People Before Profit blog

Calif. grocery workers approve new contract with raises, retirement protections, improved scheduling

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 15:00:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Today grocery workers across Central and Southern California approved a contract with the companies which own Ralphs, Vons, and Albertsons stores, according to a statement from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The new contract affects around 47,000 workers.

The contract contains raises of nearly a dollar an hour over three years, retirement security, and improved notice of scheduling. "Just in time" scheduling has been a recent trend that means workers can't control their schedules, and often don't know whether they must work a shift until they show up for work that day.

"This contract represents a significant victory for our members, and secures their wages, retirement security, and control over their schedules," said Rick Icaza, President of UFCW Local 770.

The union said the contract, negotiated with Kroger Company and Cerberus Capital, the corporation and hedge fund owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons, was overwhelmingly approved by grocery union members during two days of voting. Though exact numbers were not yet available, the union told the San Diego Union Tribune that it would have vote totals later this week.

The deal goes into effect immediately.

"Thanks to the support of our members, community allies and consumers, we were able to stand strong and deliver for our members," said John Grant, Secretary-Treasurer of UFCW Local 770.

Photo: UFCW Local 770 members assemble picket signs, which now, fortunately for grocery workers, won't be needed. | SCPR.org

Actors union lines up political support for Telemundo organizing drive

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:52:00 +0000

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (PAI) - SAG-AFTRA, the top union for actors, is lining up political and community support for its organizing drive at Miami-based Telemundo, one of the nation's leading Spanish-language networks.

The local political advisory committee includes Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jose Diaz and new United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats. UT-Dade is a joint AFT-NEA affiliate. SAG-AFTRA launched its drive several months ago.

At issue, a very basic difference: NBC-Universal owns Telemundo and the union's contract with the large conglomerate for its NBC workers, most if not all English-speakers, includes such basics as network residuals payments to the actors, and health care coverage.

But the unorganized actors at Telemundo don't get either residuals or health care. They also don't get guaranteed wage minimums or meal breaks. And they don't get respect on the job. SAG-AFTRA calls the differences "a double standard for Spanish-language television." Thus the organizing drive, #SAGAFTRAUNIDOS.

"NBC-Universal-owned Telemundo is the largest employer of Spanish-language talent in the United States, producing television content for audiences around the world," the union explains on its Telemundo campaign website. "Telemundo Studios in Florida produces scripted programming, including some of the most watched telenovelas in recent years.

"Unfortunately, NBC-Universal is perpetuating a double standard for performers between its English-language programming produced for NBC and its Spanish-language programming for Telemundo.

"While performers for NBC enjoy the benefits of working under a SAG-AFTRA contract, performers for Telemundo are subjected to a much lower standard, lacking in many of the basics that are standard in English-language television," due to no union contract.

"Despite Telemundo's bravado as a champion of diversity, inclusion and empowerment for the Hispanic American community, the company's actions behind the scenes tell a much different story," SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said on August 3 in unveiling the union's political advisory committee at an event in the Miami suburb of Coral Gables.

"In addition to treating its Spanish-language talent as second-class citizens, Telemundo has actively employed tactics to dissuade talent from obtaining union protections. SAG-AFTRA strongly opposes such tactics, and I speak for concerned performers and citizens across the country when I say that we stand with Telemundo performers facing this injustice."

"If Telemundo hopes to position itself as the empowering voice of the U.S. Hispanic community for years to come, the unfair double standard must end," added SAG-AFTRA Executive Director David White. A Telemundo spokesperson claimed their salaries and working conditions - omitting benefits-are competitive with other Hispanic media.

Commissioner Diaz wants to see Telemundo keep growing, but it must cover "all elements of the industry," including workers. "I see myself as a bridge between all parties so that together this industry becomes even more prosperous for our local economy," he explained.

Latin American actors come to Miami to act in Telemundo productions, but the low pay, long hours and lack of residuals make it difficult for them to thrive there, the union says. "We are actors because we have a passion and a love for the craft, but the current environment does not allow us to grow in this space," Christian de la Campa, who starred in recent Telemundo productions, told the union. "As such, we think it's important to provide a solid platform from which future generations of professional Spanish-language actors can successfully build from and succeed in the United States."

The same day as the kickoff rally, the AFL-CIO announced Carteris as the newest member of the labor federation's executive council. She's the second performing arts union chief on the council, joining IATSE's Matthew Loeb. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka lauded Carteris as "a long-time union activist who is not afraid to stand up and fight for what's best for her fellow actors." Carteris fills the vacant seat held by her predecessor, Ken Howard, who died in March.

Photo: SAG-AFTRA

Survey: 36 percent of U.S. “financially desperate” or barely getting by

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 13:16:00 +0000

Some 36 percent of all U.S. residents are either financially desperate - meaning they don't earn enough to pay basic bills - or barely getting by, a new international survey says.

The study by the International Trades Union Congress, the world's top global union federation, adds that 7 percent of U.S. respondents are financially desperate, but the proportion is higher among women, people aged 16-24 and those with less education.

The U.S. share of the truly desperate is tied for the lowest proportion among the nine countries ITUC canvassed, with the United Kingdom and China. South Korea has the highest share of the truly desperate: 22 percent of its people fall into that category.

On the other end of the scale, the ITUC reports, almost three-fourths of Chinese respondents (72 percent) say they earn enough to pay for basic essentials and can save a little money as well. India (65 percent) is next among the nine and the U.S. (60 percent) is third.

The nine nations combined account for 45 percent of world population and more than half of its output. But in them, one of every nine people (11 percent) can't pay for the basics and another third (34 percent) earn just enough to do so, ITUC said. "This represents a social and economic disaster," said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

The survey did not delve into why respondents feel they can't get by, but Burrow laid the blame on "corporate greed that captured the wealth of workers' contribution through a model of global trade that relies on low wages, insecure and unsafe work that is destroying the lives of working families and ironically undermining global corporations-which are facing shrinking markets." ITUC released its survey in advance of a global economic summit next month.

And "failure of governments to reign in corporate greed and corruption has broken trust in our democracies," Burrow warned.

