SMART UnionWASHINGTON – With Thomas Perez now confirmed as head of the Labor Department, the agency is expected to unleash a flurry of new regulations that have been bottled up for months – a prospect that has business leaders worried and labor advocates cheering.
Some long-awaited rules would help boost employment for veterans and the disabled, increase wages for home health care workers and set new limits for workplace exposure to dangerous silica dust.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.
Crude oil shipped by railroad from North Dakota is drawing fresh scrutiny from regulators concerned that the cargo is adding environmental and safety hazards, something that analysts say could raise costs.
The U.S. Federal Railroad Administration is investigating whether chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are corroding rail tank cars and increasing risks. Separately, three pipeline companies including Enbridge Inc. warned regulators that North Dakota oil with too much hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic and flammable, was reaching terminals and putting workers at risk.
Read the complete story at Bloomberg Businessweek.
Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway Ltd., whose runaway oil train exploded and killed 47 people in a Quebec town last month, had its operating certificate suspended by Canada’s transportation regulator.
The Canadian Transportation Agency said the carrier lacked sufficient liability coverage in the wake of the disaster in Lac-Megantic, according to a statement today. The suspension of the so-called certificate of fitness will take effect Aug. 20.
Read the complete story at Bloomberg Businessweek.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week marked the first time in a decade in which all five National Labor Relations Board members were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Aug. 21, 2003, was the last time the board was fully staffed, according to a NLRB news release. But perhaps the most recent case of the panel operating with members who hadn’t gotten Senate confirmation is the most politically charged.
Read the complete story at The Plain Dealer.
Beginning September 3, 2013, a longtime friend of this Union, talk radio host and author Bill Press will be moving The Bill Press Show to Free Speech TV.
The show joins a lineup of several leading progressive voices like Thom Hartmann, Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, Openline News with Davey D and The David Pakman Show.
Free Speech TV is available on DISH Network channel 9415 and DirecTV channel 348. It can also be streamed live from BillPressShow.com, FreeSpeech.org or Facebook.com/FreeSpeechTV.
The Bill Press Show broadcasts live on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST.
For more on The Bill Press Show, click here.
The state of Washington has an opportunity to expand our ports and to secure the region’s position as a global trade leader for decades.
Private industry, using private capital, is ready right now to put people to work expanding our export facilities to allow us to export more bulk commodities — including ores and minerals like iron, coal and potash — as well as agricultural products including wheat, rye and other grains.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of folks who want to stop these projects, and in the end jobs won’t be created here and the exports will come from other countries.
In contrast, there is bipartisan support to keep Boeing manufacturing in the state. Gov. Jay Inslee is pitching in to help in that effort and has even asked for an expedited environmental review process.
The governor could have asked for a review of the environmental implications of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions where the components for these planes are built; many come from China where they use coal to power Boeing’s parts manufacturing.
Also to his credit, the governor chooses not to consider the GHG emissions from the utilization of planes manufactured at Boeing by the world’s airline industry, which is among the highest carbon-emitting activities in the world. We applaud him for these non-obstructionist decisions.
What we don’t applaud is the governor’s inconsistent approach to job creation. He takes a different approach when it comes to building trade and transportation jobs that would be created by the proposed new export facilities. There he wants a comprehensive review (read delay) of the effects the items being exported have on the world’s climate.
Inslee’s request caters to those who want to not just delay, but kill these projects and deny thousands of people construction employment as well as the many hundreds of permanent good middle-class working class jobs they will create.
It’s time for the governor and his “save the world” contingent to quit being obstructionists and allow these projects to proceed. We are not even asking for his help in creating all these jobs, even though most of the blue-collar folks who will be put to work voted for him.
All we are asking is that our governor allow the port expansions to proceed through the regular accepted environmental scoping and permitting processes.
The preceding letter was written by Herb Krohn, the SMART Transportation Division’s Washington state legislative director, and was published Aug. 8 by The News Tribune.
Chastised for its “reprehensible conduct” Union Pacific railroad has been ordered to pay nearly $310,000 to a North Platte man who was fired after a co-worker ran over his foot.
A federal judge has ruled that UP, which is headquartered in Omaha, displayed “blatant disregard” for a federal whistleblower law which allows railroad workers to report injuries.
Read the complete story at NebraskaWatchdog.org.
SEATTLE – When a 64-year-old transit bus driver saw three people board at the rear of his bus during the Monday morning rush hour in downtown Seattle, he asked them to come up front to pay.
Two did. The third passenger paced back and forth, then hit the driver and shot him twice before running away, acting Seattle Police Chief Jim Pugel said.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.
Seeing a fiddle being constructed of wood is rare enough but those visiting this Nova Scotia boardwalk had a chance to see something even rarer — fiddles being made of copper and brass.
The life-sized instruments were being made by sheet metal apprentices from across Canada who were taking part in a skills competition during a national convention being held here this week for sheet metal workers and roofers. For David Whitty of Sydney, taking part in the competition was a welcome change from what he normally does.
Click here for the full article in the Cape Breton Post by Elizabeth Patterson.
NEW YORK – Darius McCollum can explain the complicated workings of the New York City transit system with the precision of a veteran conductor. He knows every subway stop, every line, every train.
It’s an obsession that has dominated his life. But instead of becoming a transit worker, he’s become a transit impostor. Twenty-nine times, beginning when he was a teenager, he’s been arrested for crimes that include piloting a subway train, stealing a bus and donning uniforms to pose as a conductor and even track worker.
Read the complete story at the Associated Press.