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One Voice - June 2007 Archive
Current One Voice issues --- Archive index
June 27, 2007
15th Anniversary Solidarity Picnic
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Local 5668 ~ USW Grounds
Nu-Chance Drive, Ravenswood, WV
12:00 NOON - 5:00 P.M.
Bring your family, your lawn chairs, a covered dish and enjoy the day!
Hot dogs, drinks and tableware provided ~ entertainment and guest speakers throughout the day.
For additional information contact: Jim Picarella @ 304-532-1047
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“WV GOP Attacking Workers Rights Rally”
July 14, 2007
The Cabell County GOP is hosting its summer session July 14, 2007 at Pullman Plaza, Huntington, WV and featuring speakers from the anti-union National Right To Work Committee. (NRTWC)
Therefore, the West Virginia AFL-CIO, the Southwestern District Labor Council, their many members, officers and delegates will be standing unified on July 14, 2007 in Huntington, WV against the Cabell County GOP summer session and their choice of speakers.
We also are mobilizing unions from all adjacent states to make Huntington a destination point.
We will meet at Harris Riverfront Park at 9 a.m. then march at 10 a.m. for approximately one block to make our voices heard … NOT IN WEST VIRGINIA!
We will conclude at noon and return to Harris Riverfront Park for refreshments and hotdogs.
Bring your union banners and signs; wear your union shirts and hats!
For additional information call:
Southwestern District Labor Council @ 304-523-2353.
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Kanawha Valley Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Labor Night at WV Power Park
August 10, 2007
Tickets are $20; this includes a picnic and box seat for the ball game. The picnic begins at 5:30 p.m and the game starts at 7:05 p.m.
Labor Night is a fundraiser for the council and tickets will be ordered as payment is received. Please get your orders in as soon as possible.
Send orders and make checks payable to:
Kanawha Valley Labor Council, Labor Night
600 Leon Sullivan Way
Charleston, WV 25301
For additional information contact: Joan Matthews @ 304-343-6952.
The Vote on the Employee Free Choice Act
A 51–48 Senate majority backed the Employee Free Choice Act today, but Republican opposition killed the bill’s chance to move forward. The 51–48 vote means the Senate voted for what is known as cloture or shutting off debate. Sixty votes were needed to shut off debate and move to vote on the full bill. So even though a majority of the Senate voted for cloture, a small group of Republicans denied workers a free choice to join a union. Without passage of the bill, America’s workers will continue to face unchecked employer harassment and intimidation when they seek to form a union.
Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
on Senate Employee Free Choice Act Vote
Today's vote shows that a majority of the United States Senate supports changing the law to restore working people's freedom to make their own choice to join a union and bargain for a better life. That is a watershed achievement - one scarcely imagined just a couple of years ago - and an important step toward shoring up our nation's struggling middle class.
It is sad and shameful that Republican Senators chose to block the road to the middle class for millions of workers by throwing up procedural barricades from their minority position in Congress. Theirs is a stunt that working men and women will remember when they go to the ballot boxes in 2008, armed with the scorecard filled in by today's vote on the Employee Free Choice Act. The vote made clear exactly who is on the side of working families' dreams and economic opportunity - and who is siding with corporate America to block those opportunities.
Working families come out of this vote with growing momentum. Support is pouring in from working men and women as well as from 16 governors, state legislators and local officials from every state, religious leaders and other allies. AFL-CIO members and their families have made more than 50,000 phone calls, sent 156,000 faxes and emails, and 220,000 postcards on this issue. Fifty-five cities, counties and state legislatures have passed resolutions and 1300 state and local elected officials have pledged support for this legislation.
Americans have seen up close the terrible price working families are paying for our failure to protect workers' rights. Living standards are falling. Health care and pensions are declining. It is clear that if we are to have a middle class in our country, we have to change the law to guarantee workers the freedom to make their own decision to join a union. The best opportunity for working men and women to get ahead economically is by uniting with co-workers to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits.
More than half of U.S. workers -- 60 million -- say they would join a union right now if they could. But the system is so broken that workers cannot exercise their right. It is so broken that last year alone, more than 31,000 workers had their union rights violated by their employer.
But the Senate vote shows the ground has shifted. The status quo of our broken system is unacceptable. Those who continue to support our broken system will find themselves on the wrong side of history. And that battle engages now, as we move into the 2008 elections, when working people will elect more senators and a president who will champion their concerns and fight for their futures.
