By The PA. AFL-CIO

– What started as an ordinary work day at a sewage treatment plant, quickly went wrong. Franklin Pound, who usually worked in the concrete pit at the Sewickley Borough facility was installing a pipeline a short distance away when he heard a commotion. Pound, along with two other workers, rushed to the scene, hoping to lend a helping hand, only to find that they were too late. They found the victim, a fellow worker at the plant, dead at the bottom of the concrete pit. The men, with immense heaviness, began to climb the ladder that led out of the pit. Pound, however, was unable to make it the whole way. He was overwhelmed by a cloud of methane gas, causing a 20 foot free fall that resulted in numerous injuries to his body.

The unfortunate rescue attempt resulted in hefty hospital bills, which Pound hoped to settle through the help of worker’s compensation. Pipeline Systems Inc., Pound’s employer, along with the Continental Western Insurance Company pushed to appeal the claim. They declared that Pound was not performing his assigned duties. The insurance company based their appeal on the claim that Pound’s “compulsion to act as a Good Samaritan was not employment-related,” according to Senior Commonwealth Court Judge James Gardner Colins, who ultimately presided over the case.

Take a moment to think about that claim – essentially that Pound should have ignored an industrial accident 30 feet away from where he was working, and not tried to render assistance to a fellow worker who had been severely injured.

Thankfully, common sense and basic human decency won a victory this week in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, when Judge Colins found that Pound’s participation in the rescue attempt fell “within the course and scope of his employment.” He, along with a Commonwealth Court panel, rejected arguments made by Pound’s employer. Because of Colins’ idea of justice and equality, Pound was able to be reimbursed for his attempts to rescue the life of a fellow worker. Colins explained that Pound’s “attempts to render aid to another do not, in and of themselves, constitute an abandonment of employment.”

Remember this case when someone asks “why bother to vote in these judicial elections?” Having good judges on the bench impacts the lives of workers every day in Pennsylvania. If a different judge – one who tended to side more often with business than with workers – had presided over this case, the results could have been disasterous. That’s because a case like the one of Franklin Pound not only impacts the worker bringing suit, it also sets a precedent that makes every employer in the State take notice.

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO has made endorsements in all of the Statewide Judicial elections coming up in November, supporting David Wecht, Kevin Dougherty, and Christine Donohue for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Please CLICK HERE for a complete list of all of our endorsements, and protect your rights as a worker by voting in November and by encouraging all of your co-workers, friends, and family members to do the same!

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6143

By The PhillyPublic Record

– Wage theft in various forms strikes 400,000 Pennsylvanians every week, to the tune of as much as $30 million, a report commissioned by Community Legal Services found.

The report, directed by Temple Law Professor Jennifer Lee, is one of the first efforts to study methodically a problem that has stirred up many complaints but has received little attention by prosecutors.

The report was released at a roundtable discussion Monday which was attended by labor leaders including national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Philadelphia AFL-CIO Council President Pat Eiding and NUHHCE Local 1199C President Henry Nicholas, as well as workers in the restaurant industry who told stories of their own victimization.

Wage theft takes place in many forms: tip stealing, off-the-clock work and minimum-wage violations. It is prevalent in restaurants, carwashes, parking lots, home care, retail settings and security agencies.

Trumka called the report “very important. The breadth and depth of wage theft is astounding. It can make the difference between poverty and non-poverty.”

Unions can fight wage theft even when it does not affect their own members. Eiding cited Philadelphia AFL-CIO efforts to improve wages of airport workers.

Many remarked that employers who steal workers’ money, even when exposed, never go to jail for their crime.

“There was a widely publicized case in Philadelphia where a restaurant that was well connected was caught stealing employees’ earnings,” said Eiding, referring to Chickie’s & Pete’s. “You have to ask yourself why someone like this would do a thing like this. The answer is: Because they can.”

Source – http://www.phillyrecord.com/2015/07/wage-theft-is-widespread/

From The PA. AFL-CIO

– This week, the NAACP has been hosting their 106th National Convention in Philadelphia, PA. The NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, and the history of cooperation between the NAACP and the Labor Movement goes back many decades, and was strengthened during the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s.

As part of today’s program, the NAACP held their 47th annual Labor Luncheon, with AFSCME President Lee Saunders as the keynote speaker. Among the speakers are today’s event were Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding, and Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder.

