Labor

SUGAR LAND, Texas — On May 19 a spirited group of labor activists converged on the offices of Sunoco Logistics here to support its truck drivers, members of the United Steelworkers Local 13-1267, who are fighting a proposed pay cut.

“I think it’s a crisis right now,” said Tony Oppegard, former top lawyer for Kentucky’s Mine Safety and Licensing Office. “When we have 31 coal miners killed in less than five months, that’s a crisis and it needs to be treated as a crisis and dealt with. We need to stop this fiction that all coal operators are good guys and all you need to do is talk them and they’ll do the right thing, which is the cornerstone of the Bush administration philosophy. We need to crack down on operators instead of trying to babysit them.”

Do you remember a few years back when all those people ran out and bought diesel-powered cars because the fuel was so much cheaper than gas? Heck, diesel was just a by-product of gasoline, it’ll always be cheap. Or so it seemed at the time.

OAKLAND, Calif. — As part of a nationwide campaign by the Service Employees union to organize security guards, workers at ABC Security Services are in the midst of a drive to win justice on the job and recognition for their union, SEIU Local 24/7.

CHICAGO — On May 11, hotel housekeepers, their children, members of Unite Here Local 1 and their supporters held a Mother’s Day rally in front of the State of Illinois building, calling attention to the problem of increasing workload-related injuries in the hotel industry.

IRVING, Texas — The Texas AFL-CIO held its 46th Political Education (COPE) convention here, May 8-9. Democrats, independents, and even one Republican made persuasive appeals for labor’s endorsement.

CLEVELAND — “Sign the petition to raise the state minimum wage,” was the call to passers-by from volunteers at the People’s Weekly World booth at the 2006 AFL-CIO Union Industries Show.

May 1, a day of worker celebration, began in the United States around the struggle for the eight-hour day. Now it is honored across the world, but largely ignored in the United States. How fitting then that this year, immigrant workers from across the world have revived the day, marching to defend their dignity — and energizing an entire movement for social justice.

While an unprecedented public hearing on the Jan. 2 explosion inside the Sago Mine reached no definitive conclusions, it showed that the surviving families know more about mining coal safely than the International Coal Group’s owners and executives.