by Mike Hall, Jan 24, 2010

As long as there have been labor publications, there have been scam artists masquerading as legitimate union newsletters, magazines or newspapers trying to swindle advertising dollars from unsuspecting businesses looking for a vehicle to reach union members and their families.

Today, as most union publications have migrated to the web, the con artists have followed, reports Andy Zipster, editor of the Guild Reporter of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.

“As print publications have moved increasingly online, so too have the rip-off artists, with such creations as unions.org, unionfriendly.com, unitedworkforce.org, unitedunions.org, unionmembersweb.com and other equally suggestive URLs.

“As the names imply, such bogus websites implicitly suggest—or explicitly state—that they’re union connected, relying on deception rather than the outright extortion of their print predecessors.”

At first glance, Zipster writes, the sites appear to be legitimate, with union logos and links to real union sites “to create an aura of union acceptance.”

All promote themselves as being heavily trafficked by millions of union members, thereby comprising a captive audience for “union friendly” service providers who advertise on the site.

As obviously bogus as some of these sites are, with outrageous traffic claims like “3.5 million unique visitors a month,” links to foreign language pages, to nowhere at all or to far out-dated information and even religious videos on YouTube, businesses looking for a way to reach out to union consumers fall victim to the scam sites. So do some union groups.

Read Zispter’s article here and check out his look at Trade Union Courier, “the granddaddy of all scam union publications,” here.

by James Parks, Jan 21, 2010

Two Haitians use crowbars, shovels and their hands in an attempt to reach survivors of the earthquake.

Despite the impact of one of the worse recessions in U.S. history, union members continue to generously support efforts to help survivors of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. You can take action now to help the Haitian survivors by clicking on the AFL-CIO Haitian Disaster Relief site here.

The UAW yesterday announced it is donating $500,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation to help victims of the earthquake. Says UAW President Ron Gettelfinger:

The people of Haiti desperately need food, water, medical care and hope. The women and men of the UAW stand with thousands of other organizations and ordinary citizens in their desire to help the Haitian people meet their basic human needs. 

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti, said Haiti needs our short-term and long-term support.

I still believe that Haiti can move beyond its troubled history and this lethal earthquake to emerge a stronger, more secure nation. But we can’t do it with government support alone: Ordinary citizens must fill in the gaps. Little donations make a big difference, and there are a number of organizations that will move the money to where it’s needed most.

If you want to donate to the Clinton Foundation’s Haiti Relief Fund, text “HAITI” to “20222″ or visit the foundation’s website here.

In other recent actions:

• The Transport Workers Union has formed a disaster relief task force to enable the union to act immediately to help Haiti and stay for the long run. The Miami-based task force will be headed by Georges Exceus, a TWU organizer. The group has already started coordination and distribution plans for getting donations to Haiti and those in need. You can send donations to: TWU of America, 5705 NW 38 St., Miami, FL 33166.
• A dozen nurses, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, who are members of the AFT-affiliated Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (VFNHP), as well as doctors and an AFT national representative, left for Haiti yesterday to help provide medical assistance for the victims. Members of the medical team work at Fletcher Allen Health Care, an alliance of the University of Vermont’s medical and nursing schools. More than 75 members of the VFNHP have volunteered to be part of the medical relief effort.
• The Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA) is working with the Dominican Air Traffic Controllers Association (ADCA) to get supplies to Haitian controllers and their families. NATCA will use some money from its disaster relief fund to coordinate the purchase of supplies through ADCA to fly to Haiti.  Members can send donations to the NATCA relief fund via PayPal, https://www.paypal.com and include this e-mail address when making your donation: natcarelief@natcadc.org. Or you can send a check payable to “NATCA relief” to: NATCA Relief, 1325 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20005.
• The United Transportation Union (UTU) is giving $1,000 to the American Red Cross in the name of UTU members of Haitian descent.
• The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) is sending five ships to assist with relief efforts in Haiti. All are owned or controlled by MARAD and will be crewed by civilian U.S. merchant mariners. The crews are made up of members of the Seafarers (SIU), Masters, Mates and Pilots (MMP) and Marine Engineers’  Beneficial Association (MEBA), an affiliate of the Longshoremen (ILA). Also, the U.S. Navy hospital ship, the Comfort with an SIU crew, has reached Haiti, and the ship’s medical staff is treating injured Haitians.

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(November 18, 2009, San Francisco) - Hotel workers at the Westin St. Francis walked off the job this
morning, announcing the third three-day strike at a San Francisco hotel in as many weeks. Approximately
650 workers are participating in the strike, which began at 4:00 a.m. Wednesday, and will last until the
first shift on Saturday morning.

Today’s work stoppage comes as hotel management companies continue to press for a contract that would slash health & retirement benefits and would increase workloads. “They just want to use the economy as an excuse to cut back, even though we know they’re making big money,” said Francesca Ramos, a 19 year seamstress at the St. Francis.

During the first nine months of this year, the Westin St. Francis generated $11 million in earnings for its
owner, Strategic Hotels & Resorts [NYSE: BEE]. Strategic bought the hotel in 2006 for $439 million. The
St. Francis is managed by Starwood Hotels & Resorts [NYSE:HOT], the same company that manages the Palace, W, and St. Regis hotels. Starwood earned $180 million in profits during the first nine months of this year, and its stock price has risen 66% since January 1.

The union has indicated a willingness to settle for a contract that would result in as little as a 1.5%
increase in payroll costs – or less than $500,000 for the Westin St. Francis. “There has never been a
question of whether they can afford what’s on the table,” said Mike Casey, President of Local 2. “The
question is whether these companies will make a business decision that’s in the best interests of workers,
the City, and the hotels themselves.”

Local 2 continues to communicate with customers of the Grand Hyatt and Palace hotels urging them to
move their business elsewhere. Those hotels were subject to similar 3-day strikes in recent weeks.
Workers at 28 other upscale San Francisco hotels have authorized work stoppages if necessary, in support of their campaign to win a new contract.

Unite Here! Local 2 is the union of hotel and food service workers in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. It represents about 12,000 workers in the hospitality industry. For more information, visit www.unitehere2.org.

Praise is flowing in from all over the nation for civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, citing her courage and professionalism that saved countless lives and put an end to the tragic attack at Ft. Hood on November 6th that resulted in 13 deaths and some 30 wounded.

The 34-year old police officer, mother of two girls and member of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1920 at Ft. Hood came close to death herself. Overlooked in much of the publicity that followed the event, doctors initially were concerned that Munley could die from the three gunshot wounds she sustained in the shootout with Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. Munley lost a considerable amount of blood from wounds to both of her legs and to her wrist.

Sgt. Munley’s husband, Matthew Munley, a soldier at Ft. Bragg, was flown to Ft. Hood over the weekend to be with his wife as she recovers.

Authorities believe that Munley managed to hit Hasan with four shots from her service revolver as she was simultaneously hit at least three times.

Munley had arrived at the scene within four minutes of the 911 call that came into the Ft. Hood Emergency Services Center at 1:27 p.m.

“Sgt. Munley acted with great heroism as she and her partner were the first to respond to calls for help during the shooting rampage at Ft. Hood,” said John Gage, AFGE national president. “As a part its family, we offer our thoughts, our prayers, our support and our strength to our brave soldiers and their families, and our brothers and sisters, who are affected by this senseless and pointless tragedy,” said Gage.

AFGE represents 1,700 civilian defense employees at the army base, including civilians in the Soldier Readiness Center, employees at the base hospital, and officers of the installation’s civilian police force.