Published By AMERICAN INCOME LIFE & NATIONAL INCOME LIFE LETTER LABOR ADVISORY BOARD JUNE 2015 Vol. 47 No. 3 NEWS FROM THE federation’s headquarters in Washington, The AFL-CIO Transportation AFL-CIO, CTW, he added, “Any candidate who wants to Trades Department (TTD) said May 5 INTERNATIONAL & appeal to workers has to put forth a bold that the Senate should take up a $7.8 bil- and comprehensive raising wages agenda.” lion funding bill for Amtrak that was passed NATIONAL UNIONS Trumka also said unions are for “good trade earlier this year by the House. While Con- deals” but against the Trans-Pacific Part- gress is focused on the deadline involving An average of 150 workers is nership which he described as “a bad trade federal highway funding that is set to ex- killed each day from workplace injuries and deal.” Income inequality is worsening and pire, AFL-CIO TTD President Ed Wyt- other job-related conditions, a recent report he said that CEO pay has skyrocketed over kind said the Senate should make room on by the AFL-CIO found. Released in con- the last four decades while the wages of av- its calendar for Amtrak. “The House has junction with the annual Workers Memo- erage Americans have gone the other way. now spoken on the need to give Amtrak rial Day observance on April 28, the report “We want action. We want big ideas, and we predictable funding and longer term stabil- was entitled “Death on the Job: The Toll of want structural change. We want ‘Raising ity,” Wytkind said. “The Senate must now Neglect.” The AFL-CIO found that work- Wages,’” Trumka said. He said that work- finish the job by boosting funding levels and place injuries killed 4,585 workers in 2013, ers have “swallowed the politics of hedged resisting wrongheaded reforms that would while another 50,000 died from occupa- bets for almost two generations” and will no threaten our national passenger railroad and tional diseases. “America’s workers shouldn’t longer accept half-measures. the 20,000 employees who keep Amtrak have to choose between earning a livelihood and risking their life, yet every day too many end up on the wrong end of that choice,” AFL-CIO’s Trumka said in a statement. He blamed the workplace deaths on poor oversight from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and weak penalties for companies that break the rules. He noted federal OSHA has the resources and staff to inspect workplaces on average only once every 140 years. The average pen- alty for serious violations was only $1,895, and the median penalty for worker deaths was only $5,050. “We have created an agenda for shared prosperity called raising wages. It will be our inspiration and our measuring stick throughout the presidential campaign,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a message aimed at the 2016 presidential candidates. Speaking April 28 at the labor Amtrak train. Flickr.com photo used under Creative Commons from Bruce Fingerhood. TERRY O'SULLIVAN, President - Laborers International Union of North America, Chairman - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board VICTOR KAMBER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Executive Director - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board ROGER SMITH, President & Chief Executive Officer - American Income Life Insurance Company, President - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board DENISE BOWYER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Secretary - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board Pg 2 LABOR LETTER trains rolling across America.” The House basic human rights. “The bottom line is that More than 1,000 workers at a bill called for spending approximately $1.7 these agreements must be revised, modi- local clothing factory in the southern Chi- billion annually over the next four years fied or terminated,” he said. If approved, the nese province of Guangdong took to the on Amtrak, a slight increase from current TTIP would turn the EU and US into the streets in protest on May 1 for the return funding levels. largest free-trade area in the world. of two months’ missed pay checks, reported Radio Free Asia. Beating drums and hold- Unions around the world ob- ing banners, workers at the Houhong Gar- INTERNATIONAL served Workers Memorial Day with May ment Factory in the manufacturing city of LABOR NEWS Day parades, local events, services and other Dongguan staged the walkout to coincide activities to draw attention to the hundreds with International Workers’ Day, a strik- Australia needs to limit the of thousands of men and women who are ing worker surnamed Fang told RFA. “The number of temporary working visas being killed and suffer illness and injury on the police, security guards and riot police are approved, declared Australian Council of job. The International Trade Union (ITU) all here, holding their shields, and wear- Trade Unions (ACTU) president