WIN Week In Review August 8-10, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

The CWA and IBEW are holding “ready to walk” pickets as labor contract talks continue at Verizon. The unions have set a new deadline of midnight Sunday. The strike clock remains stopped at 11:59 p.m. August 2nd. The unions say progress is being made at the bargaining table and the talks are being held around the clock in an effort to reach an agreement. Some 70,000 CWA and IBEW members are ready to strike if necessary Sunday at midnight.

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In California workers and their unions are fighting back against anti-worker actions by the governor that cut 20,000 state jobs and would slash the wages of 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage. The SEIU has filed suit against the move. State Controller John Chiang is refusing to comply with the governor’s order and says even if he did it would take months to implement and would trigger more lawsuits. The California Labor Federation’s Jeremy Smith says workers are not to blame for California’s budget problems.

[Smith]: “We think it’s not their fault that the budget crisis is a crisis. And we hope the governor realizes the error of his ways
of doing this executive order and rescinds it (and) works that much harder to make sure that workers in this state don’t have to suffer because of his inability to get a budget done.”

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A new bill in Congress would guarantee federally funded health care for 9/11 first responders, clean-up workers, residents and students in the area of the attack. Robert Spencer is with The World trade Center Community-Labor Coalition.

[Spencer]: “We have a situation where it’s sort of a national disgrace that the federal government has yet to make a firm, ongoing sort of commitment to the long-term health needs of those injured by 9/11. And so it’s really past due for Congress and the Bush administration to do the right thing here.”

The bill would create “Centers of Excellence” to centralize health data and offer ongoing treatment.

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The nation’s largest supplier of kosher meat has allegedly violated child labor laws dozens of times. Jesse Russell reports:

Nearly 60 cases of child labor law violations have been allegedly uncovered at Agriprocessors kosher meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa. In a statement, Iowa’s Labor Commissioner Dave Neil said the investigation found “egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws.” In May of this year 389 illegal immigrants were arrested during a raid on the plant. That raid and months of investigations led to the 57 cases of child labor violations being uncovered. The violations include exceeding allowable work hours, exposure to hazardous chemicals, failure to obtain permits, and more. Neil has suggested that the violations be prosecuted to “the fullest extent of the law.” The company has not commented on the allegations. In Iowa it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to work in meatpacking plants.