The U.S. Senate votes today on the Employee Free Choice Act
West Virginia’s Governor, Joe Manchin is one of 16 Governors Vowing Support for Employee Free Choice Act
Sixteen governors representing states stretching from Washington to Maine have written a letter to Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pledging their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. This crucial legislation, which will be voted on in the U.S. Senate today, would ensure that working people can freely choose whether to join together in unions to negotiate for better wages and benefits.
The governors are the latest voices in a growing chorus of elected leaders and working people who are calling on the U.S. Senate to restore workers’ freedoms and rebuild America’s shrinking middle class.
“The momentum behind this legislation at the state and grass roots level should serve as a powerful message to those U.S. Senators who plan to block giving their constituents a voice at work,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Governors have seen up close the decimation of the middle class in the communities they serve and they know that having a union is the single best way to lift the standard of living for working families in America.”
The letter was signed by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr.; Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich; Iowa Gov. Chet Culver; Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; Maine Gov. John Baldacci; Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer; Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland; Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski; Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell; Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire; West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle.
Read UMWA International President Cecil Roberts’ opinion “Employee Free Choice Act would fix broken American labor law” in today’s edition of the Charleston Gazette.
Cecil E. Roberts
June 25, 2007
Support Senator Byrd
In today’s on-line edition of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch there is a poll concerning Senator Byrd and whether or not he is capable of continuing to serve because of his age.
Please take the poll, located at the bottom right hand corner of the web page and support our senior senator.
June 15, 2007
For Your Information from Southwestern District Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Congressman Rahall’s administrative assistant, Kent Keyser took a bad fall and will need long-term rehabilitation. Kent may face mobility challenges.
You can send cards to:
Timothy Kent Keyser
National Rehab Hospital
102 Irving Street, NW
Washington, DC 20010
June 8, 2007
OUR FIGHT IS ON!
Corporate front groups have been throwing the “whole kitchen sink” at supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act and as promised, their campaign against Senator Byrd, Senator Rockefeller and others will become “even bigger and nastier” as a vote on the bill approaches in the U.S. Senate.
Yesterday we requested that you make telephone calls … today we are asking you sign an on-line card.
We can never do enough when we are fighting for something as important as the Employee Free Choice Act.
Please call the Senators at 1-800-718-1008 and sign the on-line card to thank them for their support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Thank you for continuing the fight!
Sign the Card and Thank
SENS. BYRD AND ROCKEFELLER
for Supporting the
Employee Free Choice Act
Because Every Worker Deserves the
Freedom to Bargain for a Better Life
Sign the Online Card to let Senators Byrd and Rockefeller know you appreciate their support for the Employee Free Choice Act
June 8, 2007
Southwestern District Labor Council's Labor Hall of Fame Induction
Saturday June 9, 2007
By KRISTIN STEELE ~ The Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON -- Area labor leader Timothy Millne will receive a lifetime achievement award Saturday during the Southwestern District Labor Council's Labor Hall of Fame induction.
Millne, the council's secretary-treasurer, will receive the Lafe C. Chafin Lifetime Achievement Award, for his dedication to the labor movement.
"It's humbling," he said. "To know that your peers think that good of you is an honor in itself. It's humbling on my behalf and my family. It's very, very gratifying."
The event runs from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday in the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, with dinner from 6 to 7 p.m. and the induction from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Afterward, Big Fun, a band from Huntington, will provide entertainment.
Other 2007 inductees for the Labor Hall of Fame are Randall Moore, of Milton, District 8 representative of the United Steelworkers of America; Jim Smith, of Chesapeake, Ohio, president emeritus of the United Steelworkers of America Local 40; and Joe Paden, of Lesage, W.Va., president of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
U.S. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, D-W.Va., and Pat Maroney, of Charleston from the West Virginia AFL-CIO legal counsel, will be honorary inductees. Carl Eastham, president of the Southwestern District Labor Council, said the council recognizes people in the public service or business community for this honor.
"Those are people who have gone out of their way to be good to the working people," he said. "They are friends of the working man."
Eastham said it is important to the council to recognize those who work hard.
"We came up with this concept about recognizing people while they are still with us," he said. "We thought it would be best to recognize them before something happens to them. That way they get the respect they deserve."
Millne said he expects at least 400 people at the event. Anyone may attend, and tickets will be sold for $35 at the door.
The Southwestern District Labor Council serves six counties and parts of two others.
URGENT
We must support those who support us!
Call this toll-free number 1-800-718-1008 ASAP to thank Senators Byrd and Rockefeller for being co-sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act.
When you make the call you will be instructed to enter your zip code … follow the instructions and then repeat the process to call the other Senator.
June 6, 2007
“Right-to-work-FOR-LESS”
Rick Wilson, Director of the West Virginia Economic Justice Project responds in The Charleston Gazette to a WVU professor’s Daily Mail article on “right-to-work.”