"The world needs a lift in income share for the 99 percent, with a social protection floor, a minimum wage on which people can live with dignity and strengthened collective bargaining. Nothing else will tackle inequality, kick-start economies and reassert a measure of social justice," she stated.

U.S. workers and their allies cite several causes for financial desperation. They include:

Corporate export of high-paying U.S. jobs to low-paying nations overseas - aided and abetted by so-called "free trade" pacts
Deliberate legislation to increase income inequality, such as tax cuts skewed to the rich and cuts in programs designed to benefit the middle class and the poor.
The decline of worker power and the right to organize.

Another reason is the rise of the service economy, particularly both in part-time work and in its lowest-paying sectors such as health care, temps, and at bars and restaurants.

Surveyors questioned between 1,004 respondents (U.S.) and 1,034 (UK) in each of the nine G20 economies polled: Argentina, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The surveys did not provide margins of error.

Overall, one third of all respondents said they're barely able to pay for their essential needs - housing food and electricity - and 11 percent more said they can't even manage that. The latter figure "has barely changed since 2012, when ITUC first begin asking this question."

"This leaves almost half the population with no buffer for the future, and with no ability to engage with the market as consumers," ITUC commented.

In the U.S., the West has the highest share of truly desperate people (10 percent), while the Northeast (6 percent) has the lowest. In three of the four U.S. regions, 61 percent of respondents said they had enough not just to pay for essentials, but to save a little as well. The South lagged in that, at 57 percent. The South led in people who could pay for essentials, but nothing else (31 percent). The Northeast, Midwest and West each were at 27 or 28 percent.

Photo: Marchers take part in a Martin Luther King Day march and rally to the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. John Froschauer | AP

Sofitel hotel workers in L.A. invisible no more

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 12:46:00 +0000

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - "We consistently find needles, bloody sheets, and bodily fluids on the towels," said Sofitel housekeeper Altagracia García at an open testimony Monday night about working conditions at the hotel. One time she got pricked by a needle, and a coworker sprayed Windex on her wound. Management, she said, would not send her to a doctor to be examined. "For months I worried about being infected with hepatitis or even worse, HIV."

Garcia and several other workers from the tony Beverly Hills-adjacent hotel offered dramatic testimony at an "Invisible No More" panel before four experts on different aspects of labor. Temple Emanuel, a nearby Reform Jewish congregation, opened its chapel for the occasion.

Other workers echoed the theme of the needles and bloody sheets. Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills sits right across the street from Cedars-Sinai, a prestigious private hospital, also with a well known anti-union policy. Some of the workers referred to "patient dumping." Patients discharged from serious operations register at the hotel for their recuperation and continuing care. But there is no special training for hotel workers on handling medical clientele, which can be dangerous.

Sofitel L.A. is part of the Paris-based Accor Group, which has worldwide interests also in the Novotel, Pullman, Ibis, Mercure and Fairmont chains. The Sofitel-branded L.A. hotel is 75 percent owned by a firm called Gem, and 25 percent by Accor. The average percentage globally is more like 80 to 20 percent. Panelists pointed to a split between the ownership and the brand. Poor labor practices, or other problems, can hurt business, but the owners will often blame the brand, while the brand says it's the owner's fault. In either case, union organizers say, employees lose out, unless they have a strong and vibrant union.

The four-person panel, sponsored by the hotel workers' union UNITE-HERE and CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), included:

Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz represents the district in which the hotel sits, and is one of the most consistently pro-labor Council members. Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen, a faculty member at American Jewish University, is the rabbi in residence at the progressive human rights organization Bend the Arc, and is on the CLUE executive board. Peter Rosenblum is a professor of International Law and Human Rights at Bard College. Ron Oswald, visiting Los Angeles from his home in Geneva, Switzerland, expressly to participate in these hearings and discussions about unionizing the Sofitel, is General Secretary of the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations).

The panelists were asked to consider the questions: "Are these conditions acceptable? What is a reasonable solution?"

In April 2016, in response to the "patient dumping" problems at the hotel, workers filed a formal complaint to California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), citing the high risk of contamination. Even under those conditions, workers say, the hotel did not supply workers with disposable gloves. In the rush to complete her daily tasks, García said she slipped and fell in a bathroom, and has not been able to return to her job.

Hotel workers speak out

One after another, workers cited other problems at Sofitel. Each housekeeper is assigned to clean 13 rooms per shift. But, unlike other hotel chains, Sofitel does not provide carts for the workers to wheel their supplies down the corridors. Mirna Saavedra testified that they have to hand carry all the equipment they need - a bucket with five different cleaning liquids in one hand, and bags for the toiletries and trash in the other. For each room they clean, they have to make three to five visits to the storeroom at the end of the hall, to pick up fresh bedding, towels and supplies. That means anywhere from 39 to 65 trips to the storeroom per shift, which not only wastes employees' time, but places greater physical burdens on them with all the walking and the carrying. One day, Ms. Saavedra decided to take a cart out of the storeroom for her rounds, and the next day her supervisor gave her a reprimand. "Who do you think you are?" she said her boss asked her. "I'm here giving this testimony because I want to be treated with respect," Saavedra added.

Francisco Montoya, a kitchen worker, spoke of Lupe Cruz, the anti-union human resources person the hotel hired, who showed the staff videos of workers getting arrested by the police. "Is that what you want?" Cruz asked, according to employees who said they were forced to attend his session.

Victoria Tapid, a server in the hotel bar, told of flagrant sexual harassment, not only on the part of management but also by the paying guests. She said employees are told to "suck it up" when patrons molest them. She cited an instance when an inebriated patron actually buried her head into the employee's cleavage, and the manager instructed her to go back and flirt and see if she could sell the party another bottle of champagne. "I'll be pleasant and smile," Tapid declared, "but there's a line I won't cross."

Employee of the Month Roman Cabrera in guest services had his picture posted in the hotel, but said that once he participated in an April 25th delegation of workers to management to discuss working conditions, his picture was taken down. He reported hearing managers literally screaming at housekeepers and humiliating them to the point where the worker was unable to defend herself. He also commented on the failure of the hotel to pay minimum wage, which for hotel employees in L.A. was supposed to reach $15 an hour as of July 2015. Workers were paid not much more than a third of that. What is more, he said, understaffing means it's hard to take your required break during your shift.

