The non-union mine in West Virginia where at least 25 workers died in a horrific explosion Monday, has been cited for what the Washington Post calls a “litany of safety violations.”

Massey Energy Co., the owner of the West Virginia mine, is actively contesting millions of dollars of fines for safety violations, according to Think Progress. It has been cited for over 3,000 violations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), 638 since 2009.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, a former Mine Workers (UMWA) president and third generation coal miner, says, “The thoughts and prayers of America’s workers are with the families” of those killed and for the safety of the “courageous” rescue teams. He adds:

However, this incident isn’t just a matter of happenstance, but rather the inevitable result of a profit-driven system and reckless corporate conduct. Many mining companies have given too little attention to safety over the years and too much to the bottom line.

AFSCME members are championing the March for California’s Future to address the challenges that the state faces and to build awareness of the vital services state and local employees provide to keep their communities strong. The historic 48-day, 260 mile trek is supporting public services and public education, a government and economy that work for all and fair, progressive taxes to invest in our future.

Irene Gonzalez, a juvenile probation officer in Los Angeles and an executive board member of AFSCME Local 685, is walking from Bakersfield to Sacramento. On her journey, Gonzalez has witnessed the signs of a battered state and its people, as chronicled in a Huffington Post entry about the most recent leg of her journey.

Irene Gonzalez

If I have learned anything during this March for California’s Future, it is that people in the San Joaquin Valley have lost their faith and their hope along with their jobs and homes. They have nowhere to go; no jobs, no prospects, and apparently no help of any kind. Where are the public services that could give these men and women a fresh start and a helping hand? The retraining and rehab centers? The medical clinics? The supportive services?

Gonzalez points out that while the current economic crisis may have sparked many problems, California’s suffering is not new. She points to the causes and indicates that the solutions are within our grasp – really just a focus on investing in California’s future, rather than continuing with shortsighted thinking.

Over the years, we have failed to reinvest in the social and physical infrastructure that make life possible in a modern economy. Politicians of both parties have by and large chosen to prioritize tax breaks for multinational corporations and the wealthy over the rest of us–that is, anybody who has to work for a living. As a result, the human, social, and physical capital that once made California and our nation great have deteriorated along with our ideals of equal opportunity and fairness.

Gonzalez does see a solution, and is working for it. In her column she applauds the hundreds of public service employees, students, teachers, and local residents who are joining the March for California’s Future to demand that the state’s leaders stand up for the California dream by supporting public services and public education.

This march is about restoring the California dream. At its core, that means restoring faith in the notion that we as a people will help those who need it, that justice and fairness are indeed for all, and that every individual has the freedom and wherewithal to reach their full potential. These are the ideals to which we as Californians and as Americans have pledged ourselves.

Marching for California’s Future

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (photo by Beth Van de Bussche)

This post comes courtesy of Union City! from the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

Just in case any of the assembled USDA workers had any lingering doubts about whose side he was on, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack played his trump card at yesterday’s Employee Listening Session.

“I just want all the AFSCME members here to know that I’m a lifetime AFSCME member,” Vilsack announced, pulling his union card out of his pocket to prove it.

“It was a great session,” AFSCME Council 26 organizer Beth Van de Bussche told Union City. “USDA workers had a chance to speak directly to higher-ups and tell them what they thought would make the agency a better place to work, how to improve recruitment and retention as well as effectively serving the public and community outreach.”

The session’s main topic was “The Cultural Transformation of USDA.”

In a smart opinion piece posted this week, Harry J. Holzer, professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist at the U.S. Labor Department, says it’s time to stop trying to blame unions for what’s wrong with the economy:

Conservatives are attacking labor unions and President Barack Obama’s relationship with them. …. As an economist, I don’t always agree with America’s union movement, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, and I wouldn’t argue that union actions are always beneficial or costless. But a sensible discussion requires a careful, dispassionate look at the theory and evidence on unions — rather than right-wing ideology and stereotypes dressed up as analysis.

Read the full article.

Participants in AFSCME’s 2009 Alternative Spring Break in Missouri. Learn more and apply at www.unionbreak.org.

This spring, student activists are organizing conferences on college campuses throughout the country, taking on some of the most critical issues of our time. Students in Knoxville, TN, are focused on the issue of solidarity with campus workers and raising consciousness about the transition from student to young workers in the labor force. At the beginning of March, students will be converging in Washington, DC, to urge our nation’s elected leaders to support sound education policy.

Even in this tough political and economic climate, student activists continue to make a stand and fight for issues that are critical to their experience.

At AFSCME, we are committed to providing a space for these activists to continue their work long after they have left campus. Many of our programs are geared towards college seniors who are passionate about grassroots organizing and progressive social change — student activists who are anxious to continue the fight for social justice and workers’ rights once they’ve graduated.

More importantly, we are looking for students who believe that a strong labor movement is vital to fighting back against the attacks on working families, on health care, and the very fabric of what makes our communities vibrant.

If you are ready to take on these challenges, then consider fighting for social and economic justice as a union organizer for one of the most progressive unions in today labor movement. Go to www.unionbreak.org to apply for AFSCME’s Alternative Union Break, a program for college seniors interested in making a difference and pursuing a career in union organizing.

The deadline for applications is March 1, 2010.

Conservative columnist George F. Will never misses an opportunity to distort the facts in an effort to spread untruths about issues of importance to working Americans.

