Was it greed or other factors that killed two workers in a New York City crane collapse? Jesse Russell reports.   Testimony began Tuesday over a 2008 New York City crane collapse that led to the death of two workers. A prosecutor argued in opening statements that “greed’ was responsible for the collapse. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eli Cherkasky alleged company owner James Lomma cut corners to save money on a welding job that led to the Upper East Side deaths. However, the defense has alleged the welding on the crane had been done properly and the actual reason for the collapse was due to the crane being extended too high. The collapse was one of two crane accidents on Manhattan in 2008. The first took the lives of seven workers.  homearchives

By Doug Cunningham   SEIU is joining civil rights and immigrant rights advocates in a coordinated effort to urge repeal of a law SEIU considers racist. Alabama’s new immigration law, SEIU says, has legitimized racial profiling, terrorizing people of color throughout the state. In two weeks SEIU will participate in a week-long series of events against the immigration law. SEIU says it believes the law – HB 56, takes Alabama back to a time of violent discrimination against people of color. homearchives

By Doug Cunningham AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka is in California to highlight and support the struggles of low wage, immigrant workers. Under Trumka the AFL-CIO has forged new partnerships with day laborers, domestic workers and workers centers outside the traditional labor federation structure. homearchives

By Doug Cunningham Led by the record profit $7.6 billion profit of GM, the U.S. auto industry is pumping significant money into the Midwestern U.S. economy. UAW workers at GM are getting bonuses of as much as $7,000 – money which they will then pump into local economies. Workers will get the money March 2nd. Ford and Chrysler also paid bonuses to their union workers, helping to give the economy a much-needed boost. States where union auto plants are located are seeing economies growing faster than the national average. Because the U.S. auto industry was saved with government intervention Michigan’s economy is expected to lead all other states in economic growth in the next six months. Donald Grimes, a University of Michigan labor and economics researcher, says that’s a reversal from the first half of the 2000s. More money in autoworkers’ pockets is also helping local businesses where the auto plants are located. homearchives

Warehouse workers are calling on Wal-Mart to address issues with contractors that violate labor laws. On Thursday workers in Southern California attempted to deliver a petition to one such contractor, Schneider Logistics calling on the company to rescind a plan to fire 100 workers. Warehouse Workers United secured an injunction from the company to not follow through with the plans on February 24. The employees had filed suit in 2011 demanding wages they allege had been stolen b the company. They say they were paid less than minimum wage, denied overtime, and weren’t paid for lunch breaks. The workers rallied on Thursday to deliver the petition to a local warehouse, which was refused at the door. Nick Allen is with Warehouse Workers United:  [Allen]: What happened here is such an obvious illustration of how this management treats its workers. They will not accept a simple written petition signed by these workers asking for their basic right. They will not even take it to read it. That is the level of disrespect these workers experience everyday. homearchives

The largest restaurant group in Florida has refused to weigh-in on an effort to reduce wages for tipped workers in the state. Darden Group, which owns restaurants such as Red Lobster,  issued a statement that due to economic conditions this is “not the right time” to be having a discussion about cutting wages for servers. The bill would see the minimum wage for tipped workers cut from $4.65 per hour to the federal minimum of $2.13 per hour. However, the proposal does include a guarantee for employees of nearly $10 per hour for tips and wages combined. OSI, a restaurant group that owns businesses such as Outback, has said it supports the measure. During a rally last week led by UNITE-Here restaurant employee Erica Feliciano said the move was a step backwards.  [Feliciano]: Minimum wage is $4-something an hour and they want to cut it by $2 - I feel like we’re going back 10 years ago.”  UNITE-Here represents workers at Disney who will be opening 2014 contract negotiations just as the new wage goes into effect if it passes. homearchives