The panel responds

The panel listened, heard, and responded. Council member Koretz confirmed that "wage theft is pretty common" in L.A., with some $25 million being stolen from employees each week. It comes in several forms, such as failure to pay minimum wage and denying workers their break time. He was well aware of union-busting companies coming in to scare and discourage workers - he's seen it across the street where Cedars-Sinai spent millions of dollars trying to stop the nurses from forming a union, and so far the hospital has been successful. But most uncommon, said Koretz, is not to use carts for the housekeepers. That only results in added time and injuries; "It's stupid management practice, a lose-lose proposition." Also he was shocked by the unusual occupancy at the hotel by Cedars-Sinai patients and their medical waste. "The City will do whatever we can to correct it."

Rabbi Cohen said he was overwhelmed by the "total disregard for humanity" that he heard. If visitors to L.A. expect a warm welcome, how can it be that an upscale hotel like the Sofitel treats its employees with such little respect? "The good news is that Pharaoh never believed that Egypt would be destroyed." There is hope, he added, and the people of faith in CLUE are willing to walk that road with the union.

Prof. Rosenblum admitted he was "humbled in your presence, by your willingness to tell these stories.... It's about workers in this country." Earlier in his career he said he worked in places he called dictatorships, where companies showed one face to the public to hide the reality they practiced in-house. But eventually, violations of the law, of best practices, and against the very reputation of the company, will be exposed. "What you have described are symptoms; the real issues are respect and the right to establish a process to make things better, knowing that concerns will be addressed."

Ron Oswald from the IUF stated that Sofitel does not work this way in any other country. It's only here in the U.S. that they think they can get away with it. Corporate headquarters in Paris has no explanation for why conditions are so terrible here. He did say, however, that based on IUF complaints, the union-buster Lupe Cruz has been fired. "You're being denied your fundamental human right to form a union. U.S. law is behind you, the IUF is behind you, and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is behind you. Where there's a union in place you make sure that problems get fixed. It's not a question of if, it's just a question of when, and as long as it takes, you will have our support."

The IUF has 420 affiliates in 127 countries. UNITE-HERE is one - it's the largest hotel workers union in the world - and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) is another. In fact, these are the two single largest entities within the IUF, which formally represents 2.3 million workers, and informally as many as 10 or 11 million, because in many poor countries even the $3 per capita dues to the national union is too burdensome to impose.

The evening closed with some hearty union handclapping and a rousing chant of "Sí se puede!" Participants in the event also signed a letter to the general manager of Sofitel seeking a way forward toward union representation.

Photo: Hotel wokers of Sofitel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills rallying for dignity and a union. Altagracia García, featured in the poster, is standing center in black and red. | Eric Gordon/PW

At a critical moment, labor’s cause is racial, economic justice

Tue, 09 Aug 2016 14:42:00 +0000

Last month, the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation established its own local Commission on Racial and Economic Justice, modeled on the AFL-CIO commission that has toured the country for more than a year, holding hearings on those issues. Here, the local president explains why her federation acted:

We are at a critical moment in the history of our unions. We are facing the rise of the on-demand economy, a widening income gap, and a surge in dangerous discriminatory rhetoric, fueled by Donald Trump's campaign. From Brexit, to Brazil to right here in the United States, the very values we share as workers are under attack.

If this wasn't enough, we are facing tragedy, after tragedy in our very own communities, places where we are supposed to feel safe. This month we were rocked again by the death of an African-American male involved in a tragic police incident.

And this time, the news hit close to home, as one of our own union members was the victim. The story of (Teamster) Philando Castile and the live video of the aftermath of his shooting captured the attention of the entire country.

The events that surrounded Philando Castile's death and the subsequent calls for justice are not for our entertainment.

The names, the hashtags - they represent people, real people in our very own community. They have jobs. They work alongside us. They have families. They were our high school classmates.

These events are the result of a system set up with broken rules and biases both recognized and unrecognized.

As union members, we are on the front lines. We see the effects of these tragedies and the subsequent fight for racial justice playing out in our classrooms, hospitals, worksites and streets.

While we struggle to address the challenges we face, more violence, especially against first responders and the police is equally tragic and absolutely NOT the answer. Union members believe in safety on the job for all workers.

In times like these, it is more important than ever that we in the labor movement stand in solidarity with the entire community and do our part to advance the changes necessary to stop the senseless violence. We know all too well that union members are not immune to these inequalities.

We cannot continue to simply grapple with how to respond to tragic events; we need to put forth a bold agenda for justice for all workers.

Even in the face of these great challenges, I am very optimistic.

I am optimistic because our movement and the grassroots movement organizing in the streets is brimming with new leaders, leaders who not only want to see justice in the streets, but also in their workplaces.

I am optimistic because we at the MRLF have kicked-off our own Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice to start tackling these very issues and to chart a positive path forward in our own unions (see story in August 5 edition).

I am optimistic because our unions have shown a commitment to fighting for improved workplace standards for not only union members, but for all workers.

And, I am optimistic because our unions are committed to growing. Growing the labor movement is a strategy for addressing racial and economic inequality. A renewed emphasis on stronger community and labor partnerships will help make that growth a reality.

I am asking our affiliated unions to commit to being a part of the conversation to explore how workers can address the systemic injustices we face and to help develop and implement a bold agenda for justice for all workers.

And, I am asking our affiliated unions to take action in partnership with our community to grow the labor movement as a strategy for addressing our community's inequalities.

Throughout history, the labor movement - at its best - has grown by bringing together workers of all races, faiths and nationalities to work together in our unions in common cause for social and economic justice.

In 2016, this historic cause remains our highest calling.

Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou is President, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation.

Photo: Union members advocating for the creation of the MRLF's Labor Commission on Racial and Economic Justice (left to right): JoAnn Campbell-Sudduth, Education Minnesota retiree; Cathy Jones, NALC Branch 9 member; Mary Turner, president, Minnesota Nurses Association; Marie Dino, AFSCME Local 3800 member. MELF

100,000 working people to go door-to-door to defeat Trump

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:55:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - If the plan works as designed - and there's every indication it will - some 100,000 volunteers will answer the call of the Working America Coalition to speak with working families across America about the need to support candidates who support them.