In a January 29, 2010 Washington Post column, Will takes President Obama to task for not mentioning the Employee Free Choice Act in his State of the Union Address. “Unmentioned was organized labor’s “card check” legislation to abolish workers’ rights to secret ballots in unionization elections,” Will wrote. This is a calculated effort to mislead readers about the legislation.

The Employee Free Choice act would not “abolish workers’ rights to secret ballots.” What it would do is eliminate the ability of employers – not employees – to demand a National Labor Relations Board election. Workers would have a choice of “majority sign-up” or an election.

On January 10, Will wrote another Washington Post column that was filled with distortions and misinformation. In that column, he argued that unnamed liberals and AFSCME members were somehow responsible for the budget crisis facing California, ignoring the fact that conservative policies had led the state to the brink of disaster. AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee wrote to the paper to set the record straight:

Dear Editor:

George W. Will must think that his readers have amnesia. How else to explain his muddled effort to blame liberals for California’s budget crisis (“Fiscal liberalism has tarnished California gold,” Sunday, January 10), while making no mention of Proposition 13 and its impact on the states’ fiscal fortunes? That measure, passed with the enthusiastic support of Mr. Will and his conservative allies, cut property taxes by 57 percent and forced the state to rely heavily on income taxes to fund vital public services. When combined with the California constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority vote in the state’s Legislature for all major tax and budget proposals, Prop 13 set the Golden State on the course toward disaster. How strange, too, that Mr. Will targets American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) workers at the University of California at Berkeley who participated in a September protest against budget cuts at the university. Our members who participated are janitors and service workers. Rather than blame these low-paid employees for California’s budget problems, Mr. Will should look in the mirror.

Sincerely,

Gerald W. McEntee

As earthquake relief efforts continue in Haiti, Union Plus will automatically double individual contributions to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, 100% of which will be used to help the Haitian people. That means when you contribute at UnionPlus.org/Haiti your $10 contribution becomes $20, your $25 becomes $50 and your $100 becomes $200.

Union Plus has committed $100,000 through this dollar-for-dollar donation match to help Haitian earthquake relief efforts. The benefits program provides more than 50 money-saving benefits and services to union members and their families.

“Despite the millions of dollars raised already, the people of Haiti continue to have an ongoing need for our help. That’s why we are committing $100,000 to double the donations made by union members to the Solidarity Center,” Union Plus President Leslie Tolf said.

The Solidarity Center is providing immediate life-saving relief supplies including food, clean water, medical supplies, blankets and tents to the Haitian people. Goods are currently being delivered to the Confederation of Haitian Workers training center, which is providing shelter, food, and medical assistance to more than 200 people.

Donations can be made at UnionPlus.org/Haiti or by sending a check to: Solidarity Center Education Fund, Attn: Joan Welsh, 888 16th Street, N.W., Suite 400, Washington, DC, 20006. Please designate “Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers” in the memo line of the check.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), last week unveiled a new community service program designed to mobilize the unemployed and underemployed to better cope with the stress and pressure of being jobless in America.

Ur Union of Unemployed, or UCubed for short, is an online community, with small groups of unemployed activists in a single zip code forming “cubes” and ultimately becoming a linked network with considerable political and economic influence.

“We hope that UCubed will provide a measure of relief and an end to the isolation, frustration and depression that so many unemployed workers experience,” said IAM President Tom Buffenbarger. “Working together, they can build a network of mutual support and help each other to get through the next few years.”

Read the full IAM press release about UCubed. Better yet, check out the UCubed website at www.unionofunemployed.com and listen to today’s Workers Independent News story about UCubed. And if you know someone who is unemployed, tell them about UCubed.

Kudos to Wisconsin for requiring the state’s schools to teach labor history and collective bargaining. On Dec. 10, Gov. Jim Doyle (D) signed the “Labor History in the Schools” bill – the first of its kind in the nation.

In signing this landmark legislation, Governor Doyle said he was thinking about the kids today and how vital it is to learn about the labor movement’s gains, such as fair wages, good benefits, decent working conditions and justice.

No doubt, this is a historic measure.  And it’s even more notable because Wisconsin is the birthplace of AFSCME. Our ranks grew from 5,355 members in 1936 to more than 200,000 in the 1950s. During this period, AFSCME waged a successful campaign for collective bargaining rights. As a result, Wisconsin passed one of the nation’s first collective bargaining laws for public employees in 1959.

“Wisconsin continues the tradition of honoring the tremendous contributions and sacrifices of workers who built this great nation,” says Pres. Gerald McEntee. “We must never forget that workers organized, marched, went on strike, and even gave their lives in the struggles that resulted in the 40-hour work week, safe working conditions and secure retirement benefits.”

Absolutely thrilled. That’s how Janet Ramsey felt when she heard the news. A medical laboratory technician and member of Local 1942 (Council 24), she regularly volunteers at the local high school in Madison, talking to kids about unions. And it saddens her that there’s only one paragraph in the students’ history books about labor.

University of Massachusetts history professor James Green agrees with Ramsey. “Ignorance of labor history will disempower today’s workers and students,” he says. But armed with this knowledge, individual workers can achieve some dignity when they assert their collective power.

We agree, totally.

From Americans United for Change:

It’s the first lunch hour of the first work day of a new decade and the average CEO has already earned more money than a minimum wage worker will make all year.

Even after as we continue to dig out of this financial hole, the average total compensation for a CEO in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was $10.9 million in 2008, which translates to about $5,240 an hour, compared to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Happy New Year.