Rick wrote, “The term “right-to-work” is misleading. It has nothing to do with the right to employment, and it can more accurately be called “right-to-work-for-less.”
Click here: The Charleston Gazette - Opinion to read Rick’s entire article.
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Employee Free Choice Act will protect workers' rights!
The below article was printed in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch by Tim Millne.
Tim Millne is secretary-treasurer for Southwestern District Labor Council, AFL-CIO
John Merinar practices law with Steptoe & Johnson
Isn't it ironic that an attorney for an anti-union law firm would make an appeal based on half truths, mis-charterizations and out-right lies to ask everyone to have their elected officials vote against a piece of legislation that would benefit all workers?
John R. Merinar Jr. is no friend to those who carry a dinner bucket. His top dollar-per-hour fee is not a labor-friendly fee. A fee paid him to spread falsehoods about unionization. This fee paid by greedy companies who don't want their workers considered equals in the work place.
He would have you believe there is some secret movement to change the outdated-employer friendly labor law. Mr. Merinar, there is no big secret. The Employee Free Choice Act has been at the forefront of Congress for quite some time, and it is the best formula for all workers.
You see, the only manipulation of the laws is being done by business and its high-paid legal propaganda machine. Unions are not looking for any type of bailouts from government, just a level playing field from the job place threats by the employers and their highly paid agents.
The firing of key union organizers used to scare and make an example for other employees. Anti-union mandatory meetings at the workplace, propaganda by strategically placed anti-union management in the workplace, intimidation at work and in the community, as well as threatening calls and mailings to the workers homes are the norm to interfere with voters who wish to voice their true beliefs at the ballot box.
So why would anybody want to use the current political structure of the NLRB to have "secret ballots" when the person who signed a card required by the NLRB for petitioning is being scared to death by companies and their legal mouthpieces?
He also fails to tell everyone that if there is a majority of cards signed, the company can recognize the majority unit and start bargaining. But that would take away the leverage businesses have through threats, intimidation and
$150-per-hour union busters such as Mr. Merinar.
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow the 57 million workers who would like to join a union that opportunity without the real outside interference and their choice in the form of a signed card will be honored without fears of termination, reprisals or other tactics used by businesses.
The confidential ballot, I agree, should be the cornerstones of any democratic society. However, Mr. Merinar only needs to look at the tactics used by so-called democratic societies to scare their voters into staying home or voting for the candidate or issue they really don't want to support.
I urge every worker who is fed up with being treated unfairly in their workplace to contact their representative and support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Thanks, Mr. Merinar, for looking out for people who can't afford your services.
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Do your elected representatives support the Employee Free Choice Act?
The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits—what the union movement calls "the union difference." But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class.
It’s time we ask!
Click here for contact information > http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Contact/capmail.cfm
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Where is our country headed? What’s driving you crazy? What kind of president do working families need? You can join the conversation at www.WorkingFamiliesVote08.org. Click on FORUM at the top of the page and jump right in.
All of us want to make sure union family voters are the best-informed and most active voting bloc in the country on Nov. 4, 2008. www.WorkingFamiliesVote08.org is your comprehensive voter guide. Check it out.
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FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE
A link to Working Families Vote 08 has been added to the West Virginia AFL-CIO web page along with a counter counting down the days to the November 4, 2008 election. http://www.wvaflcio.org/
New photos have been added to the photo gallery
http://www.wvaflcio.org/galleries/index.php
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Wal-Mart Continues to Benefit from Economic Development Subsidies;
More Than $200 Million Documented Over Past 3 Years
Washington, DC, June 5, 2007--Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is often accused of growing at the expense of smaller retailers, continues to benefit enormously from state and local government economic development subsidies, including 39 deals worth more than $200 million in just the past three years. This according to Good Jobs First, a non-profit research group which today issued an update of its landmark 2004 report Shopping for Subsidies, which found more than $1 billion in subsidies for Wal-Mart facilities.
Details of the 39 new deals, combined with more than 240 deals from the 2004 report, are available on a new searchable website called Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch (www.walmartsubsidywatch.org). The original 2004 Shopping for Subsidies report and other Good Jobs First material can be found at www.goodjobsfirst.org .