"We will work closely with the three million member Working America," Coalition leaders announced. We know that "when working people speak with a loud and strong voice, pro-worker candidates win."

A study done last year by Working America, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, found that "Face-to-face conversations are critical for breaking through reflex thinking on difficult issues;" thinking that leads some working people to support Donald Trump.

Working America canvassers went door to door in working class neighborhoods where Trump seems to have made inroads.

The study said that if canvassers did not belittle the opinions of workers and validated the reality of their fears, people were eager to discuss alternative ways to address today's economic issues.

"Working-class voters are hungry for an independent voice to deliver clear information and with whom they can discuss the issues," the report found. ... "For some [Trump supporters] ... our engagement - a combination of validation and information - gave them pause. The longer we spoke with people, the more opportunity there was to talk about issues vs. personalities.

"Without a countervailing pull of authentic engagement about issues and a progressive vision for the future of the country, the appeal of right-wing rhetoric will continue."

In their announcement, the Working America spokespersons said, "We will deploy nearly 100,000 volunteers and staff across the country to speak with working families about the importance of this election and ask them to support the candidates who will be their best advocates."

The volunteers will conduct nearly 1 million door-to-door conversations with swing voters in what are considered battleground states

In addition, every week, from now through election day, the spokespersons said, "union members will receive materials in their mailboxes about candidates at every level and where they stand on the issues that matter to working families.

The statement continued, "America's union members and progressive allies will pound the pavement and work the phones and have the meaningful conversations on front porches across the country for candidates who will work hard for working families.'

In a recent essay published in the National Catholic Reporter, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka defined what he means by candidates who are pro-working families.

"Any politician who wants the support of the AFL-CIO," Trumka wrote, "must answer a fundamental moral question: will you choose a world of scarcity or one of abundance?

"A vision of scarcity," he wrote, "leads to the building of walls, the turning away of refugees, and the denial of vital services to the most vulnerable among us. ...

On the other hand, a vision of abundance, Trunka wrote "leads to broadly shared prosperity," to "raising wages, investing in roads, bridges, schools and water systems."

In their announcement of their program to reach voters, the Working America Coalition said, "When our program is successful, when working people join together, it shifts the entire dynamic of the race. Working people will ensure Hillary Clinton-a proven leader who shares our values and who is committed to working families and workplace rights-will gain the White House.

"And we will continue to expose Donald Trump's empty promises and counter his divisive rhetoric and his radical right acolytes."

Photo: Working America canvasser (left). | Flickr (CC)

U.S. unions, lawmakers protest Rousseff overthrow in Brazil

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 14:37:00 +0000

On the eve of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, four big unions, the AFL-CIO and 40 U.S. House Democrats are urging the U.S. government to cool relations with the new government there after what they called a "coup" against then-President Dilma Rousseff earlier this year.

The letter, crafted by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., was co-signed by Reps. Keith Ellison, DFL-Minn., Jan Schakowsky, D-ill, and others as well as the labor federation, the Steelworkers, the Communications Workers, the Teachers, the Auto Workers and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. There has been no State Department response yet and its spokespeople routinely duck the issue in press conferences.

Rousseff's foes, mostly on the right wing, suspended her from office May 12 after an impeachment vote in the Brazilian House earlier this year, pending another vote in the Senate.

They said Rousseff allegedly illegally shifted funds to cover a budget shortfall.

Rousseff was in her second term and was the second consecutive elected president from the strongly pro-union Brazilian Workers Party. But her popularity fell as the economy slid into recession. Her backers, in the letter, question the motives of those who dumped her.

"What we're seeing in Brazil is a power-grab by politicians who weren't able to win at the ballot box," Conyers said upon the release of the letter. "Our government should speak out against the anti-democratic travesty taking place in Brazil."

"The interim authorities are rushing to replace the president's progressive administration with austerity and privatization, before the Senate even indicts her," Ellison added. "This is a serious threat to the democratic process in Brazil, and our administration should not support it."

Rousseff's vice president, Michael Temer, from a right-wing party, took over, announced austerity policies and cuts in social programs and fired Rousseff's representative cabinet in favor of a cabinet full of white men. Brazilian society is made up of descendants of the original Native Brazilians, Portuguese colonizers, Black African slaves, and recent European, Arab, and Japanese immigration.

That new cabinet also is pushing anti-worker public pension and labor "reforms" and social program cuts which hurt Brazil's most-vulnerable workers, the lawmakers' letter adds.

"These sharp reversals in government policy are conducted by a government with no popular mandate and which has come to power through extremely dubious means," it notes.

The letter urges the State Department to "refrain from statements or actions that might be interpreted as supportive of the impeachment campaign," and to be concerned about the impeachment's impact on Brazilian democracy.

"This is not a legal trial, but a political one, where a two-thirds majority vote by a Senate riddled with corruption can end President Rousseff's tenure," it says.

"The circumstances surrounding these impeachment proceedings and the recent actions taken by Brazil's interim government have generated enormous controversy both in Brazil and internationally. The impeachment process has come under fire for procedural irregularities, corruption, and political motivations from its beginning. The U.S. government should express concern about the threat to democratic institutions unfolding in a country that is one of our most important political and economic allies in the region."

The letter notes Temer and lawmakers who removed Rousseff are themselves subject to a wide-ranging political corruption investigation. Rousseff has also been implicated in the probe. It adds she's never been indicted or convicted on any charges, unlike her foes.

Photo: During a protest against the impeachment of Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, demonstrators holds signs that reads in Portuguese "Coup," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 10. Rousseff supporters displayed their frustration with rallies held in cities in more than a dozen states. Protesters occupied roads and highways, blocked university entrances and burned tires. Silvia Izquierdo | AP

Unemployment would be 6.2 percent if it included discouraged jobseekers

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 13:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. unemployment rate stayed unchanged in July at 4.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, even as a separate BLS survey showed firms claimed to create a net of 217,000 new jobs that month. Governments added another 38,000.

The number of jobless declined by 13,000, to 7.77 million, BLS said, but 420,000 more people joined the ranks of the employed, it added.

