and everything will be back to Business As Usual.

That's disappointing.

Don't be a Mark Penn -- help stop the Colombia "free" trade agreement! Fair trade supporters across America are writing to their Members of Congress today urging them to oppose this deeply flawed agreement. Use our easy online form to write your Members and help send the Mark Penns of the world packing.

Huffington Post "Bill Clinton's Ties To Colombia Trade Deal Stronger Than Even Penn's" (4/8/08)

On Sunday evening, Sen. Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, resigned from his post after it was revealed he was working (on the side) for the passage of a Colombia Free Trade Agreement that his candidate opposed.

But within the Clinton campaign, Penn is not the highest-ranking adviser with financial ties to groups and individuals supporting the passage of the measure.

Former President Bill Clinton has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking on behalf of a Colombia-based group pushing the trade pact, and representatives of that organization tell The Huffington Post that the former president shared their sentiment.

In June 2005, Clinton was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin America. The organization is, ostensibly, a development group tasked with bringing investment to the country and educating world leaders about the Colombia's business opportunities.

The group's chief operating officer, Andres Franco, said in an interview that the group supports the congressional ratification of the free trade agreement and that, when Clinton was on his speaking tour, he expressed similar opinions.

"He was supportive of the trade agreement at the time that he came, but that was several years ago. In the present context, I don't know what his position would be. It is not only about union trade rights. It is about what benefit or damage it can do to the US economy," said Franco. "Events with the Clinton campaign [concerning Mark Penn] are not good at all for the trade agreement... Right now it became a campaign issues and that is sad, because it needs to go through."

The comments were supported by a June 23, 2005 article from the news portal Terra (uncovered by Ben Smith at Politico) in which Clinton offered unambiguous support for the free trade agreement with Colombia.

Read Full Story

Act Now! Click Below!! Click the Links above!!

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Wal-Mart wins "Worst person in the world"

From the Change to Win Blog (3/27/08):

So saith Keith Olbermann on his nightly news broadcast on MSNBC, Countdown:

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has more:

The family of a Missouri woman must reimburse Wal-Mart for nearly a half-million dollars in medical expenses now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review her case.

The court on Monday let stand a ruling by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis requiring Debbie Shank of Cape Girardeau County to pay nearly $470,000 to Wal-Mart.

The appeal was the last legal recourse for the family of the 52-year-old Shank, a mother of three who was critically injured in a car accident eight years ago. She suffered a brain injury that took her memory and left her with very little ability to move or communicate. She has lived in a nursing home since she was released from the hospital...

Her family later settled a lawsuit with the trucking company whose driver was involved in the accident. After attorneys' fees and expenses, $417,477 was put in a trust for Shank's care. That settlement money, plus $51,739 that Shank will have to pay out of pocket, must be paid to Wal-Mart.

Note to corporations: when even the raving socialists at the Wall Street Journal ask if you're overreaching, you're doing something wrong.

Note to everybody else: If you want to help the Shank family, you can make a donation via Wal-Mart Watch to help cover Deborah's medical expenses.

Posted by Jason Lefkowitz on March 27, 2008

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Laborers Rejoin AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Dept.

Good news From the AFL-CIO WebBlog

Laborers Rejoin AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Dept.
by Mike Hall, Mar 14, 2008

The Laborers (LIUNA) and the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) announced that LIUNA will reaffiliate with the 12 other unions that make up the BCTD. The Laborers left the BCTD shortly after it disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO in 2006.

In a statement March 13, BCTD President Mark Ayers said the reaffiliation agreement reflects

…a shared commitment to always putting the interests of rank-and-file members first. LIUNA President Terry O’Sullivan’s vision, creativity and leadership will be a valuable asset to the department as we continue our strategic pursuit of repositioning and revitalizing the union construction brand around our core values of pride, performance and excellence. We welcome the LIUNA family back wholeheartedly and without hesitation.

O’Sullivan praised the BCTD’s Board of Governors who approved the agreement that resolved the outstanding issues related to the LIUNA’s disaffiliation as

true trade unionists who personify the meaning of solidarity. We are particularly proud of this mutual agreement as it occurs on the eve of the Department’s 100th anniversary. It’s a win-win for LIUNA and its member, for the Building Trades and for the entire construction industry.

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2 out of 2 giant labor federations agree, OSHA must adopt explosive dust standard, you can help, please sign the petition.

All labor, both the AFL-CIO and Change To Win have been writing and acting to assure that OSHA will enact a STANDARD that all companies must follow in regards to explosive dust.

In the wake of the Imperial Sugar (formerly Dixie Crystal) dust explosion which killed 12 and has 11 more in critical condition. There has been a lot of awakening to the fact that OSHA can only recommend the strategy to defend against explosions in plants where there is a high possibility of an explosion due to combustible dust particles.

