WV-AFL-CIO One Voice July 2007

Working people in America are one step closer to having their civil rights restored thanks to the House of Representatives’ passage of this important bill.

Lily Ledbetter bravely stood up for herself and for all victims of discrimination in the workforce when she filed discrimination charges against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber for paying her substantially less than her male co-workers. In response to her fight for justice, the majority on the Supreme Court bent over backwards - ignoring both precedent and simple common sense - to rob her of her right to equal treatment in the workplace.

The legislation passed today remedies that inequity and once again makes it possible for victims of discrimination to take their cases to court and receive fair hearings and just compensation.

On August 10, 2007 join the Kanawha Valley Labor Council as they host, "Labor Night" at the WV Power Baseball Park.

The price of the event is $20.00 per person and this includes a buffet style picnic and a box seat. Please contact Kanawha Valley Labor Council President, Mike Matthews today for additional information concerning the purchase of your tickets at (304) 343-6952 or mikematthews@cbtwv.org.

Directions: I-64 (I-77) exit 100, towards Leon Sullivan Way/Capitol Street. Bear right onto Capitol Street. Turn Left onto Shrewsbury Street then immediately turn left onto Lewis Street.

In the event that you would require lodging, there are two hotels conveniently located one block from the West Virginia AFL-CIO. The Fairfield Inn (304) 343-4661 or the Super 8 Motel (304) 345-9779

Senator Hillary Clinton is hosting a Town Hall Meeting at West Virginia State University.
What:      Town Hall Meeting on Economic Security with Senator Hillary Clinton
When:      Friday, July 27, 3:00 PM.
Where:   West Virginia State University, Wilson Student Union, Room 135 -
              Route 25 between Barron Dr. and Washington St., Institute, WV 25064

Please click on the link below to enter the RSVP page or call the West Virginia Democratic Party at 304-342-8121 to RSVP.

Plaza East parking lot
(Near Marty’s Tire Store, across from Appalachian Power Park)

They have been working under an expired agreement since December 1, 2006
Who: United Steelworkers
What: Informational Picket
When: Tuesday July 24th ~ 5:00pm
Where: Chesapeake Energy Corporation, 900 Pennsylvania Ave., Charleston, WV
(Near Women and Children’s Hospital)

What:    Town Hall Meeting on an “Agenda for Shared Prosperity”
When:   Monday July 23rd ~ 6-7 PM
Where: Parkersburg City Council Chambers, One Gov. Sq. & Market Street
Moderator:   Sterling Ball, Community & Labor Activist

For more information contact: Gary Zuckett 304-346-5891 or Sterling Ball 304-482-3479

WV United hosts first in a series of meetings in Wood County
“Shared Prosperity” Topic of Town Hall Meeting

West Virginians United, a coalition of progressive West Virginia organizations is holding the first of several state-wide community town hall style meetings at the Parkersburg City Building on Monday July, 23 at 6PM.

The meetings are designed to promote their “Agenda for a Shared Prosperity” – a set of values and policy proposals to strengthen the middle class while creating the conditions necessary for more families to realize the “American Dream”

Speakers will outline the basic agenda with brief comments and then open the discussion up to the community members attending. These discussion topics are: Health Care Reform – making health care affordable and assessable to all West Virginians; Cost of War – connecting the extreme costs of the conflict in Iraq to the cuts in spending for education, housing, social services and other domestic spending right in the Mid-Ohio Valley; Justice in the Workplace – how workplace issues affect quality of life; and Economic Fairness – how public policy can level the playing field and work toward a shared prosperity.

What:    Town Hall Meeting on an “Agenda for Shared Prosperity”
When:    Monday July 23rd     6-7 PM
Where: Parkersburg City Council Chambers, One Gov. Sq. & Market Street
Moderator:   Sterling Ball, Community & Labor Activist
Speakers:

                      Perry Bryant, Exec. Dir. WV for Affordable Health Care
                    Rev Jim Lewis, WV Patriots for Peace
                    Rick Wilson, AFSC Economic Justice Project
                      Ted Boettner, Mountain State Education & Research

For more information contact: Gary Zuckett 304-346-5891 or Sterling Ball 304-482-3479

On July 17, 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives
overwhelmingly voted to pass H.R. 980...
The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007

Submitted by Brother Carl Eastham, President LU #289
WV Professional Fire Fighters

The International Association of Fire Fighters’ top legislative priority, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007 -- which guarantees collective bargaining rights for every fire fighter in the nation -- has overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bill, HR 980, won the support of a majority of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress, passing by a margin of 314-97.

