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The John Kerry Has Been Fumbled! |
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by Ted Forsyth & Big Muddy IMC, Knight0440 (nospam) yahoo.com |
The Sport of Boston’s Labor Woes
“The John Kerry has been fumbled!” Menino has dropped the John Kerry! And right there to pick it up is Thom Nee… he’s got a good line of BPPA defenders and… they're taking it down the field… to the Mayor’s 20… the 30… and Menino’s got him now! Down at the Mayor’s 42-yard line. More of the big game after this message…”
At first, the frat-like chanting coming from the BPPA informational picket in front of the Mayor’s conference last Sunday sounded “like a football game,” as one of the attendees of the conference put it. But this was no football game.
Or was it?
Maybe the situation in Boston IS a game: a big, expensive, ego-jostling, contest. One team is comprised of star quarterback Mayor Thomas Menino and city hall, arguing that Boston lacks the funds for a 17 percent pay raise for the police and playing a great defensive game. The other team, with coach Thomas J. Nee of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA), BPPA union members and other city unions without contracts, is arguing that the police have gone long enough without a contract and won’t be silenced any longer. |
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Boston to Comcast: "Stop Abusing Workers' Rights!" |
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by Rand Wilson, rand (nospam) mindspring.com |
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Boston telephone workers and community supporters will release a report on Wednesday, June 30 calling on Comcast to end its costly interference in employees' freedom to unite for a voice at work and to negotiate in good faith with its union members. The report – authored by the National Workers' Rights Board – features testimony provided by Comcast employees along with evidence provided by their unions indicting Comcast Corporation for systematic abuse of workers' rights. |
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29 Jun 2004
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Filed under: News / Labor |
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"Bridge the Gap" actions on June 19 spur movement for health care for all |
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by Rand Wilson, rand (nospam) mindspring.com |
 Over a thousand people from 85 labor and community organizations marched across the Longfellow Bridge from Cambridge to the Boston Common on Saturday, June 19 calling for a political solution to the mounting crisis of health care cost, quality and access. As costs continue to skyrocket, employers are shifting more of the burden to workers or abandoning health care coverage entirely. The trend is leaving record numbers of Americans uninsured – and many more underinsured. The Boston 'Bridge Walk' was one of 165 actions that occurred in every state calling for quality, affordable health care for all |
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29 Jun 2004
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Filed under: News / Labor : Social Welfare |
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Rich White Men Throw A Fit: Boston Police and Firefighters Picket the Mayor’s Conference |
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by Jen Killham and Boston IMC, kinderland2004 (nospam) hotmail.com |
 Uninformed tourists enjoying a bite to eat in the Back Bay Monday witnessed an unusual spectacle. A synchronized, frat-like chant was coming from around the corner on Dalton St. It sounded “like a football game,” as one of the attendees of the Mayor’s Conference put it. But this was no Patriots game.
Rather, the aggressive chants were coming from the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association (BPPA) and the Boston Firefighters Union. The BPPA has been working without a contract for over two years and the firefighters are also in contract talks. The riled up “public servants” took to the sidewalks and a portion of Dalton St. just outside the Sheraton Hotel where Mayor Menino was hosting some functions as part of the United States Conference of Mayors. The cops worked in shifts (switching roles between policing and picketing) from 7am until 11:30am and again at 5pm to 7:30pm. |
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29 Jun 2004
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Filed under: News / DNC : Labor |
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Caregivers testify about short staffing, poor conditions and lack of health insurance for nursing home workers |
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by Rand Wilson, rand (nospam) mindspring.com |
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Six nursing home caregivers testified at a special Jobs with Justice hearing at the State House about how short staffing, poor working conditions, and low pay and benefits are impacting the quality of care. The hearing is part of a statewide campaign to support thousands of nursing home workers who are seeking agreements that will provide living wages, affordable health insurance, secure retirement, and dignity and respect for all employees. The workers are united in SEIU Local 2020. |
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21 Apr 2004
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Filed under: News / Labor : Social Welfare |
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Brandeis Labor Coalition Press Release |
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by Deborah P. Miller, debmil (nospam) brandeis.edu |
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Following in the footsteps of a growing trend on college and university campuses, students of Brandeis University have begun to take responsibility for the rights of campus employees. The Brandeis Labor Coalition is currently working with the university administration, Hurley of America, and its employees to create a permanent code of fair and just labor practices by means of advocacy. Hurley of America is one of the companies that Brandeis outsources its janitorial labor to, currently employing 11 people on campus. |
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30 Mar 2004
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Filed under: Announcement / Labor |
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Faulkner Hospital RNs Will Hold Informational Picketing on March 29th |
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by Iron Chef, |
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Registered nurses (RNs) at Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain will conduct informational picketing outside the entrance to the facility on March 29, 2004 from 6 a.m. – 7 p.m., to draw attention to key issues in dispute in stalled contract talks with management that the nurses believe impact their ability to deliver safe care to patients at the facility. More than 300 registered nurses are represented by Massachusetts Nurses Association at Faulkner Hospital. They have been negotiating their contact since last October with 13 sessions held to date, and the last five sessions before a federal mediator. The key issues in dispute include the need to provide full staffing at the facility and, as a result, to end the dangerous practice of forcing nurses to be transferred to areas where they are not qualified to safely care for patients; the call for a salary level on a par with other Partners-owned facilities, and improvements in the nurses’ pension plan and health insurance benefits. |
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24 Mar 2004
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Filed under: News / Labor : Social Welfare |
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Picket in Front of Parsons Corporation as Part of International Day of Action Against War Profiteering in Iraq |
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by Matthew Williams, plaid_baboon (nospam) hotmail.com |
 On Tuesday, February 24, 2004, from noon to 1:00, about twenty-five of us picketed at Parsons Corporation’s offices at 100 Summers Street in Boston’s Financial District. This was part of a international day of action against war profiteering in Iraq, Parsons being targeted because of the contract it was awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers to help rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure. The focus of the protest, organized by United for Justice with Peace (UJP), Massachusetts Peace Action and other groups, was the corrupt manner in which contracts had been given out by the Bush administration, primarily to those corporations with close ties to members of the administration. Much of the reconstruction work has been done in an incompetent manner, without the in-put of the Iraqis most affected by this process--and, to top it all off, it is being paid for with revenue from Iraq’s oil sales. The critique of those protesters I talked to was far wider than just corrupt contracting though--as one might imagine, they were critical of the Bush administration’s war-mongering, but also its neoliberalism (“free” trade policies) and the lack of democratic accountability on the part of the government and corporations, both in Iraq and in the US itself. People in the peace movement are definitely making an effort to tie the issue of ending the US occupation of Iraq to a larger attempt to change our social system. |
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25 Feb 2004
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Filed under: News / Globalization : International : Labor |
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