WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have proposed an amendment to a workplace discrimination bill in the hopes of creating a national right-to-work law.
The measure — which, as Roll Call reported Nov. 4, would be tacked onto the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) — would forbid contracts between companies and labor unions that require workers to pay the union for bargaining on their behalf. Prized by Republicans and business groups and loathed by unions, such laws have made it onto the books in 24 states, most recently in Michigan.
Read the complete story at The Huffington Post.
Author: paul
A $34 million settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and India-based consulting and outsourcing company Infosys is putting the issue of H-1B visa abuse back into the spotlight. The record fine was levied against the company’s Plano,TX location.
Between 2010 and 2012 Infosys received 6,550 H-1B visas, the fourth highest total in the country. Sadly, the visas are ripe for abuse, especially among technology companies which have turned the visa program into a way to train foreign workers in the U.S. at low cost and then send them back to their home country with new skills.
Ron Hira, public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, told ABC News,
“I think Americans would be shocked by that, at least I hope. It’s government policy that is actually trying to speed up the offshoring of jobs.”
A Teamsters Nation post about new Economic Policy Institute data shows that the system is reserved for cheap labor and legalizes systematic outsourcing:
Foreign students in computer science now working in the U.S. are on average less talented than Americans, according to a study released in February by the Economic Policy Institute. But they are cheaper.
The EPI study concluded:
…employers prefer to hire foreign workers over similarly qualified U.S. workers, because legal loopholes in how the “prevailing wage” is calculated let them save on labor costs. The H-1B visa also ties workers to their employer, effectively rendering them captive for the duration of their visa.
What’s worse, U.S. employers don’t even have to try to hire qualified Americans for high-tech jobs before hiring someone from overseas.
And there’s something even more sinister at work: the H-1B worker learns the job and then rotates back to the home country and takes the work with him, another EPI report found. The top 10 companies using H-1B visas ALL have major operations overseas. Read more at We Party Patriots
Triple Five Worldwide, developers of the proposed American Dream Meadowlands project in East Rutherford, NJ, have signed a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with local Building Trades Unions in advance of the project’s final approval. The development, which is being billed as “one of the largest and most unique shopping, entertainment and tourism centers in the world,” will create thousands of construction jobs according to the American Dream website.
While litigation and bonding issues are hurdles that still must be cleared, the PLA marks a major advancement for the enormous $1.9 billion project. Developers have been granted six years to realize their American Dream though Triple Five officials suggest it could only take one third of that time. Read more about this giant of a project at We Party Patriots.
The Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association (SMACNA) has a new app for its flagship manual, “HVAC Duct Construction Standard—Metal and Flexible, 3rd edition.”
This app greatly simplifies the process of finding construction options for rectangular duct with dimensions up to 120 inches for applications from negative to positive 10-inch water gage as contained within the manual “HVAC Duct Construction Standard—Metal and Flexible.”
The app provides the most commonly used options, but does not provide every possible solution and is no substitute for the book. While a terrific tool to enhance field productivity, it is intended to be used in conjunction with the SMACNA’s “HVAC Duct Construction Standard—Metal and Flexible,” an American National Standard (ANSI).
A version of the app for use on mobile devices may be purchased from the Apple or Google app stores for $12.99. For more information or to purchase this manual, visit SMACNA’s Publications Store, www.smacna.org/bookstore.
The following op-ed appeared in the Des Moines Register and was co-authored by SMART Transportation President John Previsich and Edward Wytkind, President of the Transportation Trades Department.
“While politicians can’t agree on much, Iowans and the majority of Americans surely agree on one thing: They want more Amtrak service, not less.
On the heaviest traveled passenger rail corridor in the nation, the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak keeps breaking ridership records. But the untold story is that in a large swath of less-traveled rail corridors in middle America, including Iowa, people want Congress to keep investing in and expanding Amtrak service.”
Click here to view more from this article in the Des Moines Register.
A profile of the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 206 Joint Apprenticeship and Training Center in San Diego. San Diego Planning Commissioner Anthony Wagner attests to the value of a quality training program like that available through Local 206. “The sheet metal workers have made a quiet but significant contribution to our community. Despite political discourse that is increasingly unfavorable to public sector unions,” Wagner said, “the union association is a good thing for both workers and those who hire them.”
Continue on to to the link to the original story via the Mission Times Courier.
John Helak, Business Manager / FST of Local 71, Buffalo, New York, was appointed to SMART’s General Executive Council as a General Vice President, effective August 14, 2013.
Brother Helak began his career in the sheet metal industry as an apprentice in 1978. He served as a benefits trustee from 1992-1994 and E-board member from March 1995 until his appointment as an Organizer in June1995. He was elected as Business Representative in 1997, serving in that position until his election as Business Manager /FST in 2003.
John served as a trustee of the Niagara County Building trades from 1998 to 2003 and a Trustee of the Buffalo Building Trades from 2003 to present. In 2011, he was appointed to the Best Practices Committee and in 2012 was elected President of the Metropolitan Association.
Amanda York was looking for job security after graduating.
She’s one of a few dozen apprentices with the Sheet Metal 67 Union in east Austin.
“Here we’re practicing our three pass weld,” said York.
Amanda wants to be a welder.
And she’s getting the opportunity to learn her trade for free.
“Well you can think of the apprenticeship as a scholarship,” said Michael Kramm, Training Coordinator Sheet Metal 67.
How it works is anyone who is a high school graduate and 18 years old – can learn the sheet metal industry for free and get paid while working as an apprentice. Click here for more
Interview with Eugene Frazier, Sheet Metal JATC coordinator in Dayton, OH, who talks about how students are pursuing high paying careers via a sheet metal apprenticeship.
http://www.mydaytondailynews.com/videos/news/sheet-metal-training-offered-at-no-cost/vCFXqW/
Cleveland is experiencing a building boom and bringing with it, some good paying jobs. WOIO Action News has found one woman who is proving she can do the work too. She is taking advantage of a free apprenticeship program offered by Sheet Metal Workers Local 33.
“I think the hardest part is the sizes and weights of the material that you work with because as a woman you’re not as strong as a man so sometimes it can be a bit challenging to try and lift something up and carry it up a ladder and try and install it over your head,” said Fatima Ware.
Fatima is three years into the five year program and what’s her motivation? “To be better, to try to be better than the men. . .” Click here for more coverage from WOIO Action News in Cleveland.