“For more than 50 years, the IAFF has battled to guarantee every professional fire fighter the right to collectively bargain,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “This is just the first step, but it's truly an historic moment for our union.”

HR 980 assures four basic rights: the right to organize and form a union and be recognized as the exclusive representative for employees within a specific fire department; the right to bargain with respective public employers over wages and other terms and conditions of employment; the right to have a neutral third party assist in mediating any disputed issues; and the right to reduce negotiated agreements into binding, legally enforceable contracts.

Thanks to the IAFF’s aggressive grassroots efforts, HR 980 garnered 280 cosponsors, including 70 Republicans. Only 12 of the more than 2,900 bills introduced in this Congress have attained a congressional majority – 218 members – as cosponsors. “Clearly, our grassroots operation -- the calls from our members in the field -- succeeded in elevating this issue and generating support across all parties in the House,” Schaitberger notes.

The IAFF will now focus its efforts in the Senate and, ultimately, on lobbying the president to sign the bill into law when it reaches his desk.

The Letter Carriers (NALC) and U.S. Postal Service (USPS) have reached a tentative five-year agreement that includes new limits on contracting out work. NALC President William H. Young calls the pact a “win-win situation” for the 222,000 union members and the USPS.

This agreement is fair to hard-working letter carriers by taking necessary steps toward protecting their jobs now and well into the future, along with financial compensation that takes into account increases in the cost of living and the difficult task carriers often face in delivering mail to our nation’s growing population, At the same time, it helps the U.S. Postal Service to build on its record as the most efficient and affordable postal service in the world.

The proposed contract includes new limits on contracting out letter carrier work in more than 3,000 city delivery installations and establishes a six-month moratorium on contracting out city carrier delivery services elsewhere across the country. It also establishes a union-management team to study subcontracting issues.

In addition, the new pact eliminates the use of low-wage temporary workers known as “casuals” and replaces them with bargaining unit workers covered by the contract.

In January, Postal Workers (APWU) members ratified a four-year deal with the USPS that covers some 272,000 postal clerks, maintenance and motor vehicle craft employees. The 55,000-member National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU) also ratified a new contract

For the last six years, American families have endured a government in Washington that catered to the interests of the super-wealthy and well-connected. They were given big tax cuts while the rest of us paid the price with cuts to services that we rely on, such as child care, education, worker training and more.

But this week, the House of Representatives will vote on a spending bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments that reverses those misplaced priorities and invests in funding for vital domestic programs.

Call 1-888-460-0813, request Representative Shelley Capito’s office and ask Representative Capito to support the Labor-HHS-Education bill and oppose the President's threatened veto.

"Hello, my name is ___________

I'm calling to urge Representative Capito to vote for the Labor-HHS-Education bill. This bill includes badly needed investments in vital services like child care, health care and Head Start.

I'm also asking Representative Capito to oppose the veto that President Bush is threatening if this bill passes.

We need to invest in America. So I'm looking to Representative Capito to vote for this bill and oppose Bush's threatened veto.

Thank you."

The person who takes your call may not be able to give a direct answer on where Representative Capito stands, but rest assured – your call counts!

8-Hour Day
Paid Sick Leave
Higher Wages
Health Insurance
Overtime Pay
Pensions
Safer Working Conditions
Paid Holidays
Job Security
Severance Pay
Paid Vacations
Maternity Leave

The preceding was brought to you by the men and women of the unions of the West Virginia AFL-CIO who won these benefits at the bargaining table and set the standard for all of West Virginia’s workers.

