Union News

The South Shore Area Local of the APWU produces a monthly cable show entitled "Labor Talk". The current episode regards Question 2 and the candidacy of Rand Wilson for State Auditor.

I have put the entire program on streaming video and it can be viewed from our web site at the following address: http://apwuma.org Click on Local Events and follow the links. It is a thirty minute show in streaming video and runs very well on cable and dsl. Sorry, if you have dial up it just doesn't work well. I will be putting up streaming audio in the future so that at least you can listen.

We will be posting future videos as the programs air. Hope you take the time to watch prior to November 7th.

In Union Solidarity,
Ken Fitzpatrick
Secretary Treasurer
APWU of MA

WSHM TV-3 in Springfield has coverage of Friday morning's protest and press conference in front of Friendly's restaurant in Wilbraham. The story and video can be seen at:

http://www.cbs3online.com/news/local/2244806.html

Please pass this e-mail along and help inform and build the outrage of others so we can begin to fight back against the expanding economic assault on workers.

A new online community, Communicate or Die, is asking for help finding labor leaders who maintain a blog. Steve Dondley, the founder of the site, says he is creating a list of union leaders who maintain blogs to help "encourage other leaders to take the plunge and start their own blog."

If you know a labor leader who maintains a blog, visit http://www.communicateordie.com/node/36 to learn how to report the blog.

Holyoke Citizens for Open Government (HCOG) protests the rush to judgment by the Board of Public Works last night to sign a 20-year, $160m contract with Aquarion Services Company to upgrade and run the city's wastewater treatment plant.

Most of the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO's endorsed slate of legislative candidates won easily yesterday adding a bit of good cheer to the otherwise solemn mood of labor unions in the aftermath of the presidential election.

Not all the election news is bad today, at least not for Massachusetts' unions. Mitt Romney got his clock cleaned and flushed a lot of money down the toilet trying to unseat or defeat some of our union-friendly legislators. In fact, he helped his fellow Republicans actually lose seats.

[image:451]Thousands gathered under cloudy skies and a steady rain to stop potential cuts to wages and benefits for Springfield's workers and to demand from Governor Romney and other elected officials that Springfield receive a fairer share of state money to help bail itself out of the crisis. Organizers of the rally estimate 3500 people attended.Multimedia
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Building and Construction Trades Unions are encouraging other unions to pull any investments with Mass Mutual out. Mass Mutual, a Fortune 500 life insurance company based in Springfield, MA, is coming under fire for hiring building contractors that exploit workers.

It has been reported to the Union News by State Representative Mary Rogeness that the Massachusetts House of Representatives has created a Springfield bailout bill which will more than likely be taken up tomorrow during informal session. There is a also the possibility it would be taken up as soon as today.

[image:347]Editor's Note:This story reprinted with the permission of the West County News.Many hundreds of people representing groups as diverse as the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Harvard Medical School, labor unions, members of the Boston City Council and the Massachusetts Senior Action Council rallied in Boston Saturday to protest the fact 82 million Americans lacked health insurance at some point during the past two years -- and that some 43 million permanently lack it.

[image:326]Hundreds of union leaders and city workers gathered at the Sheetmetal Worker's union hall in Springfield to hear local elected officials pledge their commitment to back Mayor Charles Ryan and the city's unions in their fight to keep collective bargaining rights for Springfield's workers and receive $20 million in funding from the state to keep the city solvent. Highlights from the meeting are provided in the following articles:

• Mayor Ryan Says Eric Kriss Misled Legislators to Try to Force Bill Through
• Mayor Ryan: Springfield Will Have to Cut 600 Jobs Without $20 Million
• Candaras: "The News From Boston is Not Good"
• Bud Williams: Mayor Ryan is Our Quarterback
• Swan: Delegation Needs to be Together
• Sarno: Fought With Kriss over Stripping of Collective Bargaining Rights

[image:308]About 300 volunteer canvassers went door to door Saturday to talk to New Hampshire residents about the issues important to working families today. They signed on over 1400 residents to become members of Working America, an affiliate organization of the AFL-CIO for non-union working people.

[image:283]Happy at the prospect of waving new contracts instead of hoisting picket signs, workers at the Mercy Care Center in Springfield voted overwhelmingly, 44-2, to approve a new three contract with their employer. The contract won significant gains for the health care workers. View images.

[image:280]Last year, when Candy Ocasio, a bus driver for the town of Belchertown, learned that the Five Star bus company had been awarded Belchertown's school bus contract, she became alarmed. Through news accounts appearing the Daily Hampshire Gazette, she had heard that Five Star had a track record of hiring known sex offenders and unlicensed drivers.

Workers of the Mercy Care Center in Springfield reached an agreement late last evening with their employer. "We were able to reach an agreement that we hope will go a long way to address the concerns of the staffing issues of the home," said Jim Gander of SEIU 2020, the workers' union. The contract must still be approved by the workers, but approval appears to be likely. The vote will take place on June 2.

Ninety two workers at the Mercy Care Center nursing home in Springfield will strike on June 2nd in an effort to persuade their employer, Sisters of Providence Health System, to improve working conditions at the facility. The workers are planning to strike for one day and return to work June 3rd.

[image:265]Workers at the Mercy Care Center nursing home on Pine Street in Springfield voted to strike yesterday if a contract agreement cannot be reached. The vote came after six sessions of negotiations with Providence Health Systems, the corporation that owns the nursing home. Workers, represented by the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) Local 2020, bargained with their employer again today at the Hilton Hotel in Springfield for a seventh round that members of the negotiating committee characterized as much more productive.

[image:258]Citing short staffing, low wages, discrimination, lack of health insurance, and union union busting, SEIU Local 2020 came before Springfield's City Council on Monday night to ask for its support of their "Nursing Home Campaign for Dignity and Justice." The local union received unanimous support for the cause and a resolution, sponsored by Council President Dominic Sarno, which states the body's intention to support the healthcare worker's campaign to improve their jobs.

[image:257]Retired Sheetmetal Worker Robert Lynch's mayoral appointment to the Springfield Redevelopment Authority (SRA) board was unanimously approved at Monday's City Council meeting. Mr. Lynch, a retiree from Sheetmetal Worker's Local 63, will fill the vacant labor seat opened up with the resignation Chuck Goldrup of the Operating Engineers, Local 98. The SRA oversees the city's taking of private property via eminent domain.

International graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst are fighting a discriminatory fee imposed by the university. These workers, members of UAW Local 2322 and its Graduate Employee Organization (GEO), have been struggling since December against the $130 annual fee. The only workers required to pay this fee are those working on foreign visas, even though the money collected will subsidize the International Programs Office, which serves nearly every department on campus.