Frank Snyder spoke to the strong coalition work that has characterized the relationship between the State Federation and the NAACP in Pennsylvania. “Effective coalition work is best sustained when the effort becomes institutionalized – where all parties consider the coalition a necessary matter of business. The State Fed welcomes that kind of coalition building,” Snyder said.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6179

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– On Monday, the union-busting Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker announced he is running for the Republican nomination for President in the 2016 elections. AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, when asked, had this to say: “Scott Walker is a national disgrace.”

Scott Walker appeals to the ultra-right wing conservative segment of the Republican party. In primary elections this segment of the party is one of the more vocal in trying to push the party further to the right.

Walker recently made a major gaffe on the record by comparing his anti-union crusade in Wisconsin to fighting terrorists. He has been conducting his own brand of economic terrorism against the labor movement in Wisconsin by attacking school teachers, state workers and most recently all workers – making Wisconsin the 25th Right-to-Work “for less” state.

Now that he is a candidate, moderate republicans have a great opportunity to unite and defeat extremists like Walker who are an embarrassment to the nation.

Monday’s announcement came on the heels of a jam-packed day of activities in Philadelphia in which President Trumka met with Philadelphia Mayoral Democratic candidate Jim Kenney, who is endorsed by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO. Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Pat Eiding welcomed President Trumka to their Executive Council meeting in which our National President gave compelling reasons why we should be supporting candidates who have a solid, working family agenda, built around raising wages and commonsense economic.

President Trumka also participated in a roundtable discussion on fighting wage theft hosted by the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Executive Council and led by Council President Patrick Eiding. The roundtable included representatives of the Community Legal Services which assists victims of wage theft. Laws need to be strengthened to fight and prevent this growing economic problem which is cheating workers out millions of their earnings throughout Pennsylvania.

President Trumka’s message to members of the the Philadelphia AFL-CIO Council and to all of Pennsylvania’s working families is: to continue to escalate our national campaign to raise the wages for all working families, to rebuild the economic and political strength of working families through collective bargaining and to support and pass commonsense economic policies that help us grow together. Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO’s Political Director, expressed appreciation on behalf of the entire PA AFL-CIO team, for the Council aggressively moving the initiatives set by the National AFL-CIO.

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6159

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– What started as an ordinary work day at a sewage treatment plant, quickly went wrong. Franklin Pound, who usually worked in the concrete pit at the Sewickley Borough facility was installing a pipeline a short distance away when he heard a commotion. Pound, along with two other workers, rushed to the scene, hoping to lend a helping hand, only to find that they were too late. They found the victim, a fellow worker at the plant, dead at the bottom of the concrete pit. The men, with immense heaviness, began to climb the ladder that led out of the pit. Pound, however, was unable to make it the whole way. He was overwhelmed by a cloud of methane gas, causing a 20 foot free fall that resulted in numerous injuries to his body.

The unfortunate rescue attempt resulted in hefty hospital bills, which Pound hoped to settle through the help of worker’s compensation. Pipeline Systems Inc., Pound’s employer, along with the Continental Western Insurance Company pushed to appeal the claim. They declared that Pound was not performing his assigned duties. The insurance company based their appeal on the claim that Pound’s “compulsion to act as a Good Samaritan was not employment-related,” according to Senior Commonwealth Court Judge James Gardner Colins, who ultimately presided over the case.

Take a moment to think about that claim – essentially that Pound should have ignored an industrial accident 30 feet away from where he was working, and not tried to render assistance to a fellow worker who had been severely injured.

Thankfully, common sense and basic human decency won a victory this week in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, when Judge Colins found that Pound’s participation in the rescue attempt fell “within the course and scope of his employment.” He, along with a Commonwealth Court panel, rejected arguments made by Pound’s employer. Because of Colins’ idea of justice and equality, Pound was able to be reimbursed for his attempts to rescue the life of a fellow worker. Colins explained that Pound’s “attempts to render aid to another do not, in and of themselves, constitute an abandonment of employment.”

Remember this case when someone asks “why bother to vote in these judicial elections?” Having good judges on the bench impacts the lives of workers every day in Pennsylvania. If a different judge – one who tended to side more often with business than with workers – had presided over this case, the results could have been disasterous. That’s because a case like the one of Franklin Pound not only impacts the worker bringing suit, it also sets a precedent that makes every employer in the State take notice.

The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO has made endorsements in all of the Statewide Judicial elections coming up in November, supporting David Wecht, Kevin Dougherty, and Christine Donohue for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Please CLICK HERE for a complete list of all of our endorsements, and protect your rights as a worker by voting in November and by encouraging all of your co-workers, friends, and family members to do the same!

Source – http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=6143