Michiganders vote in a Republican primary in one week and candidate Mitt Romney has made the dividing issue organized labor. Romney has spent the last week on the stump attacking labor and very specifically the United Auto Workers. He accused his rival former Congressman Rick Santorum, of being “unapologetic” in defending organized labor pointing specifically to votes Santorum took against right-to-work legislation. Michigan has the fifth highest rate of union workers in the country with 17.5 percent of workers members of a labor organization. Romney has been endorsed by Gov. Rick Snyder who has used emergency financial managers to dismantle union contracts in economically struggling municipalities and school districts. homearchives

Meanwhile, the occupy movement received the endorsement from one former President last week. During an event at Duke University last week Jimmy Carter described the Occupy movement as “relatively successful” because it had  forced the media, Congress, and the populace overall to start a long overdue discussion on wealth disparity. Carter said the issue had been ignored by Congress and the media until Occupy Wall Street put the discussion “back on the agenda.” homearchives

On February 13 a dozen protesters were arrested in the lobby of Atlanta’s AT&T Midtown Center after they refused to leave until the company promised to not layoff 740 workers in the southeast. One of those arrested was Darlene Jones-Owen who one of the founders of Everyday People Occupy Atlanta. She spoke on Tuesday at a Valentine’s Day Rally and said it was her first time being arrested.   [Jones-Owen]: I did it for American workers. I have no relationship with a union, but I love America and I’m willing to stand up for American workers.   AT&T issued a statement saying that nearly all of the employees facing layoff have received a “guaranteed job offer” and the move reflects a shift in business as consumers move away from wire lines. Occupy Atlanta protesters have set up tents in front of the building and have vowed to stay out front until the company rescinds the layoffs.   The Teamsters also joined the rally to express solidarity with the Communications Workers of America workers at AT&T. Teamsters Local 728 President Randy Brown spoke:   [Brown]: It’s about you and I. Us standing together against the one percent that are doing everything ... homearchives

By Doug CunninghamHundreds of nurses at McClaren Greater Lansing Hospital in Michigan have voted to stay loyal to their union, the Office and Professional Employees International Union, as an independent nurses group challenged the OPEIU representation. OPEIU 459’s Joseph Marutiak.[Marutiak]: “There was a group of independent nurses who attempted to raid this group and convince them that they would be better off in an all-nurses union and that OPEIU – because we have other professionals in our union – wasn’t the right place for nurses. And the nurses soundly rejected that and decided that OPEIU is good representation for them.” homearchives

By Doug Cunningham[TAA Solidarity Song Rotunda Rally]Wisconsin progressives, labor activists and grassroots supporters of Governor Scott Walker’s recall commemorated the one-year anniversary of last February’s historic protests this week. Those protests, including a weeks-long occupation of Wisconsin’s state capitol, were the largest sustained pro-labor protests in U.S. history. As more than a million recall signatures against Walker are reviewed and validated the Wisconsin AFL-CIO is out with a report called “Losses To Working Families Under Governor Walker”. The labor federation says Walker campaigned promising to create jobs but instead has become Job Killer In Chief. Wisconsin has lost jobs six months in a row. At one of the rallies marking the Wisconsin Uprising’s one -year anniversary Democratic State Representative Peter Barca expressed the determination of the grassroots Wisconsin Uprising.[Peter Barca]: “One year later! One year stronger! You know Governor Walker predicted that eventually we would come to accept these changes. He thought that in six months we would forget. Governor Walker, not in sixty years will we forget!”A big rally is planned for March 10 at the capitol in Madison. The One Year Longer, One Year Stronger actions this week and the Reclaim Wisconsin bus tour ... homearchives

By Doug CunninghamPolice unions in New York City are demanding the city release data on the cancer rate among police who responded at Ground Zero right after the September 11 attacks. They want the data to get cancer added to the list of diseases covered by the federal Zadroga Act. The law compensates Ground Zero first responders for health issues but omits cancer. New York's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association says it has young men and women members dying from cancer at unusual rates for their ages and it's unconscionable that the city won't release the data. homearchives

