Labor Updates (7/25/07)

The Montgomery County Council Health and Human Services Committee held its first hearing on the Worker Health and Safety Initiative on Monday, reports CWA member Jim Grossfeld. Grossfeld testified on behalf of the Metro Washington Council at the hearing. George Leventhal -- chair of the Committee -- together with Council members Valerie Ervin and Duchy Trachtenberg, "backed the call to train county health inspectors, building inspectors and others to identify dangerous working conditions and report them to Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Office (MOSH)," Grossfeld reports. "In addition, they will also consider other pro-worker measures including a plan to require contractors on county building projects to provide health and safety training and a proposal to create a permanent county occupational safety and health commission." Grossfeld, Community Services Agency Client Services Coordinator Silvia Casaro, and Lee Goldberg, of SEIU, were the original sponsors of the Initiative in the Montgomery County Commission on Health...The DC Government is refusing to provide Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) on workers compensation benefits received by DC government unionized workers injured on the job, while granting COLAs on benefits to non-union workers, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week. The Complaint was filed on July 3, 2007 and names multiple workers from six different unions - NUHHCE Local 2095, AFGE 383, AFGE Local 631, AFSCME Local 3677, Teamsters Local 639 and FOP/DHS -- who have not received COLAs on their compensation benefits.