By Katie Colaneri

– Governor Tom Wolf made good on a campaign promise Wednesday and proposed a severance tax on natural gas drilling. Speaking in an elementary school classroom in Thorndale, Chester County, Wolf said the “lion’s share” of the revenue will go to hiking overall funding for public education.

“We sit on top of one of the richest deposits of natural gas in the world,” he said. “We have the natural resources to actually do something about the problem here.”

Wolf’s proposal calls for a 5 percent tax on the value of natural gas at the wellhead, plus 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of volume pulled out of the ground to hedge against fluctuations in prices. The governor’s plan is modeled on neighboring West Virginia’s severance tax structure and he projects it would generate $1 billion in its first year, which is about $800,000 more each year than the current impact fee.

Since 2012, drillers have paid a fee for every well with most of the money going back to communities that host the drilling.

Under Wolf’s proposal, the tax would replace the impact fee while maintaining a certain portion of revenue for impacted communities. The governor said he has not yet “worked out the formula” for how much of the money would be distributed among local governments and spent on education, as well as boosting environmental protection.

Polls have shown public support for a severance tax in Pennsylvania. However, the natural gas industry has lobbied against it, claiming it would create an unfriendly business climate in the state and could prompt a slow-down in drilling operations.

“Make no mistake, adding a five percent tax to any business sector – including the energy industry – is going to reduce capital spending and hit the supply chain, especially Pennsylvania-based small and mid-sized businesses, as well as our region’s labor and building trades,” said Marcellus Shale Coalition president Dave Spigelmyer in a press release.

Wolf believes the tax will garner more public support for natural gas drillers.

“I think this is the best thing that could happen to the industry because it could make all of us in Pennsylvania partners in the success of this industry,” he said. “So my argument to them is this is really smart.”

The Democrat will also have to contend with leaders in Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature who have other priorities, including pension reform and privatizing state-run liquor stores.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R- Centre) said he understand’s Wolf’s interest in a severance tax, but pension reform is a more pressing matter.

“We repeatedly have said we cannot consider new revenue until we deal with pensions, which will have the effect of saving significant tax dollars,” Corman said in a statement. “We have a bucket that is leaking. It would be a misstep to persist at putting water in the bucket without first plugging the leak.”

A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Marshall), who opposes a severance tax, did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

Source: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/78396-wolf-proposes-5-percent-tax-on-gas-drillers-to-fund-education?linktype=hp_impact

By Julie Foster

– Note: This information does not constitute legal advice. The law is constantly changing and application of the ADA depends on the specific circumstances of each case. Consult an attorney when faced with legal issues.

– The first thing you must do is ask for an accommodation. You are not required to make the request in writing but it is best practice to put everything writing.

What should I say?

Write to your supervisor, human resources manager, and any managers who oversee your supervisor that you have a disability and are requesting a reasonable accommodation. Explain that nature of your disability and what job tasks you need help with at work. For example: I have a visual impairment and need accommodations to read documents. You can also suggest a particular accommodation, such as a screen reader. You may need more than one accommodation to perform the essential functions of your job. Be as specific as possible in explaining your impairment(s) what you need to do your job.

Then what should I do?

Your employer must respond to your request within a reasonable amount of time. Your employer does not have to give you the specific accommodation that you requested, but does have to discuss your accommodations needs with you in good faith; this is called the interactive process. Document all responses in writing with dates. If the employer responded to you verbally, send a follow up email summarizing your conversation. Keep a copy of all of these documents.

Your employer may ask for medical documentation from you if your disability is not “obvious” such as a heart condition. You have an obligation to respond promptly to your employer’s requests for information. The goal of the interactive process is to exchange information about your medical condition and your employer’s workplace modification options to find solutions that enable you do to your job.

What if my employer says my accommodation request is unreasonable?

You and your employer should continue the interactive process to determine whether there is an accommodation that would enable you to do your job without imposing an undue burden on the employer. Whether a particular accommodation is reasonable depends on the nature of the job, the size and resources of the employer, the number of other employees available to take on nonessential job functions, the nature of the accommodation, and other factors. An accommodation is not unreasonable merely because it will cost your employer a nominal amount of money.

What if my employer never responds?

