Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

The Friendly Skies? Airline pilots work conditions and public safety
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDUAx9ew04
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The Friendly Skies? Airline pilots work conditions and public safety
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thericksmithshow | August 31, 2010
Rick talks to MEC Chairman Chuck Martinak about the state of the airline industry since deregulation, working conditions, and the union's contract negotiations. The Rick Smith Show Where Working People Come to Talk
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9/1/2010 World action day to back Turkish UPS workers

World action day tomorrow backs Turkish UPS workers
Trade unions in over 40 cities worldwide will demonstrate their solidarity with sacked Turkish UPS workers tomorrow, September 1, in an action day coordinated by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation).

The international protest is being held in response to reported intimidation and sackings of workers who opted to join Turkey’s TÜMTIS trade union. Since April 2010, 157 employees of UPS Turkey have been dismissed without any application of the procedures specified by Turkish law. All of the dismissed workers are union members or were interested in union representation. On 2 July 2010, the conflict escalated even further when the manager of a sub-contractor fired shots at the office of a notary public in Izmir where, union representatives reported, he had been trying to force workers to resign their union membership (see www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/4662/region/1/section/0/order/1)

TÜMTIS President Kenan Ozturk explained: “UPS workers in Turkey face aggression. International support will send a clear message to UPS that anti-union activity is not acceptable. Global workers' solidarity can help to defeat an attack by employers.”

New York Taxi Workers Alliance Appeal For Funds For Cab Driver Ahmed Sharif Family Support Fund

http://www.nytwa.org/
Home
Ahmed Sharif Family Support Fund

Stabbed cabbie out of work, worries about feeding family (CNN)

On behalf of the Sharif family, we would like to express our gratitude for the heart-warming support from our fellow New Yorkers and to our neighbors across the country. Many of you have generously sent in donations to the family through NYTWA. We thank you for this kindness and ask for further support.

Amount: $

Please write in the memo, "Ahmed Sharif Family."

Checks and money orders can be made payable to, "Ahmed Sharif"
Mail to:
Ahmed Sharif
c/o New York Taxi Workers Alliance
250 Fifth Avenue, Suite 310
NY, NY 10001

We will deliver the monies immediately to the family as they come in and send you a receipt signed by Ahmed for acknowledgment. Thank you.

No More Ahmed Sharifs! Support Taxi Workers Struggle for Protection!
Join Ahmed and the countless other driver victims of violence on the job and call for the state to enact the Taxi Driver Protection Act! The bill was passed with overwhelming support in the NYS Assembly and Senate, and is now awaiting the signature of the Governor. Call on Speaker Silver to send the bill to the Governor's desk for signing and call on the Governor to sign NOW!

Del Monte to shift port cargo from Camden to Gloucester- Attack On ILA Longshore Workers

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20100828_Del_Monte_to_shift_port_cargo_from_Camden_to_Gloucester.html
Posted on Sat, Aug. 28, 2010

Del Monte to shift port cargo from Camden to Gloucester

By Linda Loyd

Inquirer Staff Writer

In a move that changes labor dynamics on the Delaware River, Del Monte Fresh Produce Co. is shifting 75 ships and a half-million tons of banana cargo annually out of Camden and south to privately owned Gloucester Terminals L.L.C., which employs less-costly labor.

The switch is seen as devastating to the International Longshoremen's Union, which says it will lose 200 to 300 jobs, or 400,000 ILA labor hours a year on the river.

Although Del Monte's lease does not expire with South Jersey Port Corp. until 2020, its labor agreement with Delaware River Stevedores, which employs ILA workers in Camden, expires at the end of this year.

Six weeks ago, Del Monte challenged DRS and the longshoremen's union to come up with about 25 percent, or roughly $5 million, in wage savings, said Robert Palaima, president of Delaware River Stevedores.

Del Monte also asked South Jersey Port Corp., which runs the Broadway and Beckett Street Terminals in Camden, to come up with changes.

UK RMT - Rail fares rip-off and a threat to thousands of safety-critical jobs – transport under attack 100 days in to ConDem government

http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=138082

Rail fares rip-off and a threat to thousands of safety-critical jobs – transport under attack 100 days in to ConDem government

Publication Date: August 17 2010

As the ConDem Government marks its first 100 days in office this week transport union RMT warned that jobs, quality and safety have been lined up for an all-out assault this autumn with the travelling public expected to take a massive hit on fares to use battered and under-resourced services.

RMT is pointing to:
Rail and tube fares jacked up to the hilt to protect the profits of private companies and to finance the mess left behind following the failed PPP experiment on London Underground.
Rolling stock replacements, upgrades and renewals work all scrapped or delayed leaving passengers to pay through the nose to travel in overcrowded carriages on under-maintained track.
Thousands of transport jobs under threat on rail, the buses, the tube, the ports and at sea compromising safe working standards and condemning key workers to the threat of the dole.