The Weekly Toll blog, which is the sister site of the USMWF- United Support & Memorial For Workplace Fatalities, started a petition 2 days after the explosion, that states:

We want OSHA to issue comprehensive combustible dust standards and we fully back the Committee on Education and Labor in their request to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao for answers and action based on the CBS investigations and recommendations.

That petition can be found here also, at the top left hand side. It can also be found on the Combustible Dust Explosions and Fires blog, which was created by Watermon, who is the same man who created the Combustible dust accident Google map and is a contributer of the OSHA Underground blog.

A byproduct is that this is the first case in which I have noticed both labor federations as a united front. Both blogs are fighting for this. Both are spreading awareness with some of their top writers. While it would be nice if they mentioned Weekly Toll and the petition, I guess we'll take what we can get.

Heres the most recent stories from both, and they have both covered this in depth previously:

Change To Win 3-04-08

by Jason Lefkowitz, March 4,

OSHA to Workers: All Right, All Right, We'll Check if Your Workplace is About to Explode. But Just This Once!

On February 20, I wrote in this space about OSHA's inaction on the problem of "combustible dust" -- invisible particles that build up in some workplaces, creating a dangerous risk of explosions -- and how that inaction led to the deaths of twelve workers and injuries to many more when the Imperial Sugar plant at Port Wentworth, Georgia exploded on February 8, along with many other deaths and injuries in other accidents over the years.

Since then, there has been a steadily growing call for OSHA to (belatedly) do something about combustible dust. On February 20, several Change to Win unions presented Labor Secretary Elaine Chao with a petition demanding action, and op-ed pages in Georgia have taken up the call as well.

Yesterday, Congressional leaders Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) introduced legislation to force OSHA to act and scheduled hearings for March 12 to investigate why the agency dragged its feet. And also yesterday -- nearly a month after the Imperial Sugar explosion, and just days before those hearings -- OSHA chief Edwin Foulke, Jr. announced that his agency would finally be doing something:

Federal inspections will be carried out at hundreds of plants where combustible dust is a workplace hazard, a top safety official said Monday at a sugar refinery where dust is suspected of causing a deadly explosion.

Ed Foulke Jr., head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, announced the inspections while visiting the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, where a blast on Feb. 7 killed 12 workers injured dozens more.

OSHA has not completed its investigation of that explosion but is sending letters to 30,000 companies that deal with combustible dust to discuss the dangers, Foulke said in a telephone interview.

But the question isn't whether or not OSHA will do a one-time inspection or send an "FYI" letter to corporations and hope they will voluntarily clean up their workplaces. The question is whether OSHA will enact a permanent, standing rule that will ensure now and in the future that buildups of combustible dust are prevented. And the AP report on OSHA's new statement makes it clear that OSHA is in no hurry to make that rule:

Foulke said Monday that more work must be done to determine whether existing standards on ventilation and factory housekeeping can be used to address existing concerns, and to determine how a standard can be crafted so it makes sense for different industries with different types of dust.

So OSHA's position is that we need more research to determine if there's any need to do anything about these factories that keep blowing up. Never mind that the Chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in November 2006 that "new federal standards are necessary to prevent further loss of life" from combustible dust accidents.

These hearings ought to be pretty lively, don't you think?

(By the way, if you want to follow this issue, a great resource is the new Dust Explosions blog. It's a product of the same person who created that Google Map of combustible dust explosions I cited in my earlier post on combustible dust. The OSHA Underground blog is useful as well.)

UPDATE (12:20PM): From UFCW -- Chao and OSHA: Too Little Too Late:

The explosions could have been prevented had OSHA heeded the recommendations made by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board made in November 2006. That year, the CSB conducted a major study of combustible dust hazards following three worksite catastrophic dust explosions that killed 14 workers in 2003. The CSB report noted that a quarter of the explosions that occurred between 1980 and 2005 that were identified, occurred at food industry facilities, including sugar plants.

OSHA’s Katrina-like inaction on this workplace risk follows a pattern of the agency ignoring scientific evidence and its own rule-making guidelines. By law, OSHA was supposed to respond to the CSB’s recommendations within six months.

AFL-CIO 3-04-08

House Democrats Call for Strong Standards to Prevent Dust Explosions

by Mike Hall, Mar 4, 2008

Memorial to the 12 workers killed in the Imperial Sugar Co. blast.

The Feb. 7 sugar dust explosion in Port Wentworth, Ga., that killed 12 Imperial Sugar Co., workers and seriously injured another 11 who are still in the hospital, has resulted in renewed calls for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create combustible dust level standards to prevent such explosions.

