Mike Florio, Western MassCOSH, and Nancy Foley, Alliance for Injured Workers

On Friday, April 23rd, about 40 participants came together to listen to the reading of the 66 names of workers in Massachusetts who died on the job in 2009 and early 2010 at the annual Worker's Memorial Day ceremony in Springfield, MA.

View photos from the event.

Attendees at the 2010 Education Conference in Springfield

The Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO held its 2010 education conference yesterday at the Teamster Local 404 union hall. The conference featured several speakers and presentations designed to outline strategies to help the labor movement through the troubled times it and the rest of the economy finds itself in.

View photos from the conference.

"We are in the midst of a blue-collar recession. More than half of the adults residing in Western Massachusetts do not have a four-year college degree and there are not near enough good jobs for them.

We now have an opportunity to put thousands of construction workers back to work while creating thousands of good jobs with benefits."

Volunteers got the word out to passerbys about Bank of America in downtown Springfield.

Despite almost crashing the entire global economic system, Wall Street executives gave executives $145 billion in bonuses last year. To help raise awareness about executives, the AFL-CIO organized workers across the nation on March 31st to target America's largest bank, Bank of America, with assets of over $1 trillion.

Click to watch

Steve Dondley, Recording Secretary for the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO, released a second video of the C&S picket in Hatfield, MA last Friday. The video, with some heavy inspiration from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," shows three truckers who had interesting responses to the picket line.

The video shows how a picket is used to try to shame workers into doing the right thing and not cross the line. "There's often a lot of drama and tension on the picket line," Dondley said, "I hope the video captured some of that. I added a little twist of humor to boot which I hope helps some of the strikers who see it to relieve a little stress."

Click the video to watch.

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UFCW Local 1459 union rep. Jim Gander faces off with Kenworth truck exiting C&S truck depot.

As striking Shaw's warehouse workers in Methuen, MA near the third week of a dispute with their employer, the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO pitched in by helping out on a picket line at the C and S warehouse and truck depot in Hatfield, MA.

Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO's New Sign

After going years with a signless façade, the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO erected a brand new electric sign over its doorway, proudly announcing the entrance to the region's labor movement headquarters.