UK RMT Tube workers vote to strike (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/8325440.WALTHAM_FOREST__Tube_workers_vote_for_strike/

WALTHAM FOREST: Tube workers vote to strike
1:20pm Wednesday 11th August 2010

By Daniel Binns »

LONDON underground RMT members have voted to go on strike.

No date has been set for the industrial action, which has been called following a row over jobs and safety.

The union claims plans to reduce ticket station opening hours will put passenger safety at risk, and that 800 jobs could also be lost in further cuts.

The RMT says 76 per cent of its members voted to strike, but Transport for London (TfL) says less than a third did.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT members have sent a clear message in this ballot that they will not sit by while the tracks are turned into a death trap and our tube stations and platforms are left unstaffed and at the mercy of muggers, vandals and other criminal elements.

“Boris Johnson cannot wash his hands of the crisis that is unfolding on London Underground on his watch. While his managers are ripping up the safety regulations the Mayor himself is ripping up his promises to Londoners on safe staffing levels and no amount of bluster can get him off that hook.

Women at Houston Port Win a Round in Potty Wars
http://www.labornotes.org/blogs/2010/08/women-houston-port-win-round-potty-wars
Women at Houston Port Win a Round in Potty Wars
by Andrea Gardner | Wed, 08/04/2010 - 11:14am

On the door it says “Women’s Room.” The lock is broken on the inside, so you walk in to a darkly painted, dimly lit room. The broken toilet seat is up and the bowl is full of urine from the last visitor who obviously was male. Rolls of toilet paper sit on the floor next to it. One wall is smeared with ancient dried feces, again today there is no soap, and the one cold water spigot drips in a grimy sink with old soap scum covering the wall next to it. There are no paper towels in the long-broken holder. The return vents in the ceiling are covered with years of grime. The ceiling tiles are pushed over and a steady drip from the air conditioning overflow makes the floor wet in front of the commode. The whole room reeks and is a bacterial nightmare.

What makes these conditions worse is the struggle just getting to a bathroom at all. Sometimes it takes a hike down a 60-foot gangway from a ship as long as a football field. Houston summers often get up to 100 or more degrees, and standing on steel or concrete makes it even hotter.

Top local Teamster In Minneapolis splits with Hoffa on his slate
http://www.startribune.com/business/99670394.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

Top local Teamster splits with Hoffa

Longtime Twin Cities labor leader Tom Keegel dropped out of the union's leadership campaign after running three times as Hoffa's No. 2 man.

By MIKE HUGHLETT, Star Tribune
Last update: July 30, 2010 - 11:33 PM

Khue Bui, Associated Press

Veteran Twin Cities labor leader Tom Keegel has been at James P. Hoffa's side in the Teamsters union for 12 years.

The Hoffa-Keegel ticket -- with Hoffa as president and Keegel as the No. 2 man -- has won three elections and was gearing up for the 2011 campaign for leadership of the giant union.

But earlier this month, Keegel abruptly announced his impending retirement and his departure from the 2011 Hoffa ticket, questioning the direction of the union in a letter circulated to the union's leadership.

It marked the second recent outcropping of dissatisfaction among longtime -- and high-ranking -- Teamster supporters of Hoffa.

In May, Green Bay Teamsters leader Fred Gegare, a member of the union's executive board, announced he would challenge Hoffa in the 2011 election for president. At the time, he criticized Hoffa for surrounding himself with appointees who weren't elected by Teamster members.

Statement From Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
On the 65th Memorial Day and anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima Greetings to Steering Committe Of August 6th Grand Action/Rally,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, our committee greets you in solidarity. The use of nuclear bombs
on the Japanese people was a crime against humanity and the results of that crime remain today with the victims and their families who still suffer
from both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs.
The growth and development of nuclear weapons and the nuclear military industry continues unabated. The US has illegally brought nuclear weapons into Japan
with the collaboration of Japanese governments that were serving US imperial interests. The growing militarization of the world and the pretext of
fighting terrorism is a threat to the working people and in particular transportation workers.
At the same time the injured workers including Korean war slaves brought to Japan by the Imperial Government are still fighting for justice. The fight for
full healthcare for the victims and their families of the nuclear attacks still is an issue 75 years after this crime.

Uncommon Success for Union Adversary And Union Buster in San Francisco-Pits TWU 250 A Drivers Against Public
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703700904575391183918775358.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREAJULY 29, 2010
Uncommon Success for Union Adversary
In City Friendly to Organized Labor, Sean Elsbernd Garnered Record Signatures for Measure to Undo Muni Contract Rules
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By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Theo Rigby for The Wall Street Journal
San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Sean Elsbernd is campaigning to overhaul Muni union contracts.

Sean Elsbernd is scoring victories by battling with organized labor, a strategy that not long ago might have derailed a politician's career in San Francisco.

Earlier this month Mr. Elsbernd, the city supervisor for District 7, won certification for a voter initiative on November's ballot that would overhaul contracts with the union that operates San Francisco's financially troubled Muni public-transportation system.

Critics, he says, "said Sean Elsbernd's political career is over" for taking on the issue in this famously pro-union town.