You can make follow-up requests every week–be persistent! But do not wait more than a few months. You only have 6 months to file a claim under Pennsylvania law and 300 days to file a claim under federal law (45 days if you are a federal employee). If you want to file a legal charge because your employer refuses to provide a reasonable accommodation, you can file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

If you need free advice on how to obtain an accommodation, contact the disability employment discrimination project at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia at disabilityintake@pilcop.org or 215-267-7100. You can also find more information on the provision of reasonable accommodations at http://www.pilcop.org/know-your-rights.

By Laura Clawson

– The oil workers strike widened over the weekend, with 1,400 workers at two BP refineries in Indiana and Ohio walking out:

The first nationwide strike by oil refinery workers since 1980, the addition of BP’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery and the company’s joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, brings the total number of plants with strikers to 11, including refineries accounting for about 13 percent of total U.S. oil refining capacity. The original strike included workers in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington.

The workers are emphasizing safety concerns, with good reason:

In January there were at least four major mishaps at a U.S. pipelines that resulted in costly explosions or spills. In 2013, Texas led the country in oil and gas sector fatalities with 106. Overall, oil and gas workers are six times more likely to die on the job than average Americans. With the recent growth of the industry due to the proliferation of new drilling techniques such as fracking, safety measures can suffer. In North Dakota, which has been at the forefront of the oil boom, the fatality rate for industry workers was three times the national average in 2013.

The companies are using scab labor to staff the affected plants, with one at half capacity due to delayed maintenance. Meanwhile, Shell continues to serve as the lead management-side negotiator for a nationwide contract. Late last week, the United Steelworkers rejected the latest offer from Shell as containing “minimal movement.”

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/09/1363329/-Largest-oil-workers-strike-in-decades-expands

By Laura Clawson

– The United Steelworkers have rejected the latest offer from Shell for a contract covering oil refinery workers, saying that this offer contains “minimal movement” from earlier ones. About 4,000 workers are on strike in California, Kentucky, and Texas, affecting nine plants. However, management has brought in scab labor to keep the plants running.

A broader strike remains possible and “would threaten to disrupt as much as 64 percent of U.S. fuel output.” According to the union as the strike began:

“This work stoppage is about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the industry continues to ignore; the daily occurrences of fires, emissions, leaks and explosions that threaten local communities without the industry doing much about it; the industry’s refusal to make opportunities for workers in the trade crafts; the flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job; and the erosion of our workplace, where qualified and experienced union workers are replaced by contractors when they leave or retire,” Beevers added.

In addition to safeguards against workplace fatigue and a reduction in the use of non-union contractors, the union is looking for bigger raises than in its last contract.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/07/1362586/-This-week-in-the-war-on-workers-Oil-workers-strike-continues

By Laura Clawson

– Gov. Chris Christie took a break Thursday from his busy schedule of being under federal investigation and fighting open records lawsuits to veto a package of “Buy American” bills the state legislature had sent him. The bills would have strengthened existing laws calling for public contracts to be carried out “where possible” with American-made goods:

The measure, which applied to contracts sufficiently large that they must be put out to bid, required government agencies to buy only products of which at least 50 percent of the cost comes from components “mined, produced or manufactured” in the United States.

The law would allow local and state governments to buy foreign goods in certain scenarios, including if the cost of the U.S.-produced product is more than 20 percent higher than a foreign item, or if U.S.-made products are not available “in reasonable quantity.” In those situations, however, companies would have to apply for a waiver from the law.

But those waivers weren’t enough for Christie, who has consistently looked for giveaways to business in the name of jobs, even as New Jersey job creation has lagged under him. According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, existing “Buy American” laws aren’t consistently applied, and:

Consequently, New Jersey has lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001. […]

Manufacturing jobs currently make up 6 percent of New Jersey’s total employment, and the sector represents nearly 8.5 percent of New Jersey’s gross state product. While New Jersey now has 243,100 manufacturing jobs, it remains 63,000 short of its pre-recession level.

Christie is sinking in the polls, with his state’s voters thinking he’s more interested in his presidential ambitions than doing his current job as governor. But vetoing bipartisan “Buy American” legislation probably isn’t what they had in mind when he turned his attention back to New Jersey.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/06/1362723/-Christie-vetoes-Buy-American-bills-despite-New-Jersey-s-manufacturing-jobs-deficit