Saturday, March 23, 2013

Retired Coal Miners Fight to Retain Health Benefits - WSJ.com

Retired Coal Miners Fight to Retain Health Benefits - WSJ.com:

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Retired miners trace the promise of lifetime health benefits to a 1946 agreement between President Harry Truman and UMWA President John L. Lewis that resolved a nationwide strike that had forced President Truman to take over the nation's coal mines. The phrase "lifetime benefits" has appeared in contracts between the UMWA and most coal companies, including Peabody and Arch.
The UMWA won most job protections, like the eight-hour workday and child labor laws, through violent confrontations between the union and management in the early 20th century. In the 1920 uprising at Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia, 10,000 armed UMWA supporters fought 3,000 hired agents and lawmen who backed the coal companies. The U.S. Army restored order after more than 100 were killed.
But the UMWA can no longer muster the threat of a nationwide strike. It had 800,000 members in the 1930s. It now represents 20,000 active miners, or a quarter of the nation's hourly coal miners, after decades of automation and the opening of nonunion mines. Its retirees are the living legacy of the union. More than 100,000 retired miners, plus their spouses, are covered under UMWA's negotiated pension and health plans, which collectively pay out $1.2 billion a year, slightly more than half—$630 million—in health benefits.

A Brief History Of Unions


A Special Message for the Women of Steel from Oralia and Napoleon Gomez


unions are dying huff post

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Federal employees protest outside Sen. Roy Blunt's office | ksdk.com

Federal employees protest outside Sen. Roy Blunt's office | ksdk.com:

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Coldwater Creek cancer cluster investigation | ksdk.com

Coldwater Creek cancer cluster investigation | ksdk.com:

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vid from series on subject

Editorial: Missouri Senate declares class war against citizens : Stltoday

Editorial: Missouri Senate declares class war against citizens : Stltoday

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snip


Most of the Senate’s other tax proposals are driven by a theological belief that shifting the tax burden from income to consumption, and paying welfare to corporations, will cause the state’s economy to blossom. Inasmuch as Missouri already has a business-friendly tax climate, this is a dubious proposition. “Come to Missouri, where the taxes are low, the roads are good and the schools and state services are crummy” is not much of an economic development slogan.

Data always trump belief. The Missouri Budget Project and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy have analyzed the impact of the Senate’s two biggest proposed changes — cutting income taxes and adding 1.5 cents in sales taxes. Both are progressive think-tanks, but the numbers they crunch are neutral.
  • The poorest 20 percent of Missourians, those earning $18,000 a year or less, will pay $63 a year more in taxes.
  • Those earning between $18,000 and $33,000 a year will pay $129 more.
  • The middle quintile — those earning between $33,000 and $53,000 a year — will pay $150 a year more.
  • The fourth quintile ($53,000 to $85,000 a year) will pay $149 a year more.
  •  
That’s a grand total of 80 percent of Missourians who will pay more and get less: crummier schools, higher college tuitions (because state aid will continue to fall) and less access to worse state services. The poor are used to this. It remains to be seen whether the middle class will put up with it.

The only people who would come out ahead are those in the top 20 percent of taxpayers. And three-fourths of those — families with incomes of between $85,000 and $160,000 a year — are going to save an average of two bucks a month on their state taxes.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Thousands protest outside Peabody headquarters, bankruptcy court : Business

Thousands protest outside Peabody headquarters, bankruptcy court : Business

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snip


ST. LOUIS • Union miners outraged by the prospect of losing medical benefits and wages marched on the streets of St. Louis for the third time in as many months Tuesday, drawing roughly 2,000 fellow protesters and the largest crowd so far.

The turnout, organizers say, is evidence that momentum behind their campaign is growing — and that the coal miners' plight is gaining traction beyond the coalfields.

