WV-AFL-CIO One Voice - November 2007

Marshall-Wetzel-Tyler Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO Invites all friends of labor to their Annual Christmas Party

DATE:             Saturday December 8th
TIME:               6 pm
LOCATION:     Eagles Club (upstairs)
Corner of 2nd Street and Jefferson Ave
Moundsville WV

For Additional information contact:
Chuck Taskalines 304-845-7326 or Betty Key 304-232-2259

GREAT NEWS!

Yesterday at the Capitol during the December Interim Session the Worker Freedom Bill passed out of the Full Joint Standing Judiciary Committee with recommendation that the legislation pass during the 2008 Regular Session.

Please remember to thank those Legislative members that support this very important legislation.

The Worker Freedom Bill is designed to eliminate mandatory, forced meetings for workers for reasons unrelated to job performance. It does not ban any message and it does not ban workplace meetings. Rather, it prohibits employers from using their power to compel employees to listen to – to be a forced audience for – their employers’ efforts to impose religious and political beliefs and beliefs about joining a union. It protects employee’s rights not to have their employer’s beliefs forced on them through mandatory meetings by giving workers the freedom

For additional information, please contact the West Virginia AFL-CIO office @ 344-3557.

AFL-CIO Leader Joins Striking Nurses in Fight for Safe Staffing

Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker Addresses Rally in Kentucky

On Thursday, November 29 at noon AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will join with hundreds of nurses from around the country in Lexington, Kentucky to stand with nurses striking at nine Appalachian Regional Hospitals (ARH) to demand safe staffing for patients.

Holt Baker will present a $20,000 check from the AFL-CIO to provide emergency financial support for striking nurses that will allow them to continue their struggle without fear of losing their homes or declaring bankruptcy.

Nearly 700 nurses at ARH, which runs hospitals, clinics and pharmacies in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, have been on strike since Oct. 1. They are seeking a contract with safer staffing levels and higher patient care standards. The nurses are members of the Kentucky Nurses Association and the West Virginia Association and affiliated with the United American Nurses.

Who: AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, labor and religious leaders, nurses from around the country

What: Rally supporting striking nurses, safe staffing, at ARH Hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia

Where: ARH Headquarters, 2285 Executive Dr., Lexington, KY, Exit 110 off I-75

Massey Energy Co. illegally refused to hire longtime union miners when it bought the Horizon Natural Resources operations at Cannelton.

Massey wrongly refused to negotiate a deal with the United Mine Workers over wages and working conditions at its renamed Mammoth Coal complex.

Richmond, Va.-based Massey also rejected applications from veteran miners with pro-union views and hired inexperienced workers instead to avoid an organizing drive at Mammoth.

NLRB administrative law judge Paul Bogas ordered Massey to provide jobs to 85 union miners and to pay them “any loss of earnings they may have suffered due to the discrimination against them.”

In a 70-page decision, Bogas also ordered Massey to begin good-faith negotiations toward a UMW contract to cover workers at the Cannelton operations.

“We’ve said all along that what the company did to the workers at Cannelton was illegal,” said UMW President Cecil Roberts. “We look forward to the day, hopefully soon, when our members can walk back into that mine and reclaim their rightful jobs.”

Yesterday the Governor held a press conference concerning the National Mathematica contract awarded to HRDF. The program is to transition SSI children into the workforce.

During November 2006, SSA piloted new projects in five states – Florida, Maryland, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia with the understanding that only Three of the Five sites would be chosen for a four-year contract for full implementation.

HRDF was initially approached by Mathematica to serve as a pilot project site as a result of its previous successful experience.

On November 15, 2007, HRDF was notified that it had been chosen to receive a $3,875,000 grant to expand project services to 400 additional youth with disabilities in select areas across WV over a four year period.

This is a proud moment for HRDF and all training programs, we would like to congratulate Carol Feathers and all her staff!

The WV Center on Budget and Policy invites you to the first annual meeting
Monday, December 3, 10:00 - 3:00 Charleston Marriott
please call or email Renate Pore at 346-8815 renatepore@verizon.net if you plan to attend
(No need to respond if you are NOT attending)

The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy is being developed as a nonpartisan, nonprofit, statewide policy research organization. Its focus will be on how policy decisions affect all West Virginians, including low- and moderate-income families, other vulnerable populations, and the important community programs that serve them.

