Building trades stand up for disaster refugees: They’ve fled floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and civil wars – and now Donald Trump plans to throw them, too, out of the U.S. But not if the nation’s construction unions can help it. “They” are some 329,000 people who have entered the U.S. since the start of this century on “Temporary Protected Status,” or TPS. They’re not permanent residents, they’re not undocumented workers, they don’t hold green cards and they have to keep reapplying to stay here. They work legitimately and openly in the U.S., and many are construction union members. Ejecting them would slam workers and hurt unions, said Gebre and union Presidents Kenneth Rigmaiden (Painters), James Boland (Bricklayers) and Eric Dean (Ironworkers.) “We’re asking Congress and the administration to allow our members to work at their jobs and have time with their families,” said Dean. TPS holders and their allies will lobby Capitol Hill this week on the issue. “We need to keep being vocal, because time is limited,” added Dyana Forester (left), political director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, noting that the impact of Trump’s stands goes far beyond TPS. "So we’ll fight like hell” for the TPS recipients “and take nothing for granted.” - Mark Gruenberg, PAI Staff Writer Norton said last week, when announcing the introduction of a resolution honoring postal workers Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris (see Today's Labor History): “Sixteen years later, it is important that Congress and the nation continue to recognize these men and the entire U.S. Postal Service workforce for serving the nation in the face of unpredictable risks.” President Theodore Roosevelt establishes a fact-finding commission that suspends a nine-months-long strike by Western Pennsylvania coal miners fighting for better pay, shorter workdays and union recognition. The strikers ended up winning more pay for fewer hours, but failed to get union recognition. It was the first time that the federal government had intervened as a neutral arbitrator in a labor dispute - 1902 Explosion and fire at Phillips Petroleum refinery in Pasadena, Texas, kills 23 and injures 314 - 1989 Postal workers Joseph Curseen and Thomas Morris die nearly a month after having inhaled anthrax at the Brentwood mail sorting center in Washington, D.C. Other postal workers had been made ill but survived. Letters containing the deadly spores had been addressed to U.S. Senate offices and media outlets – 2001 Compiled/edited by Union Communication Services |