“This is not a coal miners struggle, this is a workers struggle,” Cecil Roberts, head of the United Mine Workers of America, told the gathered miners in a crusading speech outside the downtown headquarters of Peabody Energy. “The rest of the labor movement is getting behind this struggle.”
Roberts told the crowd that the NAACP and the AFL-CIO had both rece
ntly made statements of support for the miners. “The AFL-CIO is eight-million strong,” he said, “and they stand in solidarity with us.”

Protesting Miners Arrest At Peabdoy Energy | FOX2now.com

Protesting Miners Arrest At Peabdoy Energy | FOX2now.com:

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Patriot Coal bankruptcy debate | ksdk.com

Patriot Coal bankruptcy debate | ksdk.com:

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took part today  with Jeff Rains-Soar, Granite city president

good turnout, good speakers

I'm Just a Bill Parody repost


Sunday, March 17, 2013

Ed Martin's message to GOP draws rebuke from Danforth : News

Ed Martin's message to GOP draws rebuke from Danforth : News

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snip

In an email sent to thousands of people, Martin wrote that he was disappointed with Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for criticizing a 13-hour filibuster led last week by Sen. Rand Paul, a fellow Republican from Kentucky.

“The old guard of the GOP missed the significance of the event, which is a reminder that our party has a great deal yet to learn about leadership,” Martin wrote.

“My goal is for the MOGOP to be much more like Rand, and a lot less like McCain and Graham.”
Danforth didn’t hide his irritation in an email to Martin Thursday that also landed in the in-boxes of leading Missouri Republican officials and funders.

“I could not be more dismayed by the content and threatening tone of the attached newsletter about Senators Paul, McCain and Graham,” Danforth wrote.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Danforth asked. “This big tent Republican smells a purge in the air. Who else do you want to kick out of our party?”

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gop coalition seems to be in trouble.  dems should exploit

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Editorial: Missouri Senate blames unions for economic woes. Oh, please. : Stltoday

Editorial: Missouri Senate blames unions for economic woes. Oh, please. : Stltoday

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snip


What makes the debate over Senate Bill 29 such a farce is that its sponsor, Sen. Dan Brown, R-Rolla, couldn’t even properly explain the bill or its rationale when challenged on the Senate floor by Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, during several hours of debate Monday and Tuesday.

Known colloquially as “Doc” Brown, the Republican senator and veterinarian was merely the stooge chosen by deep-pocketed donors to advance their agenda at the expense of the little people. We’re sure he’s kinder to animals.

Mr. Brown, along with other supporters of the union-bashing bill, including Speaker of the House Tim Jones, R-Eureka, have the gall to suggest all they are doing is protecting the freedom of workers.

Never mind that employees in Missouri — all of them — already have the right to opt out of the union, and limit the fees paid to unions to those expenses that go directly to collective bargaining and protecting employee wages and work rules.

Mr. Brown and his so-called small government allies actually want to make government bigger, by prescribing in explicit detail, down to the font size, new paperwork that must be enacted by governments to suppress union political power.

The proof to the deception of SB 29 comes in its last section, which exempts police and firefighter unions from its provisions. During the debate Monday night, Mr. Sifton pressed Mr. Brown on why, if the bill was really about helping workers, didn’t the same “freedoms” need to be applied to police officers and firefighters?

Obama's Banks Nominee Will NOT Prosecute, Punish, or Regulate


Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Ryan GOP Budget

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Ryan GOP Budget

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snip


House Republicans’ latest budget crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan is a zombie proposal long ago rejected by working families.  But he won’t let it die.  Instead of calling for the sensible repeal of the sequester, Rep. Ryan would double down on harmful cuts to education, health care and other programs that build a strong middle class.  And instead of closing tax loopholes for the super wealthy, this budget would give even more tax breaks to the rich—higher subsidies for shipping American jobs overseas, bigger tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.  Republicans would pay for all this by voucherizing Medicare, cutting Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and increasing Medicare premiums for middle class beneficiaries.  This budget would cut spending by $5.7 trillion – devastating child nutrition, cancer research, transportation and other key programs and shrink government to the size it was in the 1950s.

