Labor

HOUSTON — In the ongoing litigation against BP following the March 2005 blast at the company’s Texas City oil refinery that killed 15 workers, a lawyer for some of the victims has produced an internal memo showing BP did a cost-benefit analysis that concluded it would be cheaper to not make structures blast-resistant than it would be to absorb the costs of a possible explosion.

SAN FRANCISCO — Security officers who protect downtown high-rise office buildings are telling this city’s corporate real estate giants they need real security, too, in the form of living wages, family health coverage, paid sick days and pensions. And if need be, they are prepared to strike to get it.

WASHINGTON — Retired garment worker Elli Kuhns of Shamokin, Pa., knows hard times, recalls when women could not vote, remembers Franklin Delano Roosevelt, savors the stunning defeat of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum in 2006 and, sitting amid a sea of recently retired baby boomers, has her walking shoes on for 2008.

NEW YORK — The city’s labor movement gathered near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, Sept. 8, in a combined Sept. 11, 2001, commemoration, Labor Day tribute and call for federal legislation to ensure health care for those suffering from 9/11-related illnesses.

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia — Mil obreros y activistas reclamando el derecho de formar un sindicato en una planta de carne hicieron estremecer las paredes afuera de la reunión anual de accionistas de Smithfield Packing el 29 de agosto con sus voceos, cantos, gritos de consignas y silbando pitos.

Organizaciones y personajes pro derechos humanos y laborales criticaron los arrestos de la policía chilena durante protestas en contra la política neoliberal del gobierno de la presidenta Michelle Bachelet y en favor de mejoras en ingresos y beneficios para los trabajadores chilenos celebrada el 29 de agosto.

While it’s true that many parents would like to see their children become a bit more enthusiastic about household chores, they probably wouldn’t want to see them in the kind of world depicted in “Kid Nation,” the new CBS reality TV show. The show debuts Sept. 19.

Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A thousand workers and activists demanding unionization of Smithfield’s Tar Heel, N.C., plant shook the walls of the Williamsburg Lodge Conference Center here Aug. 29 as they massed outside the annual meeting of the company’s shareholders, shouting slogans, chanting and blowing whistles.

Jack Spadaro, experto en cuestiones de seguridad en las minas, acusa a Robert Murray, dueño de las minas en Crandall Canyon, Utah, donde están atrapados seis mineros, de homicidio. Spadaro dice que la Agencia de Seguridad y Salud en las Minas (MSHA por sus siglas en inglés) bajo el dominio del gobierno de Bush es complice en el homicidio.