Month: May 2013

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The state of Oregon’s House and Senate have been working to pass bills that are labor-friendly.

Most recently, H.B. 3342 passed through the House and has made its way into the Senate. If passed, the bill would outlaw public sector union-busting. Public employers will no longer be able to use public funds or use public property to hold meetings whose purpose is to deter or assist union organizing.

Two other bills that have passed the House and are awaiting Senate approval are H.B. 2950 and H.B. 2646. These bills would allow workers to take up to two weeks of unpaid leave to deal with the death of a family member and would require prevailing wages on all construction projects on public university lands, even if donor-funded.

Another pro-worker bill in the House is H.B. 3390, which seeks to mandate that employers with six or more employees provide employees with seven days of paid sick leave per year. 

05/02/13 UPDATE: Ohio right-to-work bills were considered “dead-on-arrival” as Senate Republic President Keith Faber rejected the bills last night in an after-hours press conference.
“We have an ambitious agenda focused on job creation and economic recovery, and Right to Work legislation is not on that list. After discussions with other leaders and my caucus, I don’t believe there is current support for this issue in the General Assembly,” Faber said. “The only purpose this discussion serves right now is to generate a bunch of breathless fundraising appeals from the Ohio Democratic Party.”
 
Original Story:
Ohio has joined Pa. and Mo. in the fight against right-to-work bills. Today, two Republican Ohio Representatives Kristina Roegner and Ron Maag submitted bills seeking to take away rights from unions and their members in Ohio.
Roegner’s bill goes after private-sector unions such as UTU-SMART while Maag’s bill focuses on unions of the public sector.
Ohioans are clearly against this type of legislation with 60 percent of Ohio voters having voted down similar legislation in Senate Bill 5 (SB 5) that was introduced in 2011. SB 5 almost cost Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich his job when he sought to make SB 5 law without allowing Ohioans to vote on it. Petitions and outcries were heard loud and clear in Ohio’s government and SB 5 went to the people to be voted on in November 2011 and was voted down.
Ohioans are still working on getting an amendment passed that would allow the people of Ohio to vote to remove a governor from office as a result of the SB 5 fiasco.
Kasich has refused to support any right-to-work bill since SB 5 failed and has instead remained focused on other legislation. Kasich has yet to weigh in on the new legislation that was introduced today.
Pennsylvania and Missouri are also facing similar bills in their respective Houses. Recently, the state of Maine rejected right-to-work bills in both the state House and Senate, effectively killing those bills.

BNSF_Color_LogoSpoon River College (SRC) of Canton, Ill., Carl Sandburg College (CSC) of Galesburg, Ill. and BNSF has partnered together to offer a new Rail Transportation & Power System Technology Certificate.

Students enrolled in the program will study circuits, hydraulics, welding, diesel tractor technology, engine systems, safety in the workplace and much more. Students will have classes at both SRC and CSC. CSC offers access to a BNSF switchyard where students will get hands-on experience. SRC and BNSF have donated equipment for students to use.

BNSF and SRC realized a while ago that current engine technicians (baby boomers) are getting ready to retire. BNSF’s business is booming and so they decided to take steps now to be ready for when the large number of employees retire.

Because of the distance (46 miles or about one hour) between SRC and CSC, the usual 18-week session that is standard for other degrees of this type at the college, has been condensed down into one eight-week session.

Students coming out of the one-year program (31 credit hours) will have obtained a certificate and the experience and training required to get a job with BNSF. Classes are set to start in the fall. SRC is accepting applications for the program now.