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Labor News

PR Newswire: Labor news

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Why anti-union.blogspot.com ? This site is dedicated to Lawyer/PR man, Rick Berman, who works as a lobbyist for the corporate war against unions and the working class. His MO is to start websites who falsely claim to be factual and through truth, half truth and out right lies, misinform the public, unions are not his first campaign and I'm sure it will not be his last. Heres an interview from 60 Minutes and a Full Story I wrote. The image “http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/7255/aflciofv9.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The image “http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/5439/ctwzc4.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
Showing posts with label Elaine Chao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elaine Chao. Show all posts

A new day and miles to go before I sleep  

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Excerpt, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

To make the world a better place, this is my promise

It was a hard fought battle, and never in my life would I feel a deep sense of hope as I, along with my beautiful girl and the kids, heard the words on ABC that the United States of America has a new president elect. One who has run a campaign of hope.

We did it! This is just the beginning. We have miles to go before we sleep, but for today I will rest and plan along with my fellow unionist and working people, plan how we will further take back our country for our class, the middle class.

Now is the first day of the rest of our lives, keep reading and contributing on the net. The majority of our work is ahead of us, but I will not fade away, my constituents will not either.

As my dear friend Richie Negri explained what he read from Jimmy Hoffa's e-mail he received last night after the winner was declared:
"This is a great day -- a historic day, now let's get this country unified and working for regular, middle-class Americans again. We elected a great man, but we can't stop here because our real work starts now."
The NYC Central Labor Council adds:
There is much work to do with all of our nation's current challenges, but now we have the tools and renewed optimism to get it done.
My buddy Kirsten mentions that the "Right To Work" ballot initiative, which would have destroyed the labor movement in Colorado was defeated yesterday.

Steve from Omaha has sent a job application to President Elect Obama, for the soon to be vacated Secretary of Labor position, which is currently held by Elaine Chao, I certainly endorse Steve, talk about a polar opposite to the Bush labor ideals, here's what Steve has to say to our next President:
Dear Senator Obama,

For the last several years American workers have suffered under the current administrations polices and appointees. I would like to apply for a job that is first and foremost for fairness of the American worker. I am asking to be your Secretary of Labor. I am much more qualified than Elaine Chao ever could be.

Twice in my life I have been fired illegally. Twice a union has won my rights through legal action. I know what it means to be the head of a family without a job during bad times. I know bankruptcy as a result of these actions too. I have also had two on the job accidents that resulted in two different partial impairments.

I have some unique qualifications that will provide for fairness to workers and employers on a case by case basis. Since you don't know much about me, just ask my 100,000 plus friends at the Democratic Underground for their opinion. They have been reading my labor opinions for over four years.

Regards,

Steven L Dawes
Shop Steward AFSCME Local 251.
This has been a great day, but this is just the beginning.

I leave you with a quick excerpt of a comment back to someone who attacked my ideals over at NewsVine:
...You tell me, why is it happening? Why does every so-called first world country in the entire globe being invaded by illegal workers? Is it the Democrats? Is it the Republicans? Could it be unfair Free Trade agreements? Is it the people who refuse to hold their leaders accountable and believe the lies that "there is nothing we can do about it?"
Ending the corporate love affair with the slave class is tops on my agenda.

No child in my country 13 years old should work on a kill floor. No 13 year old should wind up in critical condition and see his father die while they worked on a construction site in my America. The profiteers of human misery should be held accountable, their enablers should be held accountable.

We cannot allow anyone in our America to work without rights, a citizen cannot compete. A citizen should not have to foot the bill because employers choose to fail in their legal responsibilities.

We must stop the influx and we must find a humane way to deal with those who are already here. No one benefits from the misery that has been created except the unscrupulous employers. This must end. The slavery and labor abuse that many of our ancestors fought and died fighting against must stop again.

They know that united we stand so they decided to bring us more division, they encourage us to fight worker against worker, they have had a sweet deal in the last 15 or so years, all workers here in our United States are suffering because of this. The powers that be do not want us to pull those under us up to our level, they want us to slip down to theirs. Big business would be perfectly happy if we all bargained our way to the bottom, while the few at the top generate all the wealth and the majority of us get less and less for our labor.

I blame Free Trade for the influx, more on that in another story...need some sleep, just for tonight, maybe a few days off the web would do me justice. I'm sure my girl would agree.

I just want to thank all the great labor writers, communicators, organizers and activists, who believe that we can change the world. Those who believe that all that is good will only happen if we have a strong and vibrant worker movement. Their dedication, their core belief that if we are strong, we can fight for a better world and we can do it together, but mostly above all else, I would like to thank my fellow workers, who come and read our sites and choose to be informed of whats going on. Those of you who know that that "there's nothing we can do about it," is a lie which is repeated by those who would chose to keep us living poor, spending more and working till we die.

We must step it up in '09.

We have miles to go before we sleep.
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Video: Elaine Chao, Bush's Sec. Of Labor get's her nails done for McCain fundraiser, Bill Moyers on OSHA unreported injuries  

Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.- American Rights at Work on Elaine Chao's stance on the poultry industry

2 SUV's and 6 security personal, just a few blocks from her home, wow Elaine must have gotten really gussied up for John McCain and her husband Senator Mitch McConnell.


Kentucky protesters get booted away from across the street of Senator McConnell's, John McCain fund raiser.

