This is a press release from the Greater Southeastern Massachusetts Labor Council from earlier this week announcing that Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office cited Southampton based Industrial Mechanical Insulation Corporation (Industrial Mechanical) and is president, Robert Buckingham, age 55 of Easthampton, for violations of the Commonwealth’s wage and hour laws.  As a result of the Attorney General’s investigation Buckingham and his company were required to pay over $16,000 in restitution, as well as $2,000 in penalties to the Commonwealth. 

For more labor news out of Massachusetts, check out a new site called MassLaborNews.com.

Solidarity eXhange is a grassroots effort to identify, train and support a new generation of Sweatfree sales people. It is an exciting opportunity for young labor activists who want to bring a new generation to buying sweatfree, USA made and union made apparel and other items. Below is a letter from SX that I am posting in full for anyone who is interested in participating. Also, the video with the story explains in detail how this program works -- you should definitely check it out.

About 75 telecom workers and community supporters rallied in support of a Verizon technician in Lynn, MA who was recently threatened by a supervisor while acting in his capacity as an IBEW Local 2321 steward during a "captive audience" safety meeting. 

More than 125 union leaders and activists from 25 states gathered at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, MD last weekend to strategize about next steps at the state and national level to win comprehensive health care reform.  The group is promoting a "single-payer" reform plan that would work like the Medicare program, except improved and expanded to cover everyone.

Verizon's nationwide effort to sell off its land lines and focus on cellular service has hit a legal bump in Illinois—which is good for customers and telecom workers, because their quality of service and jobs are at risk should the debt-laden deal with Connecticut-based Frontier Communications be approved by regulators.

Earlier this week the workers at Shaw's Supermarket's Methuen, Massachusetts distribution center went on strike. The warehouse, which employs about 310 employees, who are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 791, distributes perishables to most of the company's 194 New England locations.

This was sent in to UR from USW President Leo Gerard.

Sen. Jim Bunning, the Kentucky Republican who single-handedly delayed unemployment benefits for 400,000 desperate Americans and forced an unnecessary furlough of another 2,000, should be a figure regarded with wonderment.

This is being cross-posted from MassLaborNews.com. You can read the original piece here. 

UFCW Local 1459 gathered with some 70 workers including at least nine other local unions at a Springfield Stop and Shop hiring hall on Friday afternoon. The union and its labor allies held an information picket to draw attention to Stop & Shop's confrontational plan to use replacement workers if there is a strike.

The following report was sent to UR this morning from the Transit Workers Union. This piece also appears at the union's web site here.

The TWU joined community activists, fellow unions, the AFL-CIO, small business owners and elected officials this weekend to save thousands of jobs. The rally in Titusville, Florida was organized by the AFL-CIO in response to the Obama administration's proposed budget cut for NASA's Constellation program, and as part of its campaign for jobs in America.

President Leo Gerard of the USW sat down for a discussion with Richard McCormack, the editor and publisher of Manufacturing & Technology News, a publication he created in 1994. This entry is their full discussion.

Spirit pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), concluded mediated talks with the company on February 18 without any progress toward a new contract. The pilots have been negotiating for three-and-a-half years and in federally mediated talks for over six months. The end of scheduled talks may result in the pilots calling a lawful strike should the group be released to seek self-help from the National Mediation Board.

The Weekly Round-Up is updated just about every Sunday. It is where we post all of the stories that appeared on the site in the last week or so for anyone to revisit, comment, etc. This one is for the last 20 days.

This piece was written by James Parks from the AFL-CIO. The orginal is here.

The Whirlpool Corp. makes a big deal of its concern for the environment and the poor. But now, the company is about to throw 1,100 workers at its Evansville, Ind., refrigerator plant onto the streets and move their jobs to Mexico, where labor and environmental laws are weaker.

You can show solidarity with the Whirlpool workers, most of whom are members of IUE-CWA, by signing an online petition urging Whirlpool to reverse its decision and Keep It Made in America: Save Our Jobs. Click here to sign the petition.

An IUPAT member working at the Austin, Texas building -where the plane crashed this week- sprung into action shortly after and ended up saving the lives of five people. The following is a statement of the president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

Jake Blumgart is a staff writer for Campus Progress, he asked to post this piece to UR. The original posting is here.

At the beginning of 2009, unions had a reason to feel a little hopeful. The electoral victory spearheaded by Barack Obama the year before seemed to ensure a wave of progressive legislation. The new president even promised to advance the two policies closes to labor’s heart: health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize their own workplaces. It turns out expectations were needlessly high, and real labor reforms are going to fail the way they always have.