The pro-worker Economic Policy Institute added a "Yes, but..." comment to the numbers. Given the number of jobless, of discouraged workers who are jobless but looking and of those who have dropped out of the workforce entirely, "There are 2.3 million people who would be working or looking for work if the economy were stronger," EPI said. And official joblessness would be 6.2 percent, not 4.9 percent, EPI added.

The BLS data back that up. Together, the discouraged workers, those who dropped out and those toiling part-time when they really want full-time jobs made up one of every 10 workers (9.7 percent) in July, BLS reported. That's virtually unchanged since March.

As usual, employers in high-paying industries - such as factories and construction - said they added few jobs in July, while those in low-paying sectors - such as health care - added tens of thousands.

Factories claimed to add 9,000 jobs in July, rising to 12.305 million, with 6,700 of the new jobs in car and car part plants. Other factories showed small gains or losses. For example, primary metal firms claimed to add 300 jobs and fabricated metal plants lost 1,800. Construction firms claimed to add 14,000 new jobs in July, increasing to 6.652 million. Most of the new jobs (8,900) were at specialty trade contractors.

There were 669,000 jobless factory workers (4.3 percent) and 410,000 unemployed construction workers (4.5 percent) in July. But construction union leaders say that figure understates joblessness in their sector, since if a worker toils for one day during the survey week at the beginning of last month, he or she is counted as employed for the whole month.

Service firms claimed to create 201,000 new jobs in July, with low-paying sectors leading the way: Retail trade (+14,700 jobs, to 14.96 million), temps (+17,000 to 2.93 million), health care (+43,200, to 15.58 million) and bars and restaurants (+21,300 to 11.35 million). Trucking firms added 1,700 jobs, to 1.456 million, and mass transit added 4,400 jobs to 477,600. But air, rail and water transportation firms combined shed 600 jobs, to 748,200.

Schools accounted for the government job jump (+38,000), seasonally adjusted. Local schools added 21,600 jobs, rising to 7.85 million and state colleges and universities added another 5,100, to 2.453 million. Local governments also added 8,700 workers, to 6.41 million.

EPI noted state and local governments never hired back all the workers they fired in the Great Recession, also known as the Bush Crash, and there's been a resulting drag on the current recovery. "If it weren't for those cuts, the economy would have fully recovered by now," EPI economist Robert Scott said.

Photo: Lethbridge Transit (CC)

OSHA hits poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride, UFCW calls “medical malfeasance”

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 13:08:00 +0000

LIVE OAK, Fla. - The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a big poultry product firm, Pilgrim's Pride, not just for safety and health violations, but for what the United Food and Commercial Workers - which represents 70,000 other poultry workers - calls "medical malfeasance" in treating the injured.

OSHA does not actually use that term in its citations, issued July 25, from earlier inspections of the Pilgrim's Pride plant in Live Oak, Fla. But its citation language is very blunt and it fined the firm $78,175 for 14 serious violations and eight other-than-serious violations.

Pilgrim's Pride "did not furnish a place of employment free from the recognized hazards likely to cause or serious physical harm" to workers, OSHA said. It "delayed evaluation, care and/or treatment from a medical provider, which could result in serious health hazards such as, but not limited to, increased risk of further injury, prolonged healing, exacerbation of pain and limited recovery" by the injured workers.

Even before OSHA's February inspection of the entire plant, the first serious violation citation added, Pilgrim's Pride "failed to make timely and appropriate medical referrals for employees with injuries related to chronic and acute exposures and incidents, heavy lifting and persistent and continuous pain" in their hands and arms. As a result, many workers suffered musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), also called ergonomic injuries. Other workers suffered "burns, loss of consciousness and blunt-force trauma" while on the job.

"Referring an employee for medical attention in a timely manner is critical to prevent musculoskeletal disorders or further injury," stated Brian Sturtecky, OSHA's area director in Jacksonville. "Having employees visit a first-aid room for 'in-house treatment' over a course of weeks or months without a referral to a physician can lead to additional long-lasting injuries."

The agency said Pilgrim's Pride should take a whole host of corrective actions, starting with consulting with doctors who specialize in job safety and health. It also should have onsite medical management so doctors can intervene early to stop injuries before they worsen and restrictions for injured workers with doctors supervising to ensure restrictions actually stay on.

And OSHA wants Pilgrim's Pride to train workers and doctors in preventing MSDs and in how to evaluate specific risk factors in poultry plants. It wants plant managers to stop ordering workers to use non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs - painkillers - to mask injuries.

The medical malfeasance angered UFCW President Marc Perrone, who noted union-represented poultry workers suffer far less than their non-union counterparts at Pilgrim's Pride.

"We are disappointed to see yet another example of poultry workers being mistreated and forced to endure harsh working conditions," he stated. At UFCW, "We make sure workers can advocate for their well-being without the fear of being fired. As we strive to improve poultry industry jobs, we applaud OSHA for actively supporting the right of every worker to have a safe workplace."

Photo: Pilgrims Pride workers. | UFCW Safety and Health

New Jersey public pensions battle goes down to the wire

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 12:35:00 +0000

TRENTON, New Jersey - The state's long-running public pensions battle, pitting GOP Gov. Chris Christie's cuts and broken promises against thousands of state and local workers and retirees who may see their pensions slashed, is going down to the wire.

At issue: Whether the Democratic-run state legislature, which acted in concert with Christie before, will move in time to get a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the state must make the pension payments onto the Nov. 8 ballot. The deadline was August 9.

And to make sure solons do so, thousands of workers, led by the Communications Workers and the New Jersey Education Association, rallied in Trenton in early August.

The fight over the pensions affects at least 60,000 Garden State workers in state and local governments, their families and retirees. But it's also part of a nationwide business, right wing and Republican movement to trash public workers, cut their pay and kill their pensions. Other GOP-led state governments are watching New Jersey for a cue to future outcomes.

"It's been over two decades since any administration - Republican or Democratic - made a full pension payment," said CWA State Director Hetty Rosenstein. "The fact that Senate President (Steve) Sweeney - at the 11^th hour - will not post it for a vote is the exact reason we're demanding a constitutional amendment.

