Workers

The Campaign for Working Families boost the number of people who receive free tax filing assistance and do not have to pay sky-high fees to commercial tax preparers. Over the past eight years, The Campaign for Working families has brought $146.4 million into the homes of low-income working families. And saved these families an estimated $20.2 million in interest, fees and charges for tax preparation

Del Monte Fresh Produce Company recently traded in their union-run Camden operation for a non-union competitor. The move is expected to cost the International Longshoremen's Union 200-300 local jobs and result in lower safety standards for workers. In the words of one union member who has worked for Del Monte in Camden for more than a decade, "In the end it will create more working poor."

In response, the International Longshoremen's Union has called for a boycott of Del Monte.

A Monument to worker's was recently dedicated in Elmwood Park in Southwest Philadelphia recently. It commemorates the contributions of organized labor nationwide and Philadelphia's working class. The artwork transforms Elmwood Park into a community gathering space and an outdoor history lesson.

Up to six million workers are injured each year in the United States. 6,000 are killed outright. At least 50,000 die each year from work related disease. Every year, Philadelphia Area Project on Occupational Safety and Health (PhilaPOSH) recognizes Workers Memorial Day and honors people who have been killed on the job. This memorial ceremony is part of a larger campaign to raise awareness about the rights of workers' and the importance of safe working conditions across all industries.

Photos by Kathleen Foley. Video by Tim Moyer.

On Wednesday July 22, over 300 taxi drivers, along with allies from Media Mobilizing Project, Workers United, Philadelphia Student Union, Casino Free Philadelphia, Jobs with Justice and IWW rallied at 3101 Market Street outside the headquarters of the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA).  The rally was focused on a list of demands taxi drivers have for the PPA:

• Fair parking ticket practices and an end to drive-by ticketing practices,
• A lowering of new PPA fees where, for instance, it now costs drivers $200 to put a new taxi on the road, and
• A return of all credit card money that has been misplaced from drivers' accounts through the PPA run credit card system.

The Unified Taxi Workers Alliance (UTWA) will stage a rally this Wednesday, July 22nd, from 11 am to 1pm at 3101 Market Street, in front of the Philadelphia Parking Authority' headquarters. The demonstration will be to demand fair parking ticket practices, a reduction in the outrageous new fees imposed on the taxi industry, and the return of funds that were wrongly withheld from drivers when doing credit card transactions.

Since January, nurses inside Hahnemann Hospital in Center City Philadelphia have been working towards unionizing. Despite the union-busting tactics employed by Tenet management, nurses have organized in support of joining Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).

Currently, Hahnemann workers are awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board to find out if the results of their recent union vote will be counted.

In the midst of this uncertainty, one nurse agreed to an anonymous interview with Labor Justice Radio. He explains the events that led up to the union election and talks about what is at stake for nurses like himself.

With job loss and unemployment steadily on the rise throughout Pennsylvania, Express Scripts, a Fortune 500 company that brought in $799 million in profit last year, has threatened to shut down its Bensalem facility if workers refuse to accept significant cuts in wages and health care benefits. The jobs of over 1,000 pharmacists, pharmacy techs, customer service reps and production workers in Bensalem are on the line.

In late April, the Baltimore based human rights organizing group United Workers Association held a major human rights march and protest to announce the worst of the worst of the employers in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

In this interview, Darnell Dixon details the working conditions he faces as a janitor in a center city building in Philadelphia. Mr Dixon explains that the company he currently works for recently established a series of new rules which are clearly violations of Darnell and other workers' human rights. Some of the rules these workers are forced to endure include: no talking on the job, no humming on the job, no pausing for a drink water, and no complaining about lack of ventilation. The broad edict for the workers is that they must be continuously cleaning and continuously moving.