Our economy is still in a fragile state of recovery and we’ve seen that previous cuts to state and local services and jobs have prevented us from recovering faster.  The last thing we need is more austerity that would cost jobs and stunt America’s future.  We reject these so called “balanced” approaches that increase inequality and shift even more of the burden to those who can least afford it.  We call for an immediate repeal of the across the board sequester cuts and urge lawmakers to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from benefit cuts.

Contact: Amaya Tune (202) 637-5018

Friday, March 8, 2013

Take care of our Missouri neighbors by expanding Medicaid : Stltoday

Take care of our Missouri neighbors by expanding Medicaid : Stltoday

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snip


We Missourians would instantly care for a neighbor we found hurt and bleeding. We’d take the shirt off our backs for a tourniquet and then rush him to medical care. But what if we never saw him writhing on the ground? The fact that he may be out of sight and out of mind does not absolve our responsibility to make sure he gets care.

It may be easy to resist Medicaid expansion for patients whose sickness prevails beyond our vision, but these patients are our neighbors. If our policymakers could witness firsthand the suffering and barriers to care endured by our waiters, cashiers, daycare workers, and shuttle drivers who work without health insurance, I know they would similarly take the shirt off their back to help.

Explosion injures several American Steel workers in Granite City : News

Explosion injures several American Steel workers in Granite City : News

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snip


GRANITE CITY • Two steel workers were in critical condition and several others suffered lesser injuries in a gas explosion Thursday morning at the American Steel Plant in Granite City, authorities said.
Granite City Assistant Fire Chief Jim Snelson said gas somehow caught fire near a grinding machine, causing a flash explosion but no fire. The cause was unknown Thursday.

The blast, at about 8 a.m., sent several workers to area hospitals.
Scott Hassall, business manager for Electrical Workers Local 309, said the blast was in an area where the plant produces bolsters, or heavy central frames for the undercarriages of railroad cars.
It was unclear Thursday evening exactly how many were hurt in the blast.

Illinois Steel Plant Explosion Injures Workers


St. Louis Area Residents Reported Receiving a 'Strange' Text Message Fro...


Silent Filibuster - Obstructionism at its Worst


Was Rand Paul a Winner or a Loser?


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

AFL-CIO Takes Up Immigration and Austerity, Even If It Means Fighting Some Dems - Working In These Times

AFL-CIO Takes Up Immigration and Austerity, Even If It Means Fighting Some Dems - Working In These Times

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snip

Rather than lobbying and negotiation,  the AFL-CIO is pinning its hopes on the mobilization of immigrant workers and the cultivation of unexpected allies--such as members of mostly white, non-immigrant unions like the teachers or building trades. AFL-CIO organizers are making the case to the broader membership that comprehensive immigration reform is not simply an issue of curbing exploitation of immigrant workers and their families, but something that will benefit all workers and surrounding communities. If immigrants have a voice and cannot be so easily abused, they can prevent unscrupulous employers from driving down standards in a way that takes a toll on all workers, including failing to abide by laws on wages, hours and other working conditions. “We’re all in this together,” emphasized American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.

To this end, the AFL-CIO is organizing rallies supporting comprehensive immigration reform in at least 14 cities and will help immigrant rights groups with anticipated big May Day marches.
Both Democratics and labor have a more-than-ideological stake in assuring citizenship—and thus voting rights—for immigrants. Undocumented immigrants are likely to vote Democratic if they become citizens. Having already proven their support for unions even when they are legally vulnerable, these undocumented workers—if freed from the fear of deportation if they speak out or organize—could also provide a surge of support for unions. Having once supported penalties on employers for hiring undocumented workers, the AFL-CIO long ago switched its outlook and now sees immigration reform—and the mobilization for it—as crucial for labor’s future.