"There is no reason the pension should be a casualty of the legislature's inability to secure votes for the Transportation Trust Fund," she said of Sweeney's fight with Christie over that money. "But every time there is some other political or economic issue, the pension plan is traded for it."

Sweeney, a Democrat, also said "There's always next year" for the pension referendum. That angered NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer, who replied: "Sweeney made a promise to our members the pension amendment would happen this year. Next year isn't good enough. He needs to decide whether he's going to lead or just roll over and be part of the problem.

"New Jersey has too many politicians who have broken pension promises. We need a leader who will keep the promise. We will not accept anything less than the amendment he promised this year," he said. Before the rally, NJEA members flooded state lawmakers with phone calls and e-mails. "New Jersey doesn't need another politician who tells pension lies," Steinhauer said.

The pension battle began several years ago when Christie claimed the state not only wouldn't pay its part of the pensions, but couldn't afford to do so. He pressured Sweeney and the legislators into a compromise, including future state payments, then reneged. The unions, including police and Fire Fighter unions, sued for the pensions, won in lower courts, but lost in state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

Photo: Workers protest pension slashes in New Jersey. | CWA

UFCW: Tentative deal reached with Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 11:08:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Grocery Workers reached a tentative agreement on a new contract with Kroger Company and Cerberus Capital, the owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons, respectively.

After intense negotiations following the imposition of an August 8thdeadline by the seven locals of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, the federal mediator helped guide the parties to a proposed contract.

"We are happy to say that five months after our previous contract expired, the corporate owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons have agreed to a proposed contract," said Rick Icaza, one of the chief negotiators for the UFCW and the President of one of the largest UFCW locals in the country. "This would not have been possible without the strength and solidarity of all the 50,000 grocery workers throughout Central and Southern California, the cooperation of the seven California UFCW locals and the UFCW International Union. We also owe deep thanks to the support of consumers and community leaders. Because of the unshakable unity of our membership, we were able to bring these negotiations to a conclusion, and will present the offer to membership for ratification on Monday, August 8th."

"While we are unable to divulge the details of the agreement until we inform our members, we would like to thank the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service (FMCS) Deputy Director Scot Beckenbaugh and Commissioner Isael Hermosillo, without whom this agreement would not have been possible," said John Grant, SecretaryTreasurer of Local 770. "We believe this contract will address our members' concerns and begin to secure the important role grocery workers play in our community."

The previous contract covering nearly 50,000 Central and Southern California grocery workers expired nearly five months ago. Since then, grocery workers have worked without a contract, staging numerous rallies, marches, and events designed to bring attention to their fight and to bring the corporate owners of Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons to the table. Just last Tuesday, for instance, thousands of grocery workers, community members, clergy, and fellow union members marched across Los Angeles to demand a conclusion to negotiations.

Grocery workers across Central and Southern California will gather to review the details of the contract and vote on the offer. Results of the vote will be released when voting is complete by all seven UFCW Locals.

Photo: UFCW 770

NLRB forcing employers to reimburse illegally fired workers

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 14:20:00 +0000

For companies, labor law-breaking may get more expensive - unlike what happened to Alice Keyes 17 years ago, and since then.

Then, Nortech Lumber of Roseville, Calif., retaliated against Keyes, an Operating Engineers Local 3 activist, by shifting her - despite her carpal tunnel syndrome - to an arduous, isolated job of having her pull nails from boards outdoors. And when she couldn't do that because of rain, Nortech found other back-breaking tasks for her.

The jobs only made her ailment worse, and Keyes had to take time off, and spend a lot of money on doctors, before she could return to work.

Keyes went to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with a labor law-breaking charge against Nortech, and it ruled for her, two years later. The NLRB gave Keyes net back pay and ordered Nortech to give her back her original job, on lumber sorting lines.

But, unlike its judge back then, the board left her stuck with the medical bills.

Now, the board's general counsel's office - its enforcement arm - wants to change that scenario, and not just for medical bills, either.

In a July 28 memo, Associate General Counsel Anne Purcell tells regional offices how to file for reimbursement of other expenses, such as late fees for past-due mortgage payments or outlays for specific illnesses workers must pay out of pocket - expenses they get hit with when they lose jobs and health insurance due to company labor law-breaking. And she goes into detail about which expenses can be covered, and which can't.

"The board should not require the victims of unfair labor practices to bear the consequential costs imposed on them by a respondent's unlawful conduct," Purcell's memo says.

Covering more of an illegally fired worker's expenses - regardless of how much or how little - goes beyond labor law's standard remedy: Reinstatement of the worker with net back pay, which is what Keyes got 15 years ago when she won her case against Nortech.

Relief of the worker which labor law "empowers the board to grant is to be adapted to the situation which calls for redress," Purcell adds. She cites the Nortech case as an example.

Purcell's memo does not go whole hog for workers, however: If the injured worker loses her house while being jobless because she can't make the mortgage payments, the board won't order the company to pay her enough to recover the house.

But a board regional director or ALJ can order the offending employer to pay her late fees on the mortgage payments, if she manages to hang onto the house.

"If an employee suffers an economic loss as a result of an unlawful elimination or reduction of pay or benefits, the employee will not be made whole unless and until the respondent compensates the employee for those consequential economic losses, in addition to back pay," Purcell's memo says.

"For example, if an employee is unlawfully terminated and is unable to pay his or her mortgage or car payment as a result, that employee should be compensated for the economic consequences that flow from the inability to make the payment: Late fees, foreclosure expenses, repossession costs, moving costs, legal fees, and any costs associated with obtaining a new house or car.

"Similarly, employees who lose employer-furnished health insurance coverage as the result of an unfair labor practice should be compensated for the penalties charged to the uninsured under the Affordable Care Act and the cost of restoring the old policy or purchasing a new policy providing comparable coverage, in addition to any medical costs incurred due to loss of insurance coverage that have been routinely awarded by the board," it adds.

Paying the workers for the economic costs of being illegally fired achieves one labor law goal, Purcell adds. But it's not deterrence. The goal is "the (National Labor Relations) Act's remedial purpose of restoring the economic status quo that would have obtained but for a respondent's unlawful act." But added costs "can't be punitive" of the firm, either, Purcell says.

