By Doug Cunningham

Thanks to a successor clause negotiated by the United Steel Workers there won’t be any job losses or changes in employment terms for workers at Weyerhaeuser. The union managed to protect workers in the sale of Weyerhaeuser to International Paper. The contract, wages, pensions and benefits were all simply transferred to the new owner. Workers also retained their seniority rights.

By Doug Cunningham

United Steel Workers members at Packaging Corporation of America are voting Thursday on acceptance of a new five-year master contract agreement covering 1200 workers. The contract covers mills in Tennessee, Michigan, and Wisconsin. USW President, Leo Gerard says this agreement lays the foundation for economic security for these workers during a time when the paper industry is undergoing massive change from economic globalization. Details aren’t being released until the ratification vote, but the USW says the contract includes wage and benefit increases and groundbreaking job security provisions.

By Doug Cunningham

Will a blue tide wash the red away in many states and Congressional districts this fall? United Steelworkers Indiana Rapid Response Coordinator, Brett Voorhies thinks it will. Democrats backed by unions have won three recent special elections in solid “red” Congressional districts – Illinois, Louisiana and in Mississippi. In Indiana, Voorhies says the USW made the difference backing Jill Long Thompson, the first woman to win the Democratic Gubernatorial nomination in Indiana. He believes unions will help turn Indiana blue, regardless of whether the Democratic presidential nominee is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Nearly 270 workers at a pipe manufacturing plant in Iowa continue to be locked out of work. On January 28, Griffin Pipe closed the doors on employees and refused to let them in. According to the Daily Nonpareil, nearly 200 workers represented by local Steelworkers Union 3141 have filed for unemployment or are relying on assistance from the union’s strike and defense fund. The lockout began after contract negotiations failed between the company and the union. The company has said production at the plant is down and is seeking to place workers in roles where they are needed most, but the union is concerned that such a concession could impact seniority.

By Doug Cunningham

The Blue-Green Alliance between the United Steelworkers and the Sierra Club is working now with Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection. The Alliance is working to educate its members about global warming and then activate them around solutions that can promote economic prosperity with green principles. It's an effort to build a strong blue-collar constituency for global warming solutions. Steelworkers President, Leo Gerard says we’re looking towards a very near future when good, high-paying American jobs will be created by the emerging green economy.

By Doug Cunningham

When United Steelworkers member, Eric Powell decided to run for Mississippi State Senate, he thought he could keep his main job with Packaging Corporation of America. But after he was sworn in, the company fired him. Without a union, that would have been the end of the story, but USW District 9 Director, Stan Johnson says the union just got State Senator Eric Powell his job back.

[Johnson]: "Without representational rights and intervention on behalf of the union, the Senator would have clearly been terminated. That’s what we do, that’s how we do business. And we’re proud of the fact that he was elected to the Mississippi Statehouse as a Senator. We encourage our members to get involved politically and we support our members who do. And we were certainly going to support him and his efforts to do so. We did that in the election and we certainly did so in the resulting termination."

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers union says a Texas Supreme Court decision limiting contract workers to worker’s compensation benefits when injured on the job rewards negligent employers. The USW says without the ability to sue companies when negligence causes worker injuries the burden of recovery falls on the injured contract workers. The USW says if this law had been in effect when the 2005 BP explosion happened, BP would have escaped $1.5 billion in liability and the dangerous lack of proper safety procedures at BP would have never come to light.

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers union says since 15 workers were killed and 180 injured in the British Petroleum explosion and fire in Texas City, Texas in 2005 the industry response to safety hazards pervasive in U.S. oil refineries has been anemic. USW President, Leo Gerard says a new union survey of safety practices at U.S. refineries shows there’s an alarming potential for future disasters and companies need to work with the union on a comprehensive overhaul of oil refinery safety practices.

[Gerard]: “It's a wake-up call to the industry and as the United Steel Workers we're prepared to work hand in hand with them to improve the safety conditions and the standards in every refinery, whether it's represented by us or not."

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers has teamed with the Sierra Club and other groups to form a coalition that’s suing the state of California to enforce the state’s protections against cancer-causing chemicals. USW’s Shawn Gilchrest says the coalition also wants Dupont’s Teflon chemical – PFOA – treated as a carcinogen.

[Gilchrest]: “The agencies are just not reacting to the hazardous chemicals the way that the law is intended. And so what we really want to do is hold the agencies accountable. We depend on our agencies and on our federal regulators to be watchdogs for us and its a shame when we actually have to take them to court to hold them accountable for doing what they should be doing."

