Supported by her union, the United Steelworkers (USW), and other worker advocacy organizations, Janice Martell waged a relentless campaign to compel Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to recognize Parkinson’s as an occupational disease linked to the use of so-called McIntyre Powder in mining and other industries.

McIntyre Powder was an aluminum-based inhalant used between 1943 and 1979 in mines and other industries where workers might be exposed to silica dust. The theory, eventually proved false, was that inhaling the powder would protect workers’ lungs. Instead, it made workers sick, and led to many deaths.

The campaign led by Martell, the USW and the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), has finally achieved its goal. Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton has announced the government will recognize McIntyre Powder-related compensation claims from former workers and surviving family members.

Martell’s father, Jim Hobbs, developed Parkinson’s after being subjected to the non-consensual McIntyre Powder treatments while working at a uranium mine in Elliot Lake, Ontario. Martell founded the McIntyre Powder Project and spent years trying to help her father secure workers’ compensation benefits, without success. The WSIB and Ontario government rejected such claims despite mounting scientific evidence demonstrating the link between Parkinson’s and the aluminum powder.

After her father’s death in 2017, Martell vowed to continue her campaign for other McIntyre Powder victims.

“My dad did not live to see this day, but it is a fitting legacy to a man who always enjoyed ‘breaking the trail’ during our winter walks, because he wanted to make the path easier for those coming behind him,” Martell said after the government’s announcement.

“Now, other workers who are struggling with occupational disease, and the families of workers who have died, will be able to pursue the compensation they deserve, and find some measure of justice,” she said.

“In my dad’s memory, I want to thank the United Steelworkers and the OHCOW for providing support and occupational disease expertise for these miners and their families.”

The USW has been a fierce advocate in this struggle for justice for miners and families affected by McIntyre Powder. The USW partnered with the OHCOW to seek out those workers and families and to hold public intake clinics in northern Ontario in 2016, which helped to confirm high rates of Parkinson’s and other diseases among the miners.

“This is a major victory for these miners and their families. It is the first time since 1994 that an occupational disease has been added to the WSIB’s presumptive schedules of recognized diseases,” said Myles Sullivan, the USW’s Ontario director-elect.

#TorontoOntarioCanada #Toronto #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelWorkers

The USW has been in talks with Marathon, which represents industry as its lead negotiator, since January 13. The current national agreement expired at midnight on February 1.

“Our members remain strong and united in their commitment to reaching a deal that meets their needs on wages, benefits, health and safety and more,” said Mike Smith, who chairs the USW’s National Oil Bargaining Program. “We call on Marathon to demonstrate the same urgency.”

#PittsburghPA #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelWorkers

The university paid Philadelphia ‘union avoidance’ firm Ballard Spahr nearly $900,000 during the fiscal year that ended June 30 to help the university wage campaigns to stop Pitt graduate student workers and faculty members in their simultaneous efforts to join the USW. That amount brought the total Pitt has paid the firm to more than $2.1 million since 2016.

“It’s unconscionable that Pitt accepts millions in Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars while in turn spending millions of dollars to prevent its own employees from having a voice on the job,” said Melinda Ciccocioppo, a lecturer in the university’s Psychology Department. “It’s long past time for the university to end its union-busting efforts.”

The university graduate student workers fell just short in a vote to join the USW in April 2019, an outcome that came as a result of unfair labor practices by the university. A Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board (PLRB) hearing examiner ordered a new election, but the university contested that ruling.

Likewise, a PLRB hearing examiner ruled last summer that the university administration artificially inflated a list of its faculty employees in order to impede the faculty’s unionization campaign.

“Allowing the university’s work force to have a voice in the decision-making processes that affect their lives and the lives of students would be a win-win for everyone on campus,” said Kim Garrett, a PhD candidate in the Department Of Environmental And Occupational Health. “It’s shameful that the university is spending that $2 million-plus to silence students and faculty instead of using it to improve their lives.”

#PittsburghPA #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelWorkers

The strike began on December 15 after months of negotiations with management failing to bargain to a fair, acceptable agreement, despite extending the previous contract with Constellium for more than a month past its November 1 expiration.

“Constellium insists on a contract that would erase decades of collective bargaining progress on issues like seniority and occupational health and safety in order to give management the unchecked authority to pick and choose exactly who works and when,” said USW District 9 Director Daniel Flippo. “We're going to fight to hold the company accountable and to win the fair contract that USW members have earned and deserve.”

“Long before Constellium acquired this plant, our union contract made these the kind of jobs that support families and sustain our community,” he said. “We cannot allow the company to take them away.”