The new memo goes beyond a 1954 NLRB ruling that "the board draws a distinction between expenses directly attributable to a search for interim employment and other losses or damages incidental to the discrimination," according to a Boston College Law Review article.

"For example, where a claimant suffered a $200 loss on recently purchased furniture which she had to sell in order to accept a job in another state, the board refused to allow such loss as a deductible expense. Also disallowed as expenses are foreclosures of houses, automobiles, appliances and the like, resulting from a claimant's inability to maintain installment payments during the back-pay period."

In Keyes' case, Administrative Law Judge James Kennedy recommended Nortech pick up her medical bills, which were quantifiable, but not money for pain and suffering, which wasn't. The board hedged.

Citing two federal court rulings from the late 1990s, the NLRB said it would "not deny the requested reimbursement of medical expenses, but instead provided for the customary make-whole remedy, specifically leaving to the compliance stage of the proceeding the question of whether the employees incurred medical expenses attributable to the respondents' unlawful conduct. In the exercise of our remedial authority, we find it appropriate to follow the same procedure here."

Southern California: 47,000 grocery workers prepare to strike

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:01:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Ed Reyes Sr. worked as a meat cutter at Vons supermarket for over 20 years. He was also a long-time member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW). Over the years, he saw many changes take place in the grocery industry, such as corporate mergers and far too many attacks on wages and benefits by owners and management.

He also saw, however, the way in which his union fostered a strong membership that was able to come together and fight against any contract concessions. Mr. Reyes was eventually able to retire with a good pension - something that his union had fought hard for.

Ed Reyes was my father-in-law and a proud union member.

He passed away several years ago, but even in retirement and into his last days Mr. Reyes remained a strong union supporter. Today, his son, Ed Reyes Jr., is also a member of the UFCW. He and 47,000 other grocery workers are now on the verge of a strike as they struggle to defend the gains that his father and others fought to win. These union members are employed across a variety of stores operating in Southern California under the Ralphs, Albertsons, Vons, Pavilions, and Safeway brands.

The last strike by these UFCW workers, which lasted for 141 days, was in 2003-04. It was a long and difficult strike. Many lives were impacted and the entire grocery industry in Southern California was negatively affected. Some consumers abandoned the traditional grocery stores and began to support the independent markets. Many, such as the retired Ed Reyes Sr., refused to cross the picket lines. They worked with the union and adopted neighborhood markets to set up pickets.

The union learned many lessons during that last strike, but the contract negotiations now taking place are based upon some of the same type of concessions the employers pushed for previously. The grocery chains are aggressively attempting to cut benefits, continue a two-tiered employment system that divides older and newer workers, and reduce the companies' contributions to health care and retirement plans.

It seems the only choice the workers have left is to strike. It's their livelihood at stake.

Rob O'Connell, an employee of Vons for more than two decades, has been working part-time and is trying to make a living on the low wages the company pays. Rob told People's World, "These wages are not enough to sustain a decent living in Los Angeles. I have worked part time for 24 years and have never been offered a full time position. Scheduling is just one of many concerns. I can tell you this, I'm not alone. All the people I work with are ready to strike."

Rob is right. On the streets of Los Angeles, hundreds of grocery workers and members of the community came out recently to support those now facing a strike. At a rally on West Third Street, where both a Vons and a Ralphs market are located, UFCW members carried a sign summing up their position: "Grocery jobs should feed a family."

Marchers stuck to their position that management at the grocery corporations is stalling on negotiations - holding out until the members give in. But one union member could be heard yelling, "If we don't get it, shut it down. No contract, No peace! Corporate greed has got to go!"

The union has set August 8 as the deadline for a strike. Rigo Valdez, Organizing Director for UFCW Local 770, said "Today we take over the streets. Today we welcome all our supporters but today are speakers will only be the workers."

Several workers took the stage on a flat-bed truck parked in the middle of the street. All agreed that it is employers who are pushing them to strike. They were also all agreed, however, that they are ready to fight.

Valdez listed all the union support that the grocery workers can count on from the AFL-CIO, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and several other unions. He said, "As we take to the streets today, community supporters are presenting management a letter demanding that they negotiate a contact so that workers can make ends meet." These pledges of solidarity were well-received.

The crowd chanted back, "Strike! Strike! Strike!"

Photo: Demonstration by UFCW Local 770 workers in Southern California, August 2, 2016. David Trujillo | PW

Challenging the stereotypical “angry white guy” for Trump

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 13:34:00 +0000

As Hillary Clinton's Blue Collar Bus Tour travels across Pennsylvania and Ohio, I want to tell you about two angry white men I met at the Democratic National Convention last week.

The press would have you believe that all of the angry white men are Trump supporters. This is the stereotype: They are high school-educated, gun-totin', flag-wavin', bigots who love the bragging, swaggering bully in Trump.

But that's an easy story. Those guys are easy to find. They fill Donald Trump's stadiums. It's true they're out there. But what's also true is that there's a huge number of high school-educated white men who don't go to Trump rallies. They aren't flag waving bigots. These are guys who only carry guns when they are hunting. They're angry, all right. They're angry at being associated with Trump.

Two of them were delegates to the Democratic National Convention last week. Both will be voting for Hillary Clinton and both will be urging their union brothers and sisters to do the same.

They are Jim Savage, who is a member and past president of USW Local 10-1, where most members work at Philadelphia Energy Solutions, and Richard Ray, who is a retired member of the USW at Owens-Illinois Inc., having worked at plants in both North Carolina and Georgia.

For Ray, backing Trump would be antithetical to his life-long commitment to organized labor.

Ray joined the American Flint Glass Workers union when he got a job with the Owens-Illinois Glass Co. in Durham, N.C. when he was 20 years old. Six months later, he was elected shop steward. He held elected union offices for the next 49 years, all the way up to president of the Georgia State AFL-CIO, always in the not-so-union-friendly South. He became a member of the USW when the Glass Workers and the Steelworkers merged.

Ray devoted his life to helping the group, getting better wages, benefits and working conditions for his union brothers and sisters. The most vital value to union members, he explains, is "we." The idea, he said, is that everybody helps improve life for everybody: "We are all in it together."

"With Trump, though, it is always, me, me, me," Ray said. What is most important to Donald Trump is Donald Trump.

