www.goiam.org Tuesday, January 7, 2003
Congress Urged to Act on
Jobless Aid Despite
the holiday hardships, rising unemployment and a gloomy economic outlook, GOP
leaders are expected to offer a meager, barebones plan. Several Democratic
alternatives that would extend the benefits from three to six months are likely
to be offered.
Job Saving Pact Ratified in Spokane Workers
at the plant, which makes air ducts, floor panels and cockpit components, voted
75 percent to accept the contract, which provides pension improvements, a profit
sharing plan and preferential hiring for laid off members. Blondin also thanked the Spokane community and elected officials for help during the proposed sale of the plant. “It is now up to the new employer to do their part and grow this business and stabilize jobs in Spokane and this region,” he said. Triumph has an eighth-year sole supplier contract to provide aircraft parts for Boeing Company.
Pratt Ordered to Halt
Records Destruction Following a complaint by the IAM, the jet engine manufacturer was recently slapped with a fine for destroying 12 to 18 boxes of employee medical records. The destruction came to light as the state Department of Public Health began an investigation of suspicious, work-related brain cancer cases at the company’s North Haven plant. The state commission ordered the company to preserve all health and disability records, employee exposure records and records that document employee handling of hazardous materials. More than 100 Pratt & Whitney employees have developed brain cancer according to “Worked to Death,” an organization formed by two women whose husbands died from glioblastom multiforme, a rare brain tumor linked to exposure to toxic substances.
Rich Reap Rewards
From Bush Plan Bush said critics who deride his tax cuts for upper-crust taxpayers were waging “class warfare” and that his plan would create jobs and put the economy on an even keel. Most of the tax cuts in the Bush plan do, indeed, reward taxpayers at the top of the heap. His plan to cut the dividend tax for investors guarantees more tax breaks for the wealthy, but does little to create jobs, help workers hard hit by the downturn or offer any aid to average American families. Depending on how that new tax break is cobbled together, taxpayers with incomes of more than $1,000,000 will receive an average tax cut of some $24,230 and claim nearly 25 percent of the total benefit. Tax filers with incomes of more than $100,000 will snatch more than 75 percent of the total benefit. “That means that all working Americans who earn less that $100,000 will divvy up the remaining 25 percent,” said IP Tom Buffenbarger. “Now that’s what I call class warfare.” Tax payers with incomes below the $50,000 benchmark—who file almost 70 percent of all income tax returns—would get less than 10 percent of the total benefit from the cut. That works out to an average tax break of about $76 or less.
GE Grabs ‘Grinch’
Award
China Labor Activists
Face Death Penalty According to family members, Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang were initially arrested on charges of illegal assembly following daylong protests that attracted tens of thousands of laid off workers in the industrial city of Liaoyang. The shutdown of state-run industries throughout northern China is driving an unprecedented unemployment crisis compounded by millions of Chinese migrating from rural areas seeking find work in China’s cities. China permits no independent labor unions and despite new leadership appears ready to continue its policy of arrest, torture and imprisonment of labor organizers.
Eastern Territory Notches Organizing Wins |