OUR MISSION: ● Provide timely, credible and independent policy analysis on a broad spectrum of tax and budget issues including tax equity, revenue adequacy, and overall fiscal budget priorities. ● Use research and analysis to advance policies and practices that improve the economic and social well-being of all West Virginians. ● Educate the public and policymakers on the effects of budget and tax policies and economic trends. ● Inform public debate and ensure that complex tax and budget issues are accessible to a varied audience of state and local officials, journalists, nonprofits, other interested parties, and the general public. ● Reach out to state and community-based groups and organizations to make research available to them and to assure that they are consulted in the process of setting priorities for research and analysis.

Moderator – Dennis Sparks
What are the important tax and budget issues facing West Virginia

Nurses from Across the Country Travel to Kentucky,
West Virginia to Support Striking Nurses

On Friday and Saturday, Nov. 9 & 10, nurses and healthcare workers from across the country will travel to Kentucky and West Virginia to support the striking nurses at the Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) system. Nurses will first protest at the corporate headquarters of ARH in Lexington, then go walk the picket line in Harlan, Hazard, Middlesboro, McDowell, and Williamson, Kentucky and Beckley and Hinton, West Virginia. In Beckley on Saturday, the nurses will participate in a food donation for the UAN nurses on strike in West Virginia.

The nurses will be coming from across the country, including New York, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, and California. The nurse participants will call on ARH to recognize the Kentucky Nurses Association (KNA) and West Virginia Nurses Association (WVNA) nurses’ call for better patient care. They will go on to show that the ARH nurses’ strike is part of the broader fight of nurses and healthcare workers across the country to provide quality patient care.

“Nurses are coming from across the country to stand in solidarity with the nurses striking at ARH,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “As the fight continues for quality patient care over a corporation’s bottom line, the KNA and WVNA nurses are taking a stand for all working families.”

The nurses are members of a number of unions including California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), United American Nurses (UAN) and AFT-Healthcare.

The caravan is the latest in a string of activity to support the nurses striking at the ARH system. The AFL-CIO donated $20,000 and both AFSCME and CNA donated $10,000 recently to support the nurses as they continue the strike. The food drop in Beckley, West Virginia comes on the heels of a $10,000 food donation by the AFL-CIO to the nurses striking at the Hazard hospital.

RNs Working Together, an affiliated group of the AFL-CIO and the sponsor of the caravan, represents over 300,000 registered nurses and 11 unions and is the largest coalition of nurses in the country.

Who: Nurses from across the country, ARH KY and WV Nurses
What: Nurse caravan in support of the striking nurses at ARH
Where & When: Friday, November 9 across Kentucky, in locations including:
Lexington: 9:00 a.m., Protest at ARH Corporate HQ in Lexington, 2285 Executive Drive
Hazard: 5:00 p.m., Nurse Caravan picket at ARH Hazard Hospital, 100 Medical Center Drive

Beckley: Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Food Distribution and Rally, Parking lot across the street from 306 Stanaford Road, Beckley, WV

support our Nurses Rally
1 pm
Saturday, November 10th
Beckley, wv

The rally will be held across the street from Beckley-Appalachian Regional Hospital(Behind Beckley Pharmacy

From Route 19 take the Bradley/North Beckley exit
At the end of the ramp, turn South onto 19/16
After approximately 4 miles, continue straight onto South 19
At this point, slight left through light / South 19 is also Eisenhower Drive
Now get into the right lane continuing past Super Wal-Mart
At top of hill is a red light
Turn left onto Stanford Road (Before passing Ramey Ford)
Nurses will be on left about 1/8 of a mile

Take Exit 124, Rt.19 East Beckley (Eisenhower Drive)
At second light turn left and immediate right onto Eisenhower Drive
Continue until you see Ramey Ford
Turn slight right at light onto Stanaford Road
Nurses will be on left about 1/8 of a mile

Food and money will be delivered to the nurses on the picket line during the rally
Bring your union banners and signs;
wear your union shirts and hats!

The nurses are on strike because of the negative treatment by ARH management and allowing and promoting of unsafe staffing for patients.

Southwestern District Labor Council, AFL-CIO will be hosting CLC Training with Robbie Massey and Steve Cook from WVU Institute of Labor Studies & Research, on Sunday November 18, 2007 @ 9 am. Any CLC who hasn't had the training and would like to participate needs to contact the office @ 523-2353 to confirm attendance.