It is true, Ray noted, that Donald Trump is very rich, that he has done very well for himself. For the "me." But he has also gone bankrupt repeatedly.

And when he did, he protected himself at the expense of working guys and small contractors. Trump paid pennies on the dollar to electricians and bricklayers and other skilled laborers. Lots of small contractors in New Jersey lost their family businesses because Trump didn't pay what he owed them.

"He is the only one who came out smelling like a rose," Ray told me. Trump wasn't thinking of the other guy like a union brother or sister would. He was just thinking of Donald Trump.

The same is true with Trump's signature products like suits and ties. Trump could have thought of the "we" and made a little bit less money for himself by manufacturing those products in America. But he didn't. He makes them off shore with exploited foreign labor.

And right now Trump could be helping unemployed Americans, caring about the American "we," but instead he is applying for 78 visas to bring in foreign nationals to work at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Ray told me that, by contrast, when he listens to Hillary Clinton, he hears the opposite. Even her slogan is "stronger together."

He noted that when Hillary Clinton left an Ivy League law school, she could have taken a high-paid job with a law firm and just made money for herself, the way Donald Trump did when he left the Ivy League Wharton School.

But instead, Hillary Clinton began working for children with disabilities. And she has been laboring to help people ever since, including securing health insurance for low income children when she was First Lady.

"I don't think it has ever been about 'me' for Hillary Clinton," Ray told me. "It has always been about we."

Ray is no stereotype Southern working class white man voting for Trump. He will be working hard over the next four months to make sure his union brothers and sisters, his neighbors, friends and acquaintances all see that stereotype is as repulsive as he does.

Savage is no stereotype Rust Belt working class white man voting for Trump. Vice president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, Savage came to the convention as a Bernie Sanders delegate because his mission is economic justice. He said he switched his allegiance to Hillary Clinton easily because she has supported organized labor her entire political life.

Savage told me that he has fought throughout his life as a labor leader for economic justice and thought that racial justice would just naturally come along with it. But it has not.

"Economic justice doesn't mean shit if it is only for a certain sector," he told me last week. This is personal for Savage because he has both white grandchildren and black grandchildren. He wants them all to have the same opportunities. And he wants them to be treated equally in all areas of society.

He is deeply offended by racist comments Donald Trump has made. And he is deeply offended that people assume that because he is a white working class man that he is a Trump supporter.

"We need economic justice for all people, for people's wives and daughters and neighbors," Savage said. And that is why he is a white, working-class man supporting Hillary Clinton.

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard heads one of the nation's most politically active and largest industrial unions.

Photo: Jim Savage (center in blue shirt) and co-workers at 2012 Labor Day Rally. USW Local 10-1 Facebook

OSHA hits Wisconsin shipyard with $1.4 million fine for lead poisoning of workers

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 13:30:00 +0000

SUPERIOR, Wis. (PAI) -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) slammed the Fraser Shipyard of Superior, Wis., with a proposed $1.395 million in fines for lead poisoning of its workers, just after one poisoned worker sued the firm in federal court.

The move is no surprise: OSHA had to shut the shipyard several months ago after inspectors found workers suffered from excessive lead poisoning and exposure to other toxic substances, including asbestos, iron oxide, hexavalent chromium, arsenic and cadmium.

OSHA inspectors found excessive levels of lead in workers toiling to repair and retrofit the Herbert C. Jackson, a 690-foot bulk freighter undergoing drydock work at the shipyard, located at the western end of Lake Superior.

Two months after the shutdown, James Holder, 48, a welder and ship fabricator, sued the shipyard in federal court in Wisconsin for unsafe levels of lead exposure. Holder's suit says dozens of other workers also were exposed to unsafe lead levels, and when they complained about unusual illnesses, the management said they had "nothing to be concerned about."

OSHA said they did. Lead poisoning leads to anemia, brain damage, kidney defects and gastrointestinal disease.

"Sampling results determined 14 workers had lead levels up to 20 times the exposure limit," OSHA said on July 29. Tests on more than 120 workers, out of 190 total, found 75 percent had elevated lead levels.

The agency said Fraser engaged in "14 willful egregious health violations for each instance of overexposing a worker to lead," and five more willful violations for lack of a lead monitoring program, failure to implement a lead compliance program or a respiratory protection program to protect workers and for failing to train workers on how to protect themselves against lead, asbestos and other serious hazards. It also issued another 10 serious violations.

And given the shipyard's past record for exposing workers to asbestos, OSHA dumped Fraser into its severe violators enforcement program, said agency Administrator Dr. David Michaels, a public health specialist. That's the program reserved for the worst offenders.

"Fraser Shipyards accepted a contract with a very low profit margin and penalties for delayed completion, but could not meet the schedule without endangering its workers. This employer was unwilling to pay the necessary costs to protect employees from lead exposure," said Michaels.

"When companies prioritize profits and deadlines over the health and safety of their workforce, it is the workers who pay the price. Law-breaking employers must be held accountable for their unlawful behavior. " The rehab contract for the freighter is worth $10 million, the separate lawsuit adds.

"Fraser ignored federal regulations, its own corporate safety manuals and worker concerns," said Ken Atha, OSHA's regional administrator in Chicago. "Such behavior is unacceptable. No worker should be put at risk from exposure to hazards that can cause permanent health issues to meet a contract deadline."

In his suit, Holder, represented by pro-worker labor lawyers from Chicago, said the lead exposure started in January when workers started to retrofit the freighter. The suit says medical findings show Holder's lead levels are more than seven times the level that the federal Centers for Disease Control calls harmful to human health.

It also says the shipyard broke Wisconsin health and safety law by not telling workers about the presence of toxins aboard the ship and then concealing the lead levels. And it says the Minnesota and Wisconsin health departments jointly warned about public health dangers - not just to workers but to their families - of lead overexposure.

"Sadly, when corporations make their profits a priority over safety, it is the innocent workers and their families who are asked to pay the price," said one of Holder's lawyers, Matthew Sims.

Three Boilermaker locals, one in Superior, one in Minnesota and one elsewhere in Wisconsin, represent the shipyard's workers.

Photo: U.S. Department of Labor Blog