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Noise, lights cause problems for people, animals

WIND POWER GETS high marks among environmentalists and the Obama administration these days as a clean energy source. But as the Boilermakers union has pointed out repeatedly, all energy sources — not just fossil fuels — come with their own challenges.

As residents living near Utica, N.Y., have discovered, wind energy can disrupt the lives of both man and beast.

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Constitution calls for monthly union dues to increase by twice that amount

THE BUREAU OF LABOR Statistics (BLS) has announced a 1.7 percent average increase in hourly earnings for the manufacturing industry from July 2009 to July 2010. As a result, the International will raise its per capita tax in 2011 by 1.7 percent (40 cents), and monthly union dues will increase by twice that amount ($0.80), effective Jan. 1, 2011.

IT’S NOT JUST multi-employer pension plans that have suffered from the “Great Recession” plaguing the U.S. economy. A report released Feb. 18 by the PEW Research Center for the People & the Press says state pension plans for public employees have been hammered as well. As of fiscal year 2008, the states held $3.35 trillion worth of obligations for pension, health care, and other retirement benefits promised to current and retired workers. However, they actually have $2.35 trillion on hand — a $1 trillion gap.

Postal workers will handle pick-ups

WITH UNEMPLOYMENT hovering around 10 percent, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) national food drive, scheduled for May 8, comes at a critical time. Food banks are seeing an unprecedented crisis. Requests for food have risen month after month while donations have continued to fall.

Report cites rise in female members, minorities, college grads, older workers

BY 2020, WOMEN will outnumber men in the ranks of union members, a new study predicts. The report, The Changing Face of Labor 1983-2008, released last November, describes how demographics have changed within the labor movement over the past 25 years and projects how those changes may play out in the future.

THE FUTURE OF COAL as a cheap, abundant, reliable energy source will be determined by how quickly reliable methods to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are developed.

Local 1 - Chicago

John Skermont, BM-ST of Local 1, Chicago, reports presentation of membership pins to the following:

Effort doubles amount union members give

UNION PLUS HAS committed $100,000 in matching funds to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center toward earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. The dollar-for-dollar match means that union members giving $10 will in effect be giving $20, those giving $50 will see it doubled to $100, and so on.

Study shows advantages of being organized

A NEW STUDY by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) reinforces what organized workers have long known: union members make more money than nonunion workers, and they are more likely to have benefits.