Thirty operating employees from Union Pacific Railroad in the La Grande, Ore., area, who retired or left employment on disability in the last year, will be honored at a retirement party Nov. 23, SMART Transportation Division Local Chairperson Larry Romine reports.
The 30 members of both the SMART TD and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen have more than 1,000 years of combined railroad service.
The party will be held Nov. 23 at the La Grande Retirement Center, located at 1504 Albany St. in La Grande, from 6 p.m. until midnight.
For only $10 per person, attendees will enjoy the music of Rusty Roe and his buddies, dancing, a railroad archives room, a no-host bar and hors d’oeuvres, including chicken skewers, East Indian meatballs, vegetable platters, shrimp, bacon wraps and stuffed mushrooms.
Photograph albums and publications from the Old Timers’ Group from 1960-1970 and a Junior Old Timer’s photo album from 1983-1984 are being provided for the railroad archive room. All submissions for the room are welcome and encouraged. To make submissions to the railroad archive room, or for more information, contact Larry Romine at (541) 910-4568.
Those being honored are:

  • Richard T. Aarde Jr. (473)
  • R.C. “Bob” Aldred
  • Dewayne K. Bechtel
  • Gordon W. Blankenship (473)
  • Kerry G. Bolen (473)
  • R. Dan Bowen
  • Larry V. Cathey (473)
  • Kevin L. Edwards
  • Tim S. Elliott (473)
  • Frayne E. Emerson (473)
  • Cole J. Fields (473)
  • Mike D. Flower
  • Tim K. Gorrell
  • Willard E. Hafer (473)
  • Gregg P. Hjelm (473)
  • Phil W. Horton
  • Brad L. Jenkins
  • Jim L. Johnson (473)
  • Lloyd L. Leathers (473)
  • HD Butch Malone (473)
  • Lane R. Marshall (473)
  • Dale F. Mitchel (473)
  • Pat R. Orourke (473)
  • Matt S. Sirrine (473)
  • Roger A. Shaw (473)
  • Ron W. Slatt
  • M.E. Spaulding Jr. (473)
  • Charlie H. Springer (1468)
  • Doug L. Trice (473)
  • Ron P. Ward (473)

IMG_2009The Rosemont Fashion Outlet Mall opened August 1, 2013 and took a year and a half to complete. The mall is 550,000 square feet with over 120 stores, a food court and connected parking. During construction, there were over 20 different sheet metal companies doing the work; with over 150 sheet metal workers doing the HVAC, decking, siding, metal screens, bathroom partitions, lockers, roof flashing and skylights. Along with all the other trades, the Rosemont Fashion Mall project was 100 % Union from the beginning to the completion. Rocco Terranova, President and Business Manager of Sheet Metal Local 73 said “This is a prime example of how businesses and organized labor can work together”. We are extremely proud of our involvement.
Business Agent, Mike May, who is responsible for this area stated that Rosemont is definitely booming! In November of 2012, the Rosemont Sports Dome opened. This structure spans 12 stories tall and is 140,000 square feet. The Big Ten Conference center started construction in August, 2013. It is a three story, 50,000 square foot structure and will house The Big Ten Corporate office, conference center, interactive museum and a restaurant. Also, construction for a new headquarters of the Orthopedic Academy and 25 related orthopedic tenants began in August, 2013. This structure will be 165,000 square feet, 5 stories tall with a parking garage and hotel. The project is expected to be completed in 18 months! In September, 2013 construction on a three story indoor skydiving facility began. iFly is expected to attract as many as 200,000 people a year to this facility alone!
IMG_2006Rosemont has added many new facilities within the past couple of years. There is My Big Fat Greek restaurant, Toby Keith bar and restaurant, a German restaurant and brewery called Hofbrauhaus, Kings bowling alley and much more. Future projects include a new elevated pedestrian sky deck bridge which will connect to a village owned parking garage and in the works is the renovation of the Stevenson Convention Center.
All construction was performed by Union members and all future construction will be also performed by Union members.

imagesCAIEOK2BSupreme Court Justices heard from SMART outside General Counsel Richard McCracken on behalf of UNITE HERE Local 355, which is defending the legal status of neutrality agreements in front of the US Supreme Court.  The union agreed to help win a gambling ballot initiative legalizing slot machines at racetracks, and agreed not to picket, boycott, or strike. Mardi Gras officials agreed to give the union employee addresses, access to the facility and not ask for a secret ballot election on unionizing as a condition of the agreement, which has been an accepted practice in the United States for decades.
Labor law says companies cannot give unions that want to represent employees something of value.  Several justices questioned whether ruling against the agreement would disrupt longstanding labor-management practices.  If the justices find the pacts are a “thing of value,” prohibiting employers and unions from entering into them, it would be a major blow to organized labor and future organizing efforts.
The case, Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall, was brought by an employee of Mardi Gras Gaming, a casino and dog track in Hollywood, Florida.
Martin Mulhall, the employee, said his employer violated the Labor Management Relations Act when it agreed to allow the union onto its property to organize workers, and when the company agreed to give the union contact information for employees in exchange for the union’s support on a ballot initiative.
According to a Huffington Post article, Harvard University Law School Professor Benjamin Sachs states that “almost all of the successful unionizing efforts in the private sector in the last couple of decades have come through the type of private organizing agreements that are at issue in this case.” A reversal of that precedent would be disasterous to future organizing efforts and Labor Management cooperation.
Click here to read a transcript of the oral arguments placed before the Court, and comments from the Justices.
 

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Photo courtesy of the Blue Green Alliance. Vist them at bluegreenalliance.org.

On the heels of a state report on renewable energy and energy efficiency in Michigan, local labor and environmental leaders got together in Troy, MI to discuss how Michigan workers and the environment are benefitting from renewable energy and energy efficiency investments in the state.
Focusing on how priorities in President Obama’s climate action plan are spurring investments in the clean economy, Bob Donaldson, Business Manager/Financial Secretary Treasurer, SMART Local 292 commented that they “are the family-sustaining, proven effective investments that will continue to create economic growth over the long term.” He continued that “making the transformation to cleaner sources of energy will ensure that we maintain our global leadership in clean energy innovation.”
Michigan’s high renewable energy standards have resulted in $1.79 billion in investment through 2012 with 76,000 workers employed in the state’s green economy.  Those 76,000 workers account for 2 percent of the entire Michigan workforce.
Participants expressed that expanding clean, renewable energy has enormous potential to further create good jobs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign sources of energy—building a cleaner, more efficient and more competitive economy in Michigan and also throughout the United States.
“Incentivizing energy efficiency improvements is something we can all agree on,” said Jim Shaw, Business Representative, SMART Local 7. “Encouraging the development of these markets will mean increased competitiveness and more job creation as we stake our claim as leaders in the global clean energy economy.”
Sheet metal leaders were joined by representatives of groups as diverse as the Sierra Club, American Federation of Teachers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

congress-150x150WASHINGTON – 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.

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
 

American-Dream-Meadowlands-InteriorTriple 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.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThe 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.

2139083876_93a83c8e5c_oThe 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.

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Chris Caricato, left, training coordinator for the Sheet Metal Workers Local No. 206 training center, shows David Alvarez, San Diego mayoral candidate and City Councilmember, and Assemblymember Shirley Weber an artistic side of the sheet metal industry during a tour of the training facility. Photo courtesy of the Mission Times Courier.

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.