IBEW Local 363 Electricians Install LED Lighting On The Walkway Over The Hudson

If you look just north of the Mid-Hudson Bridge and see another set of lights across the Hudson River, you will be looking at the new LED lights that have been installed by IBEW Local 363 Electricians on the Walkway Over the Hudson.


The new lights are now being tested by those same Union Electricians who installed the lighting over the 1 ¼ mile southern railing during the last several months.

The LED lights will complete the overall electrical installation on the bridge, which will activate security monitoring equipment and include electrical outlets across the entire span.

The State Office of Parks and Recreation, which operates the Walkway will use the new LED lighting system for events that request permits.

In the spring of 2010, the lights will be formally unveiled in a special public ceremony.

Thank you to the trained and talented union electricians of IBEW Local 363!

IBM - Non-Union Employees Get Ready For Another Layoff

IBM Corp. showed off their financial report Tuesday, showing the company as a whole with record-breaking profits in 2009 of $13.4 billion, earnings per share of $10.01 and and predicting an improved outlook for 2010.

At first glance the regular, middleclass worker would think, "Hey! This looks good for jobs in the area!" Maybe they are done with the recent history of substantial downsizing and job cuts.

However, Mark Loughridge, chief financial officer, told brokerage analysts that there will be more reduction of costs through "work-force rebalancing." That invariably means disappearing jobs in IBM.

While Loughridge put a 2009 number of $3.7 billion on cost reductions, including job cuts and consolidating work in various centers, he did not give a specific number for 2010. A year ago, he gave a more detailed report.

"How should we think about additional cost and expense savings?" asked David Bailey of Goldman Sachs. Let me guess - Cut the working people out of the equation and give yourselves huge bonuses??

"It's not going to be at the $3.7 billion spend takeout that we saw last year," Loughridge said. But such reductions, he said, will be an "ongoing part of our overall business model."

IBM cut about 10,000 jobs in the United States in 2009, according to various company disclosures - get ready for more. Hundreds of those jobs lost were in Dutchess County.

Profits are good - jobs are a cost to those profits - no matter how high those profits get - they can't get high enough.

The IBM workers should have organized into a union ten years ago - now they are paying the price of being at-will employees for a corporation that couldn't give a shit less about them or any "American" job.

Newburgh Orange County Community College Project Built With A PLA

The big new building north of the foot of Broadway in the City of Newburgh will be bustling with college students in about a year from now.

The campus, which will house facilities for health studies and science programs, will be ready to start classes for the spring 2011 semester.

College President Dr. William Richards said the facilities will include a three level underground parking complex with labs on the top floor with offices and a student center on the lower levels.

County Executive Edward Diana, a SUNY Orange alumnus, said that he was very proud of the project and the fact that it is being built completely with local labor and under a project labor agreement. He said that this project is the seventh project that Orange County has built using a PLA. He also said that the local union trades have saved the county money and built each project on time and within budget. He spoke of the job opportunities it created for existing local workers and the new apprentices entering the trades because of that opportunity.

Local Union Ironworkers lifted and bolted the top beam into place Tuesday at the new SUNY Orange campus, marking the ceremonial placement of the final beam on the multi- million dollar building which will become home to over 2000 students.

This project is a great example to all municpalities of how to really get the most return on their investment for their constituents.

Too many times the local construction workers and the jobs that are created are LOST to out of state and non-local workers and contractors. Orange County did NOT let that happen on this project.

Thank you Orange County Executive Edward Diana and to all Orange County Legislators for leading by example and demonstrating that economic development can be done in such a way that NO job opportunities are wasted. Too many of our elected officials waste those opportunities by turning a blind eye toward the construction jobs created by our taxpayer financed capital projects.

Thank you again Orange County for a true shining example of smart growth.

Merry Christmas To All Employees And Employers

Merry Christmas to all employees and employers. Maybe now is a good time to explain a little something so that people know where Hudson Valley Labor Report is coming from throughout the year. There are many employers in the Hudson Valley who are good employers. They treat their people well and with respect. Some may not be union employers either and that's ok.

(Here comes the but) ......but if they truly are good and caring employers they would allow their employees - when the employees chose to - to organize to bargain collectively in regard to the rules at their workplace. When that happens, the employees are doing the exact same thing that their employer does - joining an organization to "network" and "expand" their "opportunities".

The most important part of all of this is that the employees would have a better relationship with their employer. A more constant, upfront, specific and steady relationship. The employers business relationship with the employees would now be just like every other business relationship the employer has - it would be in writing.

I can already hear it - the "employee handbook" takes care of that. Not true. The handbook does not create the same business relationship the employer has with everyone else they do business with. Does anyone in the class know why?

The employee handbook is exclusively created, maintained and can be changed unilaterally by the employer. There is no other business or other business man that would agree to "work" under that type of agreement. Both parties need to have their concerns addressed and access to a method to fairly work out any kind of disagreement in the relationship.

The great part of the relationship is that when you have a contract both parties actually AGREE on it before it can go into effect. The unfair characterization of this arrangement is that somehow when employees want a contract in their business relationship with their employer they dictate what that contract contains. That is not true.

It is exactly like any other business relationship. We sell our labor and we prefer to have a written and fair contract just like those who sell objects and services.

Unfortunately, many employees were fired this year for wanting this.

Merry Christmas

Pearl Rivers Pfizer Finally Notifies NYS About Layoffs

Pfizer of Pearl River, NY is a major private employer in the Hudson Valley that employs 2,931 employees, as many as 800 commute from Orange County and the vicinity around it.