By Doug Cunningham

Children's bracelets contaminated with toxic cadmium are the latest in a string of toxic imports, mostly from China. The United Steelworkers is waging a campaign to stop this dangerous flood of imports. For more on the union's efforts to stop toxic imports, go to stoptoxicimports.org

The United Steelworkers are encouraging Grupo Mexico to pay attention to a new report for the sake of Mexican mine workers. Jesse Russell reports:

A new report highlighting serious health and safety violations at copper mines owned by Grupo Mexico in Sonora, Mexico is being called a wake-up call by the United Steelworkers. The report discovered "failing equipment, high levels of toxic dust and acid mist, and a lack of health and safety programs to educate workers." The USW represents Grupo Mexico workers at mines in Texas and Arizona and they issued the statement in solidarity with the Mexican workers.

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steel Workers says almost 9,000 retirees, spouses and surviving spouses will get lump-sum payments of up to $600 this year from a health benefits trust fund. The fund was established for former employees of Kaiser Aluminum when Kaiser went bankrupt. The benefit is about equal to $50 monthly Medicare Part B premiums. The trust fund was set up in 2004 to restore prescription drug coverage for Medicare-eligible retirees. The retirees were represented by the USW, the UAW, United Food and Commercial Workers and the International Association of Machinists.

Three Democratic candidates are now campaigning in Iowa with major labor endorsements. Jesse Russell has a look:

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd was the first to receive a labor nod coming from the International Association of Firefighters. New York Senator Hillary Clinton has recently picked up the endorsements from both the International Association of Machinists and the United Transportation Union. In a unique move the Machinists also endorsed a Republican candidate – former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee was the only Republican candidate who agreed to speak at the Machinists recent convention. And just in time for Labor Day, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards picked up two major union endorsements – from the United Steelworkers and the United Mineworkers of America. Edwards had already received an endorsement from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.

On Friday, the United Steelworkers reached a tentative agreement with Delphi. Details on the agreement were not released to the public as members vote on approval. USW represents 900 workers in Ohio.

In other NLRB news, seven labor unions have asked the board for bargaining rights with corporations, even if a minority of employees is represented at the workplace. In a New York Times article, Southern Methodist University Labor Law Professor Charles J. Morris said that bargaining with a union, even if only a minority is represented, is required under the National Labor Relations Act. The unions are arguing that the Act says employers do not have to bargain with a union as representative of all employees, but only for those employees in the union.

By Doug Cunningham

The United Steelworkers union is pressing Dupont to take responsibility for
what it says are adverse health and environmental effects of a class of chemicals known as PFOA. They're used in teflon coatings on cooking pans and utensils, in Scotch Guard carpeting and even on pizza boxes. The USW's Rick Massengill.

[Massengill 1]: "What we would like Dupont to do is to stop making the stuff. And then to own up to its responsibility and do more widespread training and also testing of its workforce."

Massengill says Dupont isn't cooperating with the union when it comes to the hazards of PFOA's.

By Doug Cunningham

Continental Tire has been ordered by a federal judge to pay health premiums for 2,000 retired steelworkers. The suit by the United Steel Workers forced the company to honor its contract to the retirees after the company arbitrarily cut the health insurance premiums.

By Doug Cunningham

Off-the-road tires from China will get more scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Commerce thanks to a United Steelworkers petition. USW President Leo Gerrard says tire-dumping into the North American market is costing U.S. jobs. The Commerce Department will investigate the importation of Chinese tires used in agriculture, construction and other industries. The USW and Titan Tire want to see tariffs imposed on the tires to off-set alleged illegal Chinese dumping and subsidies.

Harley workers in Kansas City have approved a contract that will see raises and no monthly payments by workers toward healthcare. Jesse Russell reports:

By Jesse Russell

More than 800 workers at the Kansas City Harley Davidson will be seeing a wage increase of at least 3.5 percent annually for the next five years. Represented by the International Association of Machinists and the United Steelworkers, workers will also not have to pay a monthly health-care premium. The workers were able to avoid paying a premium by allowing the company to raise the policy’s deductible. Last February a three week strike at a Harley plant in York, Pennsylvania resulted in a contract that included a two-tier wage system – such a system was not implemented in Kansas City.

By Doug Cunningham

In 2001 two Colombian union activist leaders were pulled off a bus near a Drummond Coal mine operation and murdered by paramilitaries just after they had met with a United Steelworkers delegation. The union and families of the slain union leaders are suing Drummond Coal for allegedly paying the paramilitaries to kill the union men. Dan Kovalik is the USW attorney on the civil suit against Drummond coal for these anti-union murders for hire. He was in Colombia when the murders happened. Kovalik has affidavits from witnesses who say Drummond’s CEO in Colombia handed over $200,000 to a paramilitary warlord for the killings of union leaders Valmore Locarno and Victor Orcasita. The steelworkers have helped some Colombian union activists leave the country after their lives were threatened. The USW wants multinationals operating in Colombia to stop dealing with and hiring paramilitaries for security. And it wants the U.S. government to stop lavishing so much military aid on Colombia until the murders of trade unionists stop.