North Texas AFL-CIO Updates

AFL-CIO Web Page Up

The Dallas AFL-CIO is constructing a modest web page at www.dallasaflcio.org. Affiliated unions that would like to be listed should click "feedback" on that site or this one. The Dallas AFL-CIO is setting up a new news service for affiliated members. They can sign up with a couple of clicks on the web page..

June 29 "Rally for Retiree Benefits" a Success

Seventy-five unionists, mostly retirees, from all over North Texas gathered at the Electrician's Hall in North Dallas on the morning of June 29 to question Martin Frost about ways to save their dwindling benefits. Almost all of the discussion was about recent anti-union legislation, and most of that was on insurance benefits.

Frost startled some of the younger participants when he told them that some of the worst legislation will be used to undermine their union contracts. The new prescription drug program, for example, will be used to undermine our drug cards in future negotiations. "You just hide and watch what some of these employers will do," Frost said. One brother responded, "They've already done it!" He was referring to a recent letter revealing that Chevron Texaco had already cut retiree drug benefits with the new prescription drug plan as a cover.

The main strategy to save retiree benefits that was recommended by Frost and by speakers from the floor was to get active in the November elections. The unions of North Texas were broadly represented at the meeting.

For photos, see the CWA, Painters, or IBEW page

Dallas AFL-CIO Hosts Workers Memorial Day

This was the first joint effort between the Dallas AFL-CIO and the newly-forming North Texas Chapter of the National Interfaith Committee on Worker Justice. It took place at 6 PM in the auditorium of CWA 6215's hall. Attendance was not as good as hoped, and the commercial media skipped us, but we were proud to have been part of the national activities to remember the dead and injured workers and to rededicate ourselves to workplace safety.

The America@work network sent this: "Decades of struggles by workers and their unions have made workplaces safer. But the fight to protect workers is getting more difficult. The Bush administration has joined with business groups to roll back and block key worker protections-taking America in the wrong direction. In fact, the Bush administration
has the worst record on safety rules in the entire history of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal workplace safety agency. Here are the facts about Bush's record on workplace safety.

'Bush killed workplace ergonomic protections. On March 20, 2001, President Bush signed legislation repealing the ergonomics standards designed to protect workers from repetitive motion and back injuries. He rolled back or blocked dozens of workplace safety and health rules. In December 2001, the Bush administration announced the withdrawal of 29 rules that would have protected workers from serious hazards at work.

'Bush administration favors employers over workers.

'The administration's fiscal year 2005 OSHA budget proposed cutting safety training programs for workers by 65 percent, while increasing funding for employer programs.

'Each year more than 60,000 workers die from job injuries and illnesses and another 6 million are injured. But President Bush is taking America down a path that would lead to more injuries and more deaths on the job."

Working Families e-Activist Network, April 27, 2004

Pictured at our Dallas event are our panel: CLC President Kenneth Kirk, Financial Secretary-Treasurer Jim McCasland, Dr. Scott Moulton AFSCME 1199, and Dr. Jeorg Rieger, Associate Professor of Systemic Theology at Southern Methodist University.

North Texans Stood Up for Right to Organize

December 10, 2003, was International Human Rights Day. Unionists and our supporters across the nation held public activities on behalf of the American right to organize a union. For text and photos of our North Texas action, please click here.

Labor Day Speakers Were Upbeat

The keynote speaker at the Dallas AFL-CIO Labor Day breakfast was Congressman Martin Frost, who outlined the political situation and concluded that working people can win big in the next months. Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard reviewed the disasters of the 2003 regular session of the Texas Legislature, but was also very upbeat about the future. AFL-CIO Dallas Financial Secretary-Treasurer Jim McCasland hosted the event for a good crowd in the Gold Room at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Dallas.