The new website also contains a summary of disclosures made by about two dozen states on the number of Wal-Mart workers (or their dependents) who have enrolled in taxpayer-funded healthcare programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
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More than 3,000 New Jersey Workers Win Union in a Week
Workers Choose Unions at Bally's, Rutgers
(Rutgers and Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 5) - More than 3,000 New Jersey workers now have the power of collective bargaining, thanks to the success of two union organizing campaigns that resulted in major victories for working families this week. On Tuesday, 2,000 administrative staff at Rutgers University chose to become part of the American Federation of Teachers. On Saturday, 1,100 casino dealers from Bally's in Atlantic City voted overwhelmingly to join with United Auto Workers, following the lead of approximately 860 dealers who formed a union at Caesars Atlantic City and nearly 500 at Trump Plaza Hotel in March. That brings to approximately 4,500 the number of New Jersey workers who have formed a union to improve their lives in the last four months.
All these victories were hard won, with the employers using disinformation and other ploys to keep the unions out. Key to the workers' success was powerful support from state and local elected leaders, many of whom are union members.
"All New Jersey's working families saw a tremendous victory this week when these workers won a voice on the job," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. "A union card is the single best middle class supporting program in our nation and all workers should have the freedom to form a union without management coercion and harassment."
In New Jersey, union political education has helped public employees pass a law that allows them to form unions by signing cards indicating their support. Even so, the Rutgers campaign started out contentious, with management sending mass anti-union emails and otherwise communicating that workers should not choose to unionize.
The anti-union campaign stopped after workers got an outpouring of support from their elected leaders. Gov. Jon Corzine visited the campus to speak about the benefits of having a union, as did U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). Numerous members of
Congress and state legislators wrote or came to campus to show their support. In January, the university agreed to stay neutral on the campaign. A statement from the university's president read, "Rutgers employees should feel free to engage in the process of gaining union representation."
"This campaign shows that when America's elected leaders stand up behind workers' freedom to form unions, they provide a strong counter-balance to the fact that employers hold virtually all the power in the workplace and that labor law is heavily stacked against workers," said Sweeney. "The Senate should pass the Employee Free Choice Act and give all workers the basic freedom to fairly choose a union."
Bally's, by contrast, hired a professional union buster and held mandatory meetings where workers were fed disinformation about the union by their supervisors, such as being told that if they joined a union they could not hold more than one job. The Atlantic City Council passed a resolution urging the casino to sign a neutrality agreement and more than 80 state, local and national political leaders issued statements of support. In the end, the workers won a union by a vote of 628-255.
"For more than ten years the New Jersey State AFL-CIO has worked tirelessly to build one of the finest labor political programs in the nation," New Jersey AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said. "As we welcome nearly 4,500 new union members to our labor family, never has the value of being able to tie strong political action to aggressive organizing been more evident."
VOTER APPRECIATION DAY
Sunday June 10th ~ 1-4 pm
Parkersburg City Park
You are invited to join House Majority Leader Joe Delong and Delegate Dan Poling for free entertainment, food and drinks in appreciation of West Virginia’s voters.
Entertainment includes: The Pour House Crew, The Earl of Elkview and Cousin Dana.
Several local and state officials will be participating in the day … including Rick Thompson, Speaker of the House and Mike Caputo, House Majority Whip.
Directions: From I-77 North take exit 176, turn left on Route 50, take first exit (right on 7th street) go 1.5 miles, turn right on Park Ave, go two blocks and Parkersburg City Park is on the right.
For additional information contact this office @ 344-3557 or wvaflcio@wvaflcio.org
June 5, 2007
Help Protect the Jobs of
National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO
On May 24, 2007, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced S. 1457, Mail Delivery Protection Act of 2007. The bill will limit the Postal Service’s ability to contract out mail delivery to only those places where there are less than one delivery points per mile. At the time of its introduction S. 1457 had six cosponsors including Senators Casey (D-PA), Baucus (D-MT), Bingaman (D-NM), Murray (D-WA), Leahy (D-VT), Kerry (D-MA), Tester (D-MT), and Dorgan (D-ND).
Please contact Senator’s Byrd and Rockefeller
and ask them to support S. 1457.
Explain that we must stop the contracting out of union jobs
within the Postal Service!
DC Address:
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
United States Senate
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4801
DC Phone: 202-224-3954
Charleston Phone: 342-5855
Martinsburg Phone: 264-4626
DC Fax: 202-228-0002
Email Address: http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_email.html
WWW Homepage: http://byrd.senate.gov/
DC Address:
The Honorable John D. Rockefeller, IV
United States Senate
531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4802
DC Phone: 202-224-6472
Beckley Phone: 253-9704
Charleston Phone: 347-5372
Fairmont Phone: 367-0122
Martinsburg Phone: 262-9285
DC Fax: 202-224-7665
Email Address: http://rockefeller.senate.gov/services/email.cfm
WWW Homepage: http://rockefeller.senate.gov/
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