The company has been in progress on some large layoffs and restructuring lately. But as usual, the labor law has been slightly ignored in the process. There is a LABOR LAW called the the "WARN ACT"- Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act - that requires companies with 50 or more employees to give 90 days' notice of layoffs to the state and workers who will lose their jobs.

Pfizer had apparently laid off 90 to 100 workers in an apparent violation of the law.

Workers there said that Pfizer had moved ahead with layoffs without notifying the state. In meetings with employees, managers told workers that at least another 600 employees would be laid off in waves during the next 12 months. When asked, though, managers told employees that WARN didn't apply to them.

Interestingly enough, Pfizer notified the state Tuesday that more workers would be laid off here in mid-March. That's on top of 200 layoffs Pfizer announced two weeks earlier.

Documents filed by Pfizer say 91 workers will lose their jobs. In another contradiction the same filing identifies 95 positions that will be eliminated: 49 union, 46 non-union.

The recent WARN filings appear to be an effort by the company to correct and distance themselves from their previous statements. The company filed the most recent WARN notices after a local newspaper reported that Pfizer appeared to be in violation of state law.

It seems that workers rights are always on the bottom of the list in too many corporate plans. While we don't expect them to be their number one concern - these laws and peoples rights should at least be on the screen. At the very least - don't brush it to the side by telling people it doesn't apply when it does.

Pay attention people - nobody is going to do it for you - except the unions, that is.

Kingston Budget, Alderman Comments and the CSEA

Looks like it is time to comment on the Kingston Budget but in particular about the CSEA. I read another blog bashing them for not renegotiating their contract. I would respectfully ask Alderman Madsen to report on what other contracts the city has renegotiated.

I don't mean the police and fire contracts - I mean with businesses who do business with the city and have existing contracts. For example, did you go to the office supply person and renegotiate with him? Maybe you could have had him lower the price of paper by 25%. You know the answer to that one. What about the oil company? The gasoline stations? The electrical power company?

What about every other business who has contracts with the city? Of course you didn't - you wouldn't even consider that and neither would they.

No - you go after labor. They are the easy target. They also can take the heat off of you and your fellow Alderman. It's the unions, you say - they won't give anything back.

Not saying they couldn't or wouldn't do their share IF it would make a difference. In the case of the CSEA - they couldn't make a dent. So - to your untrained eye - they were unreasonable and you bash them. You are wrong.

Opening the contract would have a longer lasting and more devestating effect on bargaining for decades and possibly forever. It is not their fault the jobs are being lost - it's yours. You and the Alderman got your end of the bargain during contract negotiations. Concessions were made in bargaining and increases in employee health costs were had in return for a pay raise. Now you can't balance your books and you come to the well. You take the easy road.

You claim the union doesn't care for its members - you're wrong. The union is thinking AHEAD for the good of ALL of the members. Fortunately, they had the entire membership in mind when they considered this situation - not just the 14 you point to. If the gap could have been reached they would have done what they could have. They proved that with last years budget.

What you wanted from the CSEA this year was - excuse my french - equivilent to pissing up a rope - know what I mean?

Making up $1.2 million was impossible. So that being the case, they had a choice - insist on the contract staying intact or allow themselves to be whored out forever and during EVERY CONTRACT from now on.

So ease up on the CSEA - they hated losing those jobs more than you ever did. They did the right thing in the BIG PICTURE though. In comparison, so did the police and firefighters. The difference was those two unions goal was possible and reachable.

One message to the CSEA - you guys should be looking to bring back Ashdown next election. It's only gonna get worse from here boys and girls. You need somebody whose been around and who will stand up and be counted.

Follow The Money

Legislative Issues From The Building and Construction Trades Department and the AFL-CIO

Today, we are in the midst of an economic crisis that has affected every American. We have felt it at work, in our homes, and in our communities. The burden has fallen disproportionately on middle-class and low-income workers, and it has meant tremendous sacrifice for many hard-working Americans. In the construction industry alone, this economic slowdown has cost more than 800,000 jobs. Even for those who have managed to keep their jobs, wages aren’t keeping up with the cost of living, and job security, health care and the promise of a secure retirement are vanishing.

From this crisis has emerged an opportunity to put this country back on track. Our futures, our children’s futures and the future of our nation depend on the path that our lawmakers choose to take today. Right now, the U.S. Congress is working on several pieces of legislation that will not only transform the economy, but improve the lives of working Americans for generations to come.

If passed, these measures – which include Clean Energy legislation; the Employee Free Choice Act; and Health Care Reform – would help re-build an economy that works for everybody.

The Clean Energy bill could jumpstart entirely new industries, as well as re-vitalize our American manufacturing base. In the process, it would create hundreds of thousands of new well-paying jobs and bolster communities – both urban and rural – all across America.

The Employee Free Choice Act would put the power to choose a union and bargain for a better life back in the hands of workers.

Health care reform would have the effect of improving the affordability, availability and quality of health care for all Americans, while also leveling the playing field for responsible employers who currently provide health care coverage for their workers (and which, in many cases – such as unionized construction contractors – places them at a competitive disadvantage with their non-union counterparts).

Each of these bills, however, has been met with staunch opposition from Republicans and big business groups who want to preserve the status quo, in which our economy works for the benefit of the few…at the expense of the many. Simply put, the preservation of the status quo will have devastating effects on America’s future.

This is all driven by money. It is very easy to understand - those that have it - don't want to see you have it - because it may mean less for them. When you see or hear or read articles against these bills - it is not the working class or poor who are paying for that message to be broadcasted or put in print - it is those who have the money already who are paying to sway your mind.

Like they always say - follow the money.