The Cabell County State Republican Executive Committee will host the WVGOP Summer Conference. A representative from the National Right to Work Committee will be the featured speaker. ****

The West Virginia AFL-CIO and Southwestern District Labor Council, AFL-CIO will join with working West Virginia family members and elected officials, 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to express opposition to those speaking to the West Virginia GOP summer meeting, who voice their support of right to work legislation in our state.

Those in attendance will meet at Harris Riverfront Park then proceed to Pullman Plaza Hotel.

WHO:     WEST VIRGINIA AFL-CIO AND SOUTHWESTERN DISTRICT LABOR COUNCIL
WHAT:    A WORKING FAMILIES RALLY
WHEN:    10 A.M. ~ JULY 14, 2007
WHERE: HARRIS RIVERFRONT PARK, HUNTINGTON WV
WHY:      TAKING A STAND AGAINST “RIGHT TO WORK” FOR LESS

Bring your union banners and signs; wear your union shirts and hats!
We will conclude at noon and return to Harris Riverfront Park
for refreshments and hotdogs.

Forget about coal mining if you can’t tolerate the thought of being stuck deep in the ground for several hours, apart from sunlight and the lung-soothing breezes circulating around the rolling hills of West Virginia.

Clyde McKnight Jr. can issue that advice in a heartbeat.

“You don’t want to be claustrophobic,” the veteran of the pits says.

“I’ve been in places where you had to crawl. In some places, you can’t stand up real good. It depends on where the coal is. If you’re claustrophobic, you don’t want to consider the coal mining business.”

McKnight admits he feels trapped at times, but it all comes down to mind control.

“If you sit and dwell on your feelings, ‘Well, this might be my last time underground; I might never see my kids again,’ then odds are you’re going to do something foolish or stupid and get yourself in a predicament and get hurt. So you’re best to just focus on your job, think safety and work safe.”

Even the safest of underground workers can’t control everything deep in the bowels of the earth.

A few years after he launched his career, McKnight was running a continuous miner on a pillar section, an era when the workers actually sat on the rear of the device in a small deck. Nowadays, the operation is by remote control.

“I was sitting there and we got through pillaring this one block of coal off,” he recalled.

“When you get done, you set what they call breaker posts. Hopefully, the top comes back and breaks off, but it kept coming. As you drive up, you leave blocks of coal to help hold it up. On pillar work, as you come back, you pull blocks of coal out and let the mountain fall in. You get every lump of coal you can.”

But the coal kept advancing at a faster clip than McKnight could retreat with the continuous miner.

As a result, he was buried under 15 to 20 feet of rock. Co-workers farther back dug him out with chisels, slate bars and sledgehammers, opening a tunnel wide enough for him to wiggle through. McKnight came away with mere bruises.

“I was very fortunate on that,” he said.

McKnight lives with such dangers each day he sets out from his Rock Creek home before sunup for a 45-minute drive to the Harris No. 1 Mine of Eastern Associated Coal Corp. in Boone County for a 10-hour shift. Once, he got off promptly at 4 o’clock, but the new policy is to let his and the follow-up shift overlap for safety reasons, keeping him on the job another hour or so.

At 51, he has earned his keep as a miner since 1976, save for a brief stint as a manager of a Beckley motel during a mine layoff after picking up a paralegal degree at Mountain State University.

His affection for mining comes naturally. He is following the same path laid down by his great-grandfather more than a century ago, and taken up in succession by his grandfather and father. That was an era when a mule was an invaluable part of the work.

“I don’t think just anybody, Joe off the street, can just walk in and work in a coal mine,” he said.

“First of all, you’ve got to be a little secure in your own feelings, your own self.”

Admittedly, at certain times, he feels imprisoned at work, unlike other occupations that afford such freedoms as coffee breaks or lunch-time shopping or jogging.

“Some days, like today, we had a lot of water coming in from the mountain,” he said.

“That makes it a harder day, and, of course, you do feel like you’re behind the eight-ball. You wish you weren’t here, but you like what you do.”

McKnight has earned a nationwide reputation of sorts as a miner spotlighted in the June issue of Reader’s Digest in a layout titled “Dirty Work: Life and Death in Appalachia’s Coal Country.”