#MuscleShoalsAL #Strikes #UnitedSteelWorkers

The petition, delivered to the main Oakland branch and the East Liberty location, includes over 1,000 signatures calling upon the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to release a statement of neutrality towards the United Library Workers’ unionization efforts and act in good faith.

“The staff at the library in my community are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, and they should be able to collectively bargain for better working conditions without resistance or pressure from anti-union law firms,” said Jessica Benham of Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes.

The Teamsters and SEIU currently represent the Carnegie Library’s drivers and environmental service workers. This new organizing effort includes all 350 remaining eligible unrepresented staff across 19 public branches and the library support center.

#PittsburghPA #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelworkers #CarnegieLibrary #unionDrive

The USW represents 150 production and maintenance employees at Par Hawaii Refining (PHR). With nearly 90% of USW members voting, over 95% of them rejected PHR’s onerous demands.

Jarrett Wa’a, USW Local 12-591 Kapolei unit president, said, “Our members deserve predictable benefits from the company. PHR relies on our members’ vast knowledge, experience and skill to make fuels efficiently and safely; in exchange, our members expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Par Pacific and PHR must step up and negotiate benefits for their workers – our members – in Hawaii now.”

Members of USW Local 12-591 are bargaining with Par for a new three-year labor agreement that covers the approximately 150 bargaining unit members producing gasoline, diesel, jet, and other products at the only fully operating oil refinery in Hawaii. USW members are currently working under a rolling 24-hour extension to the February 1, 2015, through January 31, 2019 Labor Agreement.

#KapoleiHawaii #KapoleiHI #PeoplesStruggles #HawaiianNation #UnitedSteelWorkers #ParHawaiiRefining

Recently, workers at the Tesla facility reached out to the USW about organizing. The USW and IBEW agreed to work with both production and maintenance employees in a joint organizing drive.

There are currently about 400 workers at Tesla’s Buffalo plant on the site of the former Republic Steel mill, where workers were represented by the USW.

“The only way we can ensure that we have a voice in the company and have equal rights across the board is with a union contract,” said Aaron Nicpon, a member of the internal organizing committee. “We want to have a voice at Tesla so that we can have a better future for ourselves and our families.”

“I wanted to work at Tesla because I wanted a job in green energy, a job that can change the world,” said Rob Walsh, another organizing committee member, “but I also want a fair wage for my work.”

#BuffaloNY #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelWorkers #usw #Driving

Pittsburgh, PA – Steelworkers represented by United Steelworkers (USW) are making preparations to strike against ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. The union is currently discussing plans for an orderly shutdown with the company in the event a strike occurs. Picket duty surveys, which workers fill out with their times available to picket, have also been distributed to the membership.

The USW and ArcelorMittal have been in negotiations since early July and Steelworkers took a successful strike authorization vote on Sept. 17. The company continues to propose concessions such as forcing workers and retirees to pay for their own healthcare. Current employees with families would have to pay over $9000 over the life of a three-year contract.

ArcelorMittal has also proposed a wage increase – however as the USW negotiating committee points out in a Sept. 17 update, “its concessionary demands would more than wipe out any pay increases the company has proposed.”

#PittsburghPA #PeoplesStruggles #ArcelorMittal #Strikes #UnitedSteelWorkers

Washington, DC – Contract negotiations between United Steelworkers (USW) and U.S. Steel have failed to make headway after an overwhelmingly successful strike authorization vote took place earlier this month. In what has been described by the negotiating committee as a “frustrating series of negotiations,” the company continues to offer the same concessionary proposals by shifting around wages, benefits and bonuses.

Additionally, U.S. Steel is attacking retirees and new employees by refusing to fund pension plans and pushing a two-tier system. USW continues to reject these concessions and remains committed to winning a decent contract.

The company is proposing that employees’ health care coverage be switched to a plan which would double deductibles, coinsurance and out-of-pocket expenses. For an industry as dangerous as steel manufacturing, this is nothing short of an attack on workers’ health and livelihood. U.S. Steel is also demanding the ability to use money from the retiree health care and life insurance fund to pay for active employees’ health care costs.

#WashingtonDC #strike #Strikes #UnitedSteelworkers #usw #USSteel

At is issue are wages and demands by the corporation that the USW make concessions.

Leaders of the USW say they will not cave in to ArcelorMittal’s attacks.

Negotiations are also continuing with U.S. Steel.

#WashingtonDC #PeoplesStruggles #ArcelorMittal #Strikes #UnitedSteelworkers #usw #steel