In the past year, the Machinists have won 29 union elections primarily at military bases in the South representing more than 3,000 workers, while losing only eight elections. Now, the union is preparing for a massive union election next year for 3,000 workers at Boeing’s plant in Charleston, South Carolina.
Payday Report is very excited to announce that we have cut a print syndication deal with historic African American owned Chattanooga News Chronicle. Through this…
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined Ajin and two temp staffing agencies it employs, Alliance HR Inc and Joynus Staffing Corp, a combined $2.5 million dollars. OSHA cited the three companies for 23 violations of federal safety law including 19 willful violations.
“[Senate Republicans] totally gave the back of their hand to miners,” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) told a press conference on Capitol Hill Thursday. “Now, who’s for the working people? Where is Donald Trump on miners? Crickets.”
“I have never believed partisan gridlock is a way to accomplish our policy goals, so I haven’t come to this decision easily,” said Manchin on the Senate floor yesterday in explaining why he would filibuster the spending bill. “My reason for doing this is that over two years ago we promised the retired coal miners of America—we promised them—mostly their families, and there are a lot of widows now; we promised them they would have their health care benefits that were guaranteed to them and their pensions.”
Legal experts speculate that the decision for Durham to pay for Walker’s defense stems from their decision to clear their own legal liability. Already, three lawsuits have been filed against Durham accusing the firm of negligence in employing Walker. If Durham can help Walker beat legal charges then it makes it easier for the company to prove in later civil cases that it is not at fault.
“The Atlanta Police Dept. sent a detective to surveil Fight for $15 organizers meeting today at our union hall,” wrote Teamsters Local 728 Organizing Director on Facebook. “Guy sat in his car in our parking lot watching fast food and airport workers prep for actions this afternoon and evening. Unreal.”
“We have to ensure that their pay and working conditions are good enough that we get decent, qualified, focused people who can be entrusted with our children’s safety” says Yarbro “It’s hard to imagine any function more public than the school bus picking up and dropping off our children each day. There must be public accountability so that we make sure something like this never happens again”.
Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that the bus driver, Johnthony Walker, that in addition to his duties as a bus driver that Walker also worked the graveyard shift. Starting wages for bus drivers at Durham in Chattanooga are only $13.30 an hour and in order to provide for his three-year-old daughter, the 24-year-old Walker routinely worked from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. at Amazon’s warehouse several nights a week.
Many drivers say that the lack of training for school bus drivers employed by Durham and the low pay that makes it difficult to attract more skilled drivers. According to the wage tracking site GlassDoor.com, Durham School Services pays bus drivers on average only $14.92 an hour with many bus drivers being forced to take seasonal jobs, when school is out of session. Indeed, Genevere Walker, the mother of Jonnthony Walker, told CNN that her son was forced to work two jobs in order to make ends meet.
“We’re glad that UPS can afford to invest in beefing up its international fleet,” said Jim Kelley, an aircraft mechanic at UPS’s Worldport facility in Louisville, Kentucky in a press release. “But if UPS can afford major capital investments and huge raises for top brass, then UPS can also choose to invest in the maintenance workers who do strenuous and dangerous work every day to make its success possible”
“We have to figure out how to grow off of this issue” says Kentucky AFL-CIO spokesperson Delane Adams. of the pending “right-to-work” fight in Kentucky.