According to Shame on Elaine (6/29/08):

Matt Gunterman sums up the problem with this scene:

So, by my rough calculation, it probably cost on the order $450 to get Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s nails done.

Workers in Kentucky struggle to fill up their gas tanks because gas is $4/gallon and inflation is rising.

Workers in Kentucky worry that they won’t have a job tomorrow because the second Bush recession promised to be even worse than the first.

Workers in Kentucky wonder if they’ll meet next month’s mortgage, while Wall Street fat cats get bailed out by Washington.

But does any of this worry Elaine Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and George W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor?

Go read the rest of Matt’s post.
The Bush Legacy Bus - with some great music
"you took our jobs and sent em overseas, now we owe billions to the red Chinese"- Takin My Country Back by The Honky Tonkers For Truth


Elaine Chao

Heres a little about Elaine Chao, from a previous story on Feb.19th. 2008: Carhartt, Red Wing Shoes and more union news you may have missed, ideas, blurbs and dumbed down Americans

Now American Rights at Work has launched a web-based campaign exposing Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao’s dismal record through www.ShameOnElaine.org which according to Talking Union:
Unlike her cohorts in the Bush Administration, Elaine Chao has escaped much-needed public scrutiny of her time on the job. From littering the Labor Department with corporate insiders to dismantling worker safety protections and collaborating with her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, on a blatant anti-union political agenda, Elaine has disgraced her role as Secretary of Labor.

Like most union activists we knew Elaine was a stinker – but until ARAW pulled all the information together at one spot, we had no idea just how bad her record is. We’re sure you’ll share our outrage over what we found out she was up to instead of serving in the interest of workers:
  • Hired a former colleague from the Heritage Foundation who actually wrote a report titled “How to close down the Department of Labor.”
  • Cut over 100 inspectors at the MSHA and, as a result, hundreds of mines weren’t inspected and tragedies such as Sago and Crandall Canyon might have been prevented.
  • Had Chao-themed coins, lanyards, and fleece blankets printed at taxpayers’ expense.
  • Failed to issue a rule requiring employers pay for their workers’ safety gear—contributing to 400,000 workers injured and 50 dead.
  • Had an auditorium named in her honor – thanks to her husband’s $14.2 million earmark to enhance the Mitch McConnell Center at his alma mater, the University of Louisville. Of course, Elaine never attended the university.
Thats just the tip of the iceberg, my buddy Richie at UnionReview.com has been following her views on the American worker for a while and I pointed out in a comment:

Lets not forget

We are angry and smelly workers, according to the US Secretary of Labor
… In her infinite wisdom, Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao lectures workers on how we can stop losing our jobs to foreign workers: …
…and…
Secretary of Labor on Employee Free Choice Act
… will veto if it gets to his desk. The president and Elaine Chao say that private ballot elections should be preserved because “it is …

At the Shame on Elaine site theres also, among other atrocious misdeeds, an article about the North Carolina poultry industry, which as you may have read about first right here on JoesUnionReview, the newspaper in the local area, the Charlotte Observer has been doing what has become a rarity in todays Main Stream Media, an expose. Shame On Elaine notes:
Elaine Chao’s Labor Department doesn’t see a problem, though. Elaine’s OSHA claims poultry plants are “safer than ever,” pointing to supposedly lower rates of reported injuries. The devil’s in the details, though.

The poultry story has created quite a stir, the AFL-CIO Web Blog is currently engaged in a debate in it's comments section pertaining to a story about the newest employer exploitation here on American soil. Slaves, Sharecroppers, Now Immigrants.

OSHA under the umbrella of Elaine Chao's DOL

BILL MOYERS: Businesses, on the other hand, say the requirements are cumbersome, and have long pressured the agency for weaker standards of regulation.

The pressure's paid off. THE NEW YORK TIMES' Stephen Labaton reported last year that since George W. Bush became president, the agency has left worker safety largely in the hands of industry, and has issued the fewest significant standards in its history.

Video on the production of The Charlotte Observers investigative report "The Cruelest Cuts" and the under reporting of workplace injuries, which has been covered here at Joe's with:U.S. Lawmakers worried about safety after Charlotte Observers expose on the poultry industry


From the narrator in the video:

In North Carolina, the number of OSHA poultry plant inspections fell from 25 in 1997 to nine in 2006. South Carolina poultry plant inspections dropped from 36 in 1999 to 1 in 2006.

Nationwide, OSHA workplace safety inspections at U.S. poultry plants have dropped to their lowest point in 15 years. In fact the government rewards companies that report low injury rates by inspecting them less often. And Washington's regulators rarely check whether companies are reporting accurately.

Please also note that the video features testimony by Bob Whitmore, a long time OSHA employee , who has been placed on Administrative leave to testify in the hearing, Mr.Whitmore was also the 200th. person to sign the petition against OSHA's lack of a standard in combustible dust

"As an OSHA employee, I was ashamed and deeply offended by my Agencies response at Rep Miller's Hearings. Like Rep. Miller said "I again see no sense of urgency from OSHA". The OSHA Watchdog has acted like a Lapdog again." - Bob Whitmore , Maryland

Read More about combustible dust
Read More about MeatPacking industry

OSHA News at Unbossed
Government, Industry Play the Numbers Game on Worker Safety in Meatpacking Plants-Labor Notes

Shirah from Unbossed at DailyKOS
More James Pence Video's at Hillbilly Report

Hillbilly chimed in on the comments with this gem, thanks brother


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img296/7559/moyerszr3.jpg
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