Yesterday, Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), House Education and Labor Committee chairman, and John Barrow (D-Ga.) introduced legislation requiring OSHA to move quickly on a dust standard.

Without a congressional mandate, however, it doesn’t appear as though OSHA will move any more quickly than it has in the past when safety experts determined a standard was needed. OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke told reporters Monday that before OSHA would act:

We need to have the documentation, we have to have the research, we need to have the evidence.

Here’s a question for Foulke. Aren’t the 281 dust explosions that have killed 119 workers and seriously injured another 781 since 1980 evidence enough that it’s time to put rules in place to prevent such deadly blasts and keep workers alive? Says Miller:

The tragedy at Imperial Sugar shows that the threat of dust explosions is very real at industrial worksites across America and needs to be addressed immediately. It’s unfortunate that it takes the Congress of the United States to tell OSHA how to do its job. The agency has known about these dangers for a long time and should have acted years ago to prevent explosions like this one. Workers cannot be asked to wait any longer for these basic protections.

In 2006, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board issued a report calling for mandatory regulations to prevent such explosions. But OSHA has ignored the board’s calls for dust level standards and instead is relying on corporations to voluntarily regulate themselves. Foulke said OSHA’s next step is sending letters to some 30,000 businesses about the dangers of combustible dust.

When dust builds up to dangerous levels in industrial worksites, it can become fuel for fires and explosions. Combustible dust can come from many sources, such as sugar, flour, feed, plastics, wood, rubber, furniture, textiles, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, coa and metals, and so poses a risk across a number of different industries.

About a quarter of the dust explosions have occurred in the food industry and last week, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), along with the Teamsters (IBT), petitioned OSHA to issue an emergency combustible dust standard.

The day after the Port Wentworth explosion, Miller and Rep. Lynn Woolsley (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Workforce Protections subcommittee, sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao urging her to take immediate steps to move OSHA to issue mandatory rules on combustible dust. She has yet to respond.

Sign the petition, you can do it here or just go directly to the Petition Site

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New York cracks down on 1099 employee misclassification

From: Change To Win's Web Blog:

We told you back in September about a task force set up by New York Governor Eliot Spitzer to investigate "misclassification" -- the scam where employers weasel out of paying for their workers' health care and benefits by claiming them as "independent contractors", even though they work full time for their company -- in New York State.

Well, yesterday we saw the first results of that task force's work -- a crackdown on misclassifying companies that found millions of dollars in owed payments that New York employers had held back:

In 15 enforcement sweeps, state investigators found $19 million in wages that were not reported to the state and $3 million in underpayments to workers, the state’s labor commissioner, M. Patricia Smith, said at a news conference. Investigators also uncovered nearly $1 million in taxes that had not been paid to the state’s unemployment insurance fund...

In their sweeps, which investigated 117 companies, state officials found that 2,078 employees had been misclassified as independent contractors. The task force also found 646 workers who were owed minimum and overtime wages totaling about $3 million.

Commissioner Smith noted at the announcement that the corporate crooks they caught were just the tip of the iceberg:

“I wouldn’t doubt that 10 percent of the state’s workers are either misclassified as independent contractors or work off the books,” Ms. Smith said.

The task force also published a report on their findings to date -- unfortunately it doesn't seem to be posted on any of the various state government sites yet, but once I track down a copy I'll link it in from this post.

Posted by Jason Lefkowitz on February 12, 2008 at 11:02 AM |

Huge win, myself and the fellas at UnionReview have been covering this story for quite a while, you can see the links with a search at UR for Misclassification. The intra-agency communication in the misclassification task-force is a big part of it working. Looking forward to seeing this report.

According to the NY Times 2-12-08

Ms. Smith noted that soon after being visited by the task force, one employer began paying unemployment insurance taxes for 205 employees it previously had not reported.

The employers that were found in violation of various state labor laws will be required to pay back taxes, back wages and unpaid workers’ compensation premiums, with state officials often assessing additional penalties.

The sweeps were undertaken by the state’s Labor and Tax Departments, Workers’ Compensation Board and attorney general’s office, and the New York City comptroller’s office.

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Link of the day - click it and read it

What Works and What Doesn't In Building A New Workers’ Movement

by Richard Mellor ( aactivist@igc.org )
AFSCME Local 444, retired
Oakland CA
Sunday Jan 20th, 2008 5:21 PM

There are thousands of activists of one type or another who want to change society and recognize that we need a movement to do that. many of these people are in organizations and groupings, many are in Unions. What is causing the delay in the building of a new movement to throw back the present capitalist offensive. One major factor is the heads of Organized Labor, but they are not the only factor.

Read the entire story

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