“This is the time,” Durazo told reporters in Orlando. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. And we are putting enormous energy and resources into good immigration reform.”
The right to vote

Despite a checkered history on many issues of race, gender and immigration, both as a matter of social justice and practical politics, unions have long worked to expand voting and civil rights. Last fall, the AFL-CIO and its member unions put over 1,100 monitors in polling places in key swing states, many with a history of conservative efforts to suppress votes, especially blacks and other heavily Democratic constituencies. They fought new voter identification card requirements in the courts and in campaigns to educate voters.

But the specter of legislative attacks on voter rights continues to grow. Right-wingers on the Supreme Court reacted harshly this week to defenders of the Voting Rights Act, especially Section 5, which gives the federal government the power to review changes in voting laws in places, such as Alabama, that historically strongly curtailed black voting rights. These powers allowed the attorney general to block voter-ID laws in several states in 2012 that could have impeded almost a million people from voting, according to some estimates.
These new laws are “no different than a poll tax,” United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said. The latest version are proposals, now under consideration in several states, that would divide up state electoral votes for president by Congressional district. Such a law, now being debated in Michigan, would have given Mitt Romney nine of the state’s 16 electoral votes last fall instead of the zero he received.  These “vote rigging schemes…are just wrong, and we’re not going to let people whose ideas are bankrupt steal elections,” Gerard said.

In addition to defending existing voting rights legislation and fighting new restrictions, labor is also mobilizing members to expand democratic rights so that instead of the approximately 70 percent of eligible voters usually registered, 90 percent or more of Americans would be registered for future elections. Unions, for example, will push for election-day registration or automatic, universal registration of everyone who is eligible.

The 2014 horizon
Labor has not entirely put aside electoral campaigning. The AFL-CIO is looking ahead to 2014, especially at unseating the right-wing and anti-union Republican governors who took office in the 2010 mid-term “shellacking” of Obama and the Democrats. Podhorzer says unions will launch major crusades against Republican governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and New Jersey. Depending on decisions by state labor federations, the AFL-CIO might also support primary challenges to some Democratic governors, such as Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Many of these governors, both Republican and Democratic, have angered unions by denying rights to public workers and by advancing so-called right-to-work laws (which allow workers to avoid paying their fair share of the cost for union work on their behalf, such as negotiating contracts or pursuing grievances).

“Our priority is going to be taking on these guys,” Podhorzer said. “I don’t know if the labor movement has ever made a sweep of governors like this as large a priority.”
Such voting campaigns complement labor’s fight against Senate filibuster rules and campaigns for workers’ rights to organize as part of a broad movement for democracy. This movement in turn can strengthen labor as a movement in its own right: beyond specific victories, such as labor law reform, a democratic movement will constrain the power of corporations generally. All of these efforts take on new importance for unions as attacks escalate against them. 
      
“Every meeting I have attended this week we talked about a new sense of urgency,” said Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME (the public service workers union) and head of the AFL-CIO’s political committee, “because we’re at a turning point where we’ve got to get back to basics of organizing and mobilizing--not only our members but also our communities.”
AFSCME and United Steelworkers are sponsors of In These Times.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Who’s Financing Missouri’s Radical Right? The Humphreys Family (for Starters) | Progress Missouri

Who’s Financing Missouri’s Radical Right? The Humphreys Family (for Starters) | Progress Missouri:

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And these are only the disclosed contributions.  Corporations organized as 501c4 nonprofits are not required to publicly disclose their donors.  Indeed, the Humphreys Family was recognized by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch in 2011 for donating "more than a million" to the Koch Brothers network’s campaign efforts.


Missouri Budget Project Jay Hardenbrook on Medicaid expansion 01 17 13

march 19th saint louis mineworker demonstration--fairness at patriot

miners and other plan a massive demonstration in St. Louis on March 19th will begin at 10 am in front of the federal courthouse downtomn after rally will then march to Kiener plaza and headquarters of Peabody coal will advise if this changes. note: been down there a couple of times and fully support the aims of the coal miners. I know what it is like for company not to honor committments