The class work will be completed in one session and the council will provide lunch to all in attendance. We challenge each of you to bring 2 members of your local union to the training; they do not have to be delegates.

Location:   Laborers' Local #543
                   401 7th Avenue
                   Huntington, WV. 25701
                   304-523-2353
                   Email: organizeyou1@aol.com
                   www.swdlc.org

The below letter was forwarded to us to share with you by
Mike Cavanaugh, Director, Office of State & Local Affiliates, AFL-CIO

I’m writing to thank you for the strong solidarity provided by the AFL-CIO in support of 7,000 striking USW forestry workers in Canada’s British Columbia province. On October 21st, our members ratified a contract with Forest Industrial Relations (FIR), the employers’ association representing 31 companies involved in the labor dispute.

Our members went on strike over safety issues, protesting dangerous working conditions that have contributed to dozens of deaths in recent years. The AFL-CIO, working through its state federations and local Central Labor Councils, provided crucial support during our consumer awareness campaign directed at Home Depot stores across the United States. Your mobilization efforts assisted us in leafleting more than 200 Home Deport stores during our national day of action on September 29th. This massive show of solidarity and determination was a critical factor in helping to bring about a successful conclusion to our labor dispute with FIR.

Your commitment demonstrates that labor solidarity has no borders in the fight for workers’ rights. On behalf of our 850,000 members, I wish to thank you for your outstanding organizing efforts.

AFL-CIO Files International Complaint on Bush Labor Board’s Sweeping Anti-Worker Decisions

ILO Complaint Argues “Sustained Assault on Workers’ Rights in the United States”

(Washington, Oct. 25) The AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association against the decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the last several years. According to the complaint, the NLRB, now dominated by a Bush administration majority, has engaged in a systematic effort to deny workers’ rights in violation of international labor standards.

“Under Bush, America’s labor board has so failed our nation’s workers that we must now turn to the world’s international watchdogs to monitor and intervene,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “The Bush Labor Board is kryptonite for America’s workers. There is no historic precedent for such aggressive efforts by the Board to curtail workers’ rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining.”

“Faced with a rise in unlawful employer conduct, the Board has responded by shrinking the NLRA’s coverage, limiting the rights protected by the statute, strengthening management’s prerogative to discriminate, harass, and intimidate and steadfastly refusing to apply the few meaningful remedies available under the Act,” reads the complaint. The Board’s decisions, according to the complaint, further highlight a retreat from the promises of U.S. labor law and a deepening crisis for America’s workers.

The complaint highlights numerous NLRB cases over the course of several years, including a particularly egregious set of decisions issued by the Board in late September. Many of these 61 decisions continue the erosion of workers’ rights begun in earlier years by the Bush Board.

This is not the first time the AFL-CIO has filed a complaint over the denial of freedom of association against the Bush Administration’s NLRB. Currently, there are two other cases pending before the ILO, which challenge the NLRB’s denial of organizing and collective bargaining rights to workers now classified as supervisors and to university teaching and research assistants.

Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
on Passage of The Trade and Globalization Assistance Act

The House of Representatives took a strong stand for America’s working families by passing the Trade and Globalization Assistance Act (TGA), which provides a critical safety net for the millions of workers who lose their jobs every year due to off-shoring and increased imports. Our nation has lost 3 million family-supporting manufacturing jobs on Bush’s watch alone. Flawed trade policy continues to send manufacturing and service sector jobs overseas, and working men and women need the assistance of TGA more than ever.

The TGA offers much-needed improvements to the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which was designed to help workers devastated by trade-related job loss, get back on their feet. While TAA is an important safeguard for working people, funding shortages have left many out in the cold as they’ve sought help after losing a job. The bill that passed the House today doubles the funding available to assist more workers in training for new careers. The bill also improves the health-care benefits available to trade-displaced workers and extends eligibility to service-sector and public workers who have lost their jobs due to trade or off-shoring.

Today’s victory for workers may be short-lived, however, if President Bush follows through on his callous threat to veto the bill. A veto would show trade-displaced workers and communities just where Bush’s priorities lie - - with giant corporate multi-nationals. It would also jeopardize the President’s trade agenda at a time when support for trade liberalization remains precarious.

Our nation’s leaders must set a new course on trade that would protect jobs and strengthen workers’ rights. Until that happens, working families need the vital protections offered by an improved and expanded TAA. We call upon President Bush to do the right thing by signing this critical measure into law.