Author: paul

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is seeking to streamline the whistleblower process by introducing an online form to register discrimination and retaliation complaints. The form provides enough information for whistleblower investigators to follow up and begin a case. Previously, whistleblowers could only file a written complaint or call the agency’s hotline.
The new online form prompts the worker to include basic whistleblower complaint information so they can be easily contacted for follow-up. Complaints are automatically routed to the appropriate regional whistleblower investigators. In addition, the complaint form can also be downloaded and submitted to the agency in hard-copy format by fax, mail or hand-delivery. The paper version is identical to the electronic version and requests the same information necessary to initiate a whistleblower investigation.
OSHA enforces the whistleblower provisions of 22 statutes protecting employees who report violations of various securities laws, trucking, airline, nuclear power, pipeline, environmental, rail, public transportation, workplace safety and health, and consumer protection laws. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights, including fact sheets and instructions on how to submit the form in hard-copy format, is available online at www.whistleblowers.gov.

A top Senate Democrat is calling on the Obama administration to scrutinize federal contractors’ compliance with labor laws, citing results of a congressional investigation that showed widespread violations of the law.
The findings were outlined Wednesday by Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions  Chairman Tom Harkin (D., Iowa). The year-long probe conducted by his staff  found that nearly 30% of companies hit with the highest penalties for federal labor-law violations are also federal contractors.
You can read more about this story via the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking in Toronto last week, conservative party senator Hugh Segal praised the role of unions in Canada saying, “Active unions and free collective bargaining are essential to building a prosperous Canada and a stable middle class.”
Earlier this year Sen. Segal led the Senate’s efforts to amend the anti-union Bill 337, which had been endorsed by Prime Minister Harper.  He told the crowd:
“It was bad law, it was unconstitutional,” Segal said, adding that he will continue to oppose the bill if the Harper government attempts to revive it.
“As I stand before you today, I will stand in the Senate and oppose it again.”
Stating that “my Canada is the place where collective bargaining makes Canada stronger and a better place,” the pro-worker conservative pointed out that Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, was also a conservative who believed that collective bargaining was essential to the middle class.

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has filed an injunction to prevent the implementation of a new rule by the U.S. Department of Labor that would encourage the hiring of disabled Americans and military veterans, calling it “wasteful and burdensome.”
It is worth noting that the ABC has operated as nothing more than a right-wing ideological, anti-union organization that does not represent the voice of the construction industry and does not engage in any activities designed to promote or enhance the industry.  In fact, the ABC represents less than 1% of all construction contractors in the United States.  A significant part of the group’s membership consists of non-construction business and organizations such as flower boutiques, car dealerships, law firms, and barbecue shacks.
The ABC’s primary reason for being has been, and continues to be, to neutralize and limit the scope of the unionized construction industry and ensure that the lowest common denominator of a company’s baseline profit, and nothing else, is used as the standard throughout the industry.
While the unionized construction industry invests over $1 billion a year in skilled craft workforce development; the ABC shuns such investments.  And that is why they have been actively and aggressively seeking a new and expanded foreign guest worker program in the US Congress – so its members can continue to have ready access to a low-wage, and easily exploitable workforce.
And where the unionized construction industry is proactive in working to create structured pathways for disadvantaged Americans (women, minority workers, military veterans, etc.) to secure quality career training and skills development opportunities in the construction industry, the ABC criticizes and actually devotes significant resources to oppose such efforts.
Lobbying and then suing to block a program that helps veterans build meaningful careers when they return home may be the new low, even for an organization such as this one.
 
You can read more from We Party Patriots.
 
 
 

On Veterans Day, November 11th, 2013, a delegation of sheet metal worker veterans from the Vietnam, Gulf, and Afghan wars had a message for a San Francisco developer.   They demanded that BRE Properties CEO Connie Moore should provide Middle Class job opportunities and employ apprentices from approved State of California Apprenticeship Programs. BRE Properties has refused to reach an agreement with Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 104 that would ensure our veterans got the opportunity they deserve. (Click here to play video).  Once the delegation arrived to the elevator, they were notified that they would not be allowed access to Connie Moore and she had expressed a strong desire NOT to meet with the veterans. The veteran delegation returned to their supporters outside. Two veterans, both of whom are sheet metal workers, William Leighton and Jason Hutton, held their ground when the police would no longer allow the protest outside of the building. Both were arrested for trespassing.

SMART prides itself about its policy giving a select number of veterans the opportunity at direct entry into our Trade. Two years ago at the first Campaign for Jobs Conference, one of the main goals adopted by the over 250 rank and file Campaign for Jobs leaders present was to create a direct entry program for veterans to give them the opportunity to return from war with their head held high.
SMART will continue to stand by our veterans. Contact BRE CEO Connie Moore and demand she respect our returning veterans.

In Austin, Texas, the economy is booming.  Business Journal recently ranked the city’s economy 1st out of 102 major metropolitan areas with an estimated 100 people are moving to Austin each day.  Yet the boom has yet to reach the construction workers who working to help the city expand.  A move last week by the Austin City Council aims to right that wrong.
Following controversy surrounding the construction of a Marriot that did not pay prevailing wages, the council has voted 6-1 to require companies receiving economic development incentives from the city to pay construction workers a prevailing wage.  Austin is now the second largest city in Texas to have such a requirement.  The new proposal will set a minimum wage for construction workers on projects aided by tax incentives at $11 an hour.  It will also allow workers to qualify for prevailing wages on other projects.  Read more at We Party Patriots.

The Obama administration announced today that  it achieved its goal of making HealthCare.gov work for the “vast majority” of users, two months after the wave of bugs and glitches that marred its launch.
The troubled “Obamacare” website will be able to support more than 800,000 consumers per day, marking success after weeks of frantic repairs, the administration said. The site is now online for more than 90 percent of the time.  It had been crashing frequently, thwarting millions of people who tried to visit the site.