Ged Ke- said the theme for this year’s observance ing bullet-proof vests, and they have police arney. In a submission to the Senate inquiry would be “removing exposure to hazardous dogs,” Fang said. “It’s really over the top.” into temporary working visas, the ACTU substances in the workplace.” “Chemicals She said four people detained by police said that the number of international work- we would have imagined by now would be during the stand-off weren’t even the strike ers needs to be restricted in favour of per- globally banned keep popping up,” the con- leaders, RFA reported. Chen Mao, founder manent migration. “We need to focus on federation’s general secretary, Sharan Bur- of the Shenzhen-based Migrant Workers’ creating job opportunities for Australians, row, said in a recent telephone interview. Centre, said that workers are often exploit- we must ensure our permanent migration “We see emerging fears around some of the ed by bosses of financially pressed compa- system is robust, and we must limit the use new technological issues such as nanotech- nies who drain cash from the business be- of temporary visas to reflect genuine skills nology... it’s extraordinary, really. There’s a fore it goes bankrupt and disappear, leaving shortages,” said Kearney. New Zealanders lot of fear amongst workers.” In a new re- the workers unpaid. form the largest pool of temporary work- port, the confederation cited what it calls a ers with the next largest migrant groups “cautious estimate” from the International coming from China, and the UK. The Sen- Labor Organization that puts the annual NATIONAL AND ate inquiry was established in March by death toll from workplace toxics at 651,279 POLITICAL EVENTS Labor and the Greens as both parties felt worldwide, one death every 52 seconds. The that a review commissioned by the Govern- Brussels-based ITU represents 176 million The Connecticut Senate ap- ment had not probed the 457 visa program workers belonging to 328 national affiliates, proved a bill May 6 that directs the state far enough. There are currently 1.2 million including the AFL-CIO. Department of Education to provide temporary entrants in Australia who have the right to work and, of these, 167,000 have “457” visas, 160,000 have working holiday visas and 623,000 are New Zealand special visa holders. Alfred de Zayas, a UN human rights campaigner, called for a moratorium on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks between Europe and the U.S. because the inclusion of a sys- tem of secret courts used by major corpora- tions would undermine human rights. Un- der the proposed agreement, companies will be allowed to appeal against regulations or legislation that depress profits, resulting in fears that multinationals could stop govern- ments reversing privatizations, he said. De Zayas is the UN’s special rapporteur on pro- motion of a democratic and equitable inter- national order. He warned that adoption of a separate legal system for the benefit of multinational corporations was a threat to Workers' Memorial Day 2015. Flickr.com photo used under Creative Commons from hartlepoolfe. LABOR LETTER Pg 3 schools with a curriculum on labor his- has affected all occupational groups but not were reported in California from 2010-2012. tory. Labor unions had been pushing for uniformly. The biggest fall off in the private Many more go unreported. Nationwide, the bill for several years. This version also sector has occurred in construction, trans- more than 19,000 healthcare workers report includes a provision that the education portation and maintenance and repair, the being assaulted annually or one every 30 min- department develop a curriculum on free most heavily unionized sectors. “More jobs utes. “We shouldn’t be afraid to go to work. market capitalism and its role in develop- require a college education,” said Harry We shouldn’t worry that we might not make ing the U.S. economy. Schools will not be Holzer, economist at the McCourt School it home at the end of our shift,” said Kathy mandated to teach labor history nor does of Public Policy at Georgetown University, Hughes, RN, co-lead of the California Safe the bill allocate additional funds to pay for “and those jobs are traditionally less likely Care Standard campaign. The demonstration the development of the curriculum. “This to be unionized.” But in a separate poll, also marked the fifth anniversary of the mur- is critically important for people to under- Pew found that 52 percent of Americans der of psych tech Donna Gross by a known stand the history of this country and how it say the decline in union representation has violent patient at Napa State Hospital. was formed,’’ said Senate President Martin been mostly bad for workers, compared Looney, D-New Haven. “The children of with 40 percent who say it has been mostly United Steelworkers (USW) Connecticut have to know that many of good.