By Doug CunninghamFlorida correctional officers are praising the state senate there for voting down the privatization of more then two dozen prisons. The privatization proposal would have put thousands of Florida Department of Corrections employees out of work according to the union representing corrections workers. Hundreds of corrections workers traveled to Florida’s capitol to urge lawmakers to kill the privatization bill. Ken Wood of Teamsters Local 2011 says his 20,000 corrections officer members are grateful that a bipartisan senate majority voted against privatizing the prisons. homearchives

By Doug Cunningham Teamsters’ members at Hostess have overwhelmingly authorized a strike if Hostess is granted its court motion to impose unfair contract terms as part of the bankruptcy process. Companies often use bankruptcy proceedings to destroy union contracts for workers while making sure that CEO’s and other executives keep lavish compensation packages. The more than 7500 Teamsters at Hostess have twice before made sacrifices to help the company, but the union says worker sacrifices need to be matched by sacrifices from other key stakeholders in the company. A hearing on the court motion is set for March 5th. homearchives

A one thousand mile trip is being planned for workers who have been locked out of both Cooper Tire and American Sugar plants. The trip starts in Fargo, ND beet sugar workers were locked out six months ago. The Cooper Tire workers were locked out in late-November. The workers will make stops in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Indiana before ending the trip in Findlay, Ohio. Locking out workers during contract negotiations is become a common problem for American workers. Caterpillar, HealthBridge, and Manitowoc Crane have all locked out their employees in recent months. The CEO of American Sugar said in a secretly recorded meeting with shareholders that the lock out was part of a greater plan to break the back of the union. homearchives

A new poll from United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection shows strong opposition to making any cuts at all to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The poll also shows strong support among the American people for cutting the military budget. Seventy-six percent of Americans say no cuts at all to Social Security. Eighty percent say no cuts at all to Medicare. When it comes to military spending support some of a lot of cuts. homearchives

--Michigan state employee unions are challenging a law passed in 2011 that requires workers employed since 1997 to switch pensions to a 401(k) style plan that is dependent on the stock market or stick with the current plan, but contribute 4 percent. New employees are required to take the 401(k) style plan.Five unions are jointly filing the suit on behalf of more than 30,000 state workers. The lawsuit alleges that the new law is unconstitutional and that it needed to go through the Civil Service Commission before being enacted. homearchives

By Doug CunninghamCalifornia’s South Bay Labor Council is fighting a move by the San Jose City Council to cut city worker pensions without collectively bargaining over the issue. Cindy Chavez is executive officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council. She says this attack on collective bargaining and vested worker pension rights is illegal but the city is putting the question on the ballot anyway. homearchives

By Doug CunninghamThe AFL-CIO says President Obama’s budget would put America on the right path towards building a solid foundation for our economic future. The labor federation says the president’s proposed investments in infrastructure, clean energy, manufacturing, education and innovation will help build that economic foundation we all need. The AFL-CIO is also praising Obama’s effort to end tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas and to beef up enforcement of trade agreements. Asking millionaires to pay more taxes at the sane effective rate as working families is also a fiscal step in the right direction, according to the AFL-CIO. America, the labor federation says, has to decide between repeating the same mistakes that led to 2008’s financial crash or learning from them and rebuilding our economy on a stronger foundation. homearchives

By Doug Cunningham United Auto Workers President Bob King says direct action nationwide demonstrations using the tactics of the civil rights movement is necessary to take America back from right-wing Republicans and the one-percenters. Speaking on the 75th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit Down Strike victory, King said working people in America are under attack from right-wingers and the UAW and other groups must work together to fight for economic and social justice. Just getting candidates elected, King said, isnÕt enough. King said heÕs working with other labor leaders and faith groups on plans to use direct action, including nonviolent civil disobedience. He said it will take direct action and it will take being willing to face arrest as the UAW participates in marches and demonstrations. By Doug Cunningham United Auto Workers President Bob King says direct action nationwide demonstrations using the tactics of the civil rights movement is necessary to take America back from right-wing Republicans and the one-percenters. Speaking on the 75th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit Down Strike victory, King said working people in America are under attack from right-wingers and the UAW and other groups must work together to fight for economic and social ... homearchives