He was recommended to the national publication by an official of the West Virginia Institute of Labor Studies in Morgantown who remembered McKnight’s work with the United Mine Workers. The magazine sent both a writer and photographer to spend four days with McKnight.

McKnight’s wife of 27 years, Cheryl, worries about him constantly, but she has more than one family member to dwell on.

Their son, Clyde III, who completed three tours of Iraq and one in Afghanistan with the Marines, has re-enlisted after a brief stint as an officer at a regional jail in the Charleston area.

“He missed the camaraderie of the Marines,” his father says. “He’s not afraid of whatever they call him to do. He’s not afraid to face up to reality.”

The younger McKnight suffered a concussion and black eyes in one encounter.

McKnight describes his wife as “strong-hearted with a strong will,” but one nonetheless is given to worry at times.

“She knows when I leave for the mines, she may never see me again,” he said.

“And all the time that my son was deployed overseas, she faced the same reality that he could never come back. It’s a possibility. She thinks positive all the time. She’s real strong on that.”

And then there is the daughter, Michelle, who lives in the Seattle area. Her husband, a former sheriff’s deputy, is serving with the Army in Afghanistan.

Working six days a week leaves little time to relax, but on rare occasions, McKnight slips down to a nearby stream, often as much to simply listen to the therapeutic sounds of swirling water as to bait a hook for fresh fish.

Common thought associates miners with hard-driving country music, but in this vein, McKnight doesn’t fit the bill. His favorites are classical music, especially pieces that lean heavily on violins, and, owing to his Scottish heritage, Celtic music. As he drove away from an interview, he popped in a CD titled “Celtic Woman.”

“I listen to classical music when I really want to relax,” he said.

Under his union contract’s provisions for pension and health benefits, McKnight figures to invest four more years on the job to put in the required years, then retire. He has tried without luck to win a seat in the House of Delegates and says he might take another stab at it.

For all its inherent dangers and, at times, uncomfortable settings that demand working in cramped quarters that tax the back and knees to the limit, McKnight occasionally sees a benefit that no other work offers.

A few years back, while working on a longwall, his crew was toiling on a new panel, pulling back coal. As he gazed backward, embedded in the massive rock at a 45-degree angle was a 50-foot petrified tree, its roots exposed.

“It was beautiful,” he said. “You couldn’t dig it out. It was unsafe to do so. It was spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like it. You see fossils every day, leaves and plants. I’ve got a few at home on my front porch.”

YOU ARE INVITED
SOCIAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATION AND LABOR ALLY CELEBRATES
90TH ANNIVERSARY

The American Friends Service Committee, a social justice organization founded by the Society of Friends (Quakers) turns 90 years old in 2007. The organization has worked in West Virginia since the 1920s and 30s, when it fed children of unemployed miners and supported economic alternatives in the Great Depression. It won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947 and was deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement.

In the 1980s and 90s, AFSC supported union families in the Pittston strike and Ravenswood lockout. More recently, it partnered with the WV AFLCIO in support of raising the minimum wage, opposing the privatization of Social Security, and working for fair state and federal policies.

You are invited to a celebration of the 90th Anniversary of the American Friends Service Committee which will be held on Friday, July 13 at the Charleston Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Boulevard from 7:00-9:00 p.m.

We will meet at Harris Riverfront Park at 9 a.m. then march to Pullman Plaza Hotel to express opposition to those speaking to the West Virginia GOP summer meeting, who voice their support of right to work legislation in our state!

We will conclude at noon and return to Harris Riverfront Park for refreshments and hotdogs.

For additional information call:
Southwestern District Labor Council @ 304-523-2353.

West Virginia AFL-CIO General Counsel, Pat Maroney and his wife Anita invite you to their home located at 5 Fox Chase Road, Charleston, West Virginia on Monday, July 9, 2007, 6:00 pm until 8:00 pm to meet House Majority Whip, Mike Caputo.

From I-64, take the 35th Street Bridge to Kanawha City, take MacCorkle Ave to 39th Street, turn right onto 39th Street, 39th Street becomes Chappell Road, turn right onto Fox Chase Road, at